From an early age, he showed a deep interest in literature and created numerous drama and vaudeville projects.

His excessively academic poems were occasionally published in local newspapers, and he acquired a reputation for his articles devoted to bullfighting.

His biographer Francis Lacassin has suggested that "the strange, surrealist flashes of anarchy which spark through the work of this pillar of society can only be explained as some sort of unconscious revolt to which he gave rein in his dreams — that is to say, in his films.

Concerned about his financial difficulties and family to support, Feuillade declined the directing job in order to continue working as a journalist.

[citation needed] The Fantômas serial in 1913 was his first masterpiece, the result of a long apprenticeship—during which the series with realistic ambitions, Life as it is, played a major role.