Eyes Without a Face

 

 

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Georges Franju is apparently best known for his contributions to French Documentary Cinema. An impressive example is provided by "Blood of the Beasts" that forms a most welcome extra to this darkly poetic thriller that I have seen once before at a film art-house. Other extras include an insightful interview with the Director himself on the true nature of "horror", and an absorbing dialogue between Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac from whose collaboration the movie screenplay derives, as did the better known Diabolique (Clouzot) and Vertigo (Hitchcock). Franju's style is more restrained than those of the latter two directors, and the gentle musical accompaniment by Maurice Jarres is discreetly employed; the impact of the terrifying events is enhanced by the long silences and sparse dialogue that generally accompany them. In fact, this film at times has the feel of a silent movie, a significant contribution to the eeriness that haunts it and its main protagonists: Pierre Brasseur as the introverted and gifted plastic surgeon (Dr Genessier), unrecognizably the generous and exhuberant Frederic Lemaitre of LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS; Alida Valli (Harry Lime's grieving lover from THE THIRD MAN) as his secretary and accomplice Louise, ever-grateful for the brilliant facial reconstruction that restored her shattered life; and Edith Scob as his daughter Christiane, the Eyes Without a Face, whose devastating appearance ( only rarely revealed behind a plastic mask) is the result of a motor accident while her reckless father was at the wheel, for which she will never forgive him and he will never forgive himself.

The plot focuses upon the abduction, operation, and disposition of several near look-alikes in an endeavour by Genessier to graft a replacement face for his daughter. These operations take place in a purpose-built surgical suite in the sinister basement of his vast mansion adjacent to his private clinic, where he conducts experiments on a collection of large mongrel dogs, by far the loudest participants in the movie, and the agents of his ultimate and grisly end. The pacing of the film is leisurely, and the tension comes from the sudden cuts that jolt us into the next plot sequence with dramatic effect. The atmosphere throughout is quietly tense, created and sustained by the beautiful images that Franju conjures from his camera, infused with equal concentrations of suspense and pure poetry. I don't want to reveal any more of the story-line, but the narrative, such as it is, receives admirable support from the lesser actors represented mainly by the police and the clinic staff. There are several moments of profound symbolism, such as the use of the Genessier family mausoleum to conceal the victims, but most of all in the terrifying denouement where dogs and doves figure prominently ( can you have a more dramatic contrast in the wild-life kingdom?), and the film leaves us with the haunting vision of the faceless Christine walking towards the camera through the woods, one of the white birds poeticaly perched on her outstretched arm. This is not entertainment, but something much finer: an expression of the cinema as art of the highest order, and it is beautifully presented in this almost-perfect Criterion video transfer.

But what about Georges Franju? What do we know about him and what other films has he made other than "Eyes Without a Face?" I know about, but haven't seen, his ground-breaking documentary "Blood of Beasts" ("Sang des Betes"). I actually own a copy of another film he made called "Judex" which is totally different than either of these. And it is wonderful also.I can't believe he only made three films.Where are the others?
"Eyes Without a Face" is a masterpiece of horror because it goes to the heart of what we fear most-loss of our looks and the pathetic preoccupation with staying young and looking like the magazines and advertisers tell us to. The film is sad because the doctor can't do anything physical to help his daughter.All his skill is useless in the face of her disfigurement. Trying to change fate is useless, learning to live with it is not.

Though this is admittedly a small scale, low-budget work, this exceptionally beautiful film is one of my favorites because there are few films, of whatever scope, that succeed in creating real depth almost purely by the evocative power of their images
and Les Yeux sans Visage (Eye Without A Face) does this.
Edith Scob's Christiane is one of the most truly dream-like, forlornly resonating, hauntingly poetic images in the history of cinema. In this it is comparable to Lon Chaney Sr.'s Quazimodo and John Hurt's Elephant Man. There is a purity in her image that penetrates deeply into the viewer and summons up strong emotions.
The plot of this film may seem at first to be merely typical, hackneyed, horror material, but its theme of blind and domineering science running rampant over the feelings and lives of both animals and people was a subject that the director, Georges Franju, took very seriously. The last frames of this film, with the appropriately horrid death of the amoral scientest and then the masked Christiane freeing the animals and silently drifting away into the night, are a serious statement created purely in images by one of the world's most underrated
director's. A wonderful film. Highly recommended

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Portent of Movies to Come
This startling work combines the plot of a splatter movie with the cold, composed style of 1950's Stanley Kubrick. Lisez davantage

Published on Mar 8 2002 by R. W. Rasband

5.0 out of 5 stars Skin deep indeed!
Foolishly dubbed a Horror Film, this is so much more!

Favourite scene? Finale : towards the end of the movie when the exquisitely masked and now quite insane daughter [Edith... Lisez davantage

Published on Jan 25 2002

4.0 out of 5 stars A Memorable Foreign Horror Film
I had never seen this film before and thought I would try it solely based on the customer reviews and AMAZON.com recommendations. I was not disappointed. Lisez davantage

Published on Jan 15 2001 by Collectorman606

4.0 out of 5 stars Horror Poetry
When I first saw this film as a young man, those releasing it in the States were obviously trying to cash in on the hard-core horror market so they released it under the... Lisez davantage

Published on Dec 27 2000 by Eric Sanberg

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