Eyes Without a Face | |
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![]() French theatrical release poster | |
French | Les yeux sans visage |
Directed by | Georges Franju |
Adaptation by | Boileau-Narcejac Jean Redon Claude Sautet |
Dialogue by | Pierre Gascar |
Based on | Les Yeux sans visage by Jean Redon |
Produced by | Jules Borkon |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Eugen Schüfftan |
Edited by | Gilbert Natot |
Music by | Maurice Jarre |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Lux Compagnie Cinématographique de France [1] |
Release dates |
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Running time | 90 minutes |
Countries |
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Language | French |
Eyes Without a Face (French : Les Yeux sans visage) is a 1960 French-language horror film directed by Georges Franju. The film stars Pierre Brasseur and Alida Valli. Based on the novel of the same name by Jean Redon, it revolves around a plastic surgeon who is determined to perform a face transplant on his daughter, who was disfigured in a car accident. During the film's production, consideration was given to the standards of European censors by minimizing gore. Although Eyes Without a Face was cleared by censors, its release in Europe caused controversy. Critical reaction ranged from praise to disgust.
In the United States, an edited and dubbed version of the film, titled The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus, was released by Lopert Pictures in 1962 as a double feature with The Manster . The film's initial critical reception was not overtly positive, but subsequent theatrical and home video re-releases improved its reputation. [2] Modern critics praise Eyes Without a Face for its poetic nature as well as for being an influence on other filmmakers.
Outside Paris, a woman dumps a corpse in the river. The body is identified by Dr. Génessier as his daughter Christiane, who was reported missing after an automobile accident disfigured her face.
In reality, Christiane still lives in Dr. Génessier's mansion next to his private clinic, guarded by German Shepherds and other large dogs. The body (which was disposed of by his assistant Louise) belongs to a young woman whose face skin Dr. Génessier removed and unsuccessfully attempted to graft onto his daughter.
After her father leaves with promises to restore her face, Christiane, wearing a mask to cover her disfigurement, calls her fiancé Jacques Vernon, Dr. Génessier's assistant, but hangs up without saying a word.
Génessier's next victim was Edna Grüber. He and Louise carry a sedated Edna to the lab to prepare her for surgery, secretly watched by Christiane. Later, he removes Edna's face skin and successfully grafts it onto Christiane's face. The heavily bandaged and faceless Edna attempts to escape but falls to her death from an upstairs window. After disposing of Edna's corpse, Génessier notices the new tissue is rejected within days and Christiane has to wear the mask again. She phones Jacques and says his name, but Louise interrupts the call.
Jacques informs the police, who have been investigating the disappearance of young women with similar facial characteristics. Jacques realizes one of the girls looks like Louise. Inspector Parot instructs Paulette Mérodon (recently arrested for shoplifting) to check herself into Génessier's clinic. Soon after, Paulette is picked up by Louise and delivered to Dr. Génessier. Before he begins surgery on Paulette, the police arrive.
While the doctor talks with the police, Christiane, disenchanted with her father's immoral experiments, while slowly losing her mind from guilt and isolation, decides to act. She frees Paulette and murders Louise by stabbing her in the neck. She also frees the dogs and doves that her father uses for experiments. Dr. Génessier dismisses the police (who readily accept his explanations) and returns to his lab. There, a newly acquired German Shepherd attacks him, inciting the other dogs to follow suit, mauling him to death. Christiane, unmoved by his death, strolls out into the woods outside with a dove in her hands.
At the time, modern horror films had not been attempted by French film makers until producer Jules Borkon decided to tap into the horror market. Borkon bought the rights to the Redon novel and offered the directorial role to one of the founders of Cinémathèque Française, Franju, who was directing his first non-documentary feature La Tête contre les murs (1958). [4] Franju had grown up during the French silent-film era when filmmakers such as Georges Méliès and Louis Feuillade were making fantastique-themed films, and he relished the opportunity to contribute to the genre. [5] Franju felt the story was not a horror film; rather, he described his vision of the film as one of "anguish... it's a quieter mood than horror... more internal, more penetrating. It's horror in homeopathic doses." [6]
To avoid problems with European censors, Borkon cautioned Franju not to include too much blood (which would upset French censors), refrain from showing animals getting tortured (which would upset English censors) and leave out mad-scientist characters (which would upset German censors). All three of these were part of the novel, presenting a challenge to find the right tone for presenting these story elements in the film. First, working with Claude Sautet who was also serving as first assistant director and who laid out the preliminary screenplay, Franju hired the writing team of Boileau-Narcejac (Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac) who had written novels adapted as Henri-Georges Clouzot's Les Diaboliques (1955) and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958). [6] The writers shifted the novel's focus from Doctor Génessier's character to that of his daughter, Christiane; this shift revealed the doctor's character in a more positive and understandable light and helped to avoid the censorship restrictions. [5]
For his production staff, Franju enlisted people with whom he had previously worked on earlier projects. Cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan, best remembered for developing the Schüfftan process, was chosen to render the visuals of the film. Schüfftan had worked with Franju on La Tête Contre les Murs (1958). [7] Film historian David Kalat called Shüfftan "the ideal choice to illustrate Franju's nightmares". [5] French composer Maurice Jarre created the haunting score for the film. [6] Jarre had also previously worked with Franju on his film La Tête Contre les Murs (1958). [7] Modern critics have observed the film's two imposing musical themes, a jaunty carnival-esque waltz (featured while Louise picks up young women for Doctor Génessier) and a lighter, sadder piece for Christiane. [8] [9] [10]
Ma Periode Française | |
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Soundtrack album by | |
Released | February 2005 |
Genre | Film music |
Length | 71:11 |
Label | Play Time |
In February 2005, the French soundtrack record label Play Time released the soundtrack on compact disc along with other soundtracks performed by Jarre. This also includes soundtracks from other Franju films including La Tête contre les Murs and Thérèse Desqueyroux . [11]
All music is composed by Maurice Jarre [11]
No. | Title | Film | Length |
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1. | "Générique / Surprise-partie" | La Tête contre les Murs | 4:30 |
2. | "Thème de Stéphanie" | La Tête contre les Murs | 4:30 |
3. | "Enterrement à l'asile" | La Tête contre les Murs | 2:44 |
4. | "Générique" | Eyes Without a Face | 2:05 |
5. | "Thème romantique" | Eyes Without a Face | 2:50 |
6. | "Filature" | Eyes Without a Face | 1:23 |
7. | "Des phares dans la nuit" | Eyes Without a Face | 3:32 |
8. | "Valse poursuite" | Eyes Without a Face | 1:45 |
9. | "Final" | Eyes Without a Face | 1:01 |
10. | "Générique" | Thérèse Desqueyroux | 1:54 |
11. | "Non-lieu" | Thérèse Desqueyroux | 1:35 |
12. | "Thérèse Desqueyroux" | Thérèse Desqueyroux | 2:50 |
13. | "La femme idéale" | Les Dragueurs | 2:36 |
14. | "La ballade des dragueurs" | Les Dragueurs | 2:47 |
15. | "Surboum chez Ghislaine" | Les Dragueurs | 2:01 |
16. | "L'oiseau de paradis" | L'Oiseau de Paradis | 2:48 |
17. | "L'univers d'Utrillo" | Un court-métrage de Georges Régnier | 4:44 |
18. | "Générique" | Le Soleil dans l'œil | 2:28 |
19. | "Thème" | Mort, où est ta Victoire ? | 3:30 |
20. | "Valse de Platonov" | Recours en Grâce | 3:50 |
21. | "Les animaux (générique)" | Les Animaux | 1:20 |
22. | "Pavane des flamands roses" | Les Animaux | 2:43 |
23. | "La fête" | Les Animaux | 2:18 |
24. | "Surf des loutres" | Les Animaux | 1:59 |
25. | "Mourir à Madrid" | Mourir à Madrid | 4:21 |
26. | "Générique" | Week-End à Zuydcoote | 2:28 |
27. | "Sergent Maillat" | Week-End à Zuydcoote | 3:10 |
28. | "Final" | Week-End à Zuydcoote | 1:29 |
Eyes Without a Face completed filming in 1959, and was premiered in Paris on 2 March 1960. [13] Although it passed through the European censors, the film caused controversy on its release in Europe. The French news magazine L'Express commented that the audience "dropped like flies" during the heterografting scene. [5] During the film's showing at the 1960 Edinburgh Film Festival, seven audience members fainted, to which director Franju responded, "Now I know why Scotsmen wear skirts." [5] [14]
For the American release in 1962, the film was edited, dubbed into English, and re-titled The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus; distributor Lopert Pictures, a division of United Artists that specialized in arthouse and foreign releases, released the film on a double bill with The Manster (1959). [15] [16] Edits in the Dr. Faustus version removed parts of the heterografting scene as well as scenes showing Doctor Génessier's more human side, such as his loving care for a small child at his clinic. [5] Lopert Pictures recognized the artistic merit of the film, and played up that element in promotion with an advertisement quoting the London Observer 's positive statements about the film and mentioned its showing at the Edinburgh Film Festival. [5] This was in contrast to their presentation of The Manster, which mainly focused on its carny show qualities with its "two-headed monster" and "Invasion from outer space by two-headed creature killer". [17] Eyes Without a Face had a very limited initial run and there was little commentary from the American mainstream press. [18]
On the film's initial release, the French critics' general response was moderate, ranging from mild enthusiasm to general disdain or disappointment, claiming it to be either a repetition of German expressionism or simply a disappointment of the director's leap from documentary filmmaker to a genre film-maker claiming the film to be in a "minor genre, quite unworthy of his abilities". [19] [20] [21] Franju responded to these comments claiming the film was his attempt to get the minor genre to be taken seriously. [21] In England, Isabel Quigly, film critic for The Spectator , called it "the sickest film since I started film criticism", [22] while a reviewer who admitted that she liked the film was nearly fired. [5] A review in Variety was negative, noting specifically that the "stilted acting, asides to explain characters and motivations, and a repetition of effects lose the initial impact" and an "unclear progression and plodding direction give [the film] an old-fashioned air". [23] The English Monthly Film Bulletin was of the opinion that "when a director as distinguished as Georges Franju makes a horror film...one cannot but feel tempted to search for symbols, an allegory, layers, or interpretation. Unhappily there is practically nothing in this inept work to offer any encouragement for doing so." [24] The review said there was "a strange and poetic opening" and Schuftan's "haunting camerawork allies itself perfectly to Maurice Jarre's obsessive score" while" Brasseur and Valli were "sadly wasted" and that they "do what they can with almost non-existent characters". [24]
Eyes Without a Face received a theatrical re-release in September 1986 in conjunction with retrospectives at the National Film Theatre in London and at the Cinémathèque Française for the film archive's 50th anniversary in France. As Franju was the archive's co-founder, the Cinémathèque Française celebrated by presenting the director's back catalogue. With the renewed interest, the film's critical reputation began to be re-evaluated. [5] [19] [20] French critics' response to the film was significantly more positive than it was on its original release, with former editor-in-chief of Cahiers du cinéma Serge Daney calling the film "a marvel". [19]
The film was re-released in its original and uncut form to American theaters on 31 October 2003. [25] On Rotten Tomatoes, Eyes Without a Face has an approval rating of 97% from 61 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The critic consensus says "A horrific tale of guilt and obsession, Eyes Without a Face is just as chilling and poetic today as it was when it was first released". [12] Metacritic reports that the film has a weighted average of 90 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim" [25] The reviewers commented on the film's poetic nature and noted the strong influence of French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau. Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader praised the film, referring to it as "absurd and as beautiful as a fairy tale". [26] J. Hoberman of The Village Voice declared the film "a masterpiece of poetic horror and tactful, tactile brutality". [27] The Encyclopedia of Horror Films agreed with the assertion of Cocteau's influence, stating that "Franju invests [the film] with a weird poetry in which the influence of Cocteau is unmistakable". [26] David Edelstein, writing for Slate , commented that "the storyline is your standard obsessed-mad-doctor saga, one step above a Poverty Row Bela Lugosi feature ... [b]ut it's Lugosi by way of Cocteau and Ionesco". [9] In the 2010s, Time Out polled authors, directors, actors and critics who had worked in the horror genre to vote for their top horror films. [28] Time Out placed Eyes Without a Face at number 34 on the top 100. [28]
Eyes Without a Face was released on VHS on 9 January 2001 by Kino Video and on DVD on 19 October 2004 by the Criterion Collection. [25] The DVD also contains Georges Franju's first documentary Blood of the Beasts (1949), a depiction of a French slaughterhouse. [5] A Region 2 release of Eyes Without a Face was released on 21 April 2008 by Second Sight Films. [29] [30] A Region 4 edition of the film was released on 2 July 2007 by Umbrella Entertainment. [31] The disc also included Franju's documentary Blood of the Beasts. [31] In 2013, the Criterion Collection released the film on Blu-ray, this time transferred directly from the camera negative. [32]
The film has influenced other European films since its initial release. Spanish director Jesús Franco created films throughout his career that were influenced by the film. [33] Franco's first such film was the Spanish/French co-production Gritos en la noche (1962). Franco's version of the story concerns the efforts of a mad surgeon, Dr. Orloff, to reconstruct the face of his disfigured daughter Melissa. Inspector Edgar Tanner investigates Orloff using his girlfriend, Wanda Bronsky, as an undercover spy. Franco followed the film with several sequels to Gritos en la noche. [34] He made one more film strongly influenced by the Franju film, Faceless (1988). Faceless has a similar plot involving beautiful women who are abducted by Dr. Flamand's (Helmut Berger) female assistant and kept hostage. The doctor uses the skin of the women to perform plastic surgery on his disfigured sister, but the experiments leave the victims mutilated and dead. [35] The Italian film Atom Age Vampire (1961) was also influenced by Eyes Without a Face with a doctor attempting to take the faces of other women to repair his daughter's face. [36] These homages are seen in the plot line of a police lieutenant who is investigating the circumstances behind the death of a young girl whose body has scars around the eyes. The lieutenant's investigation eventually leads him to a plastic surgery clinic, a similar plot motivation to Eyes Without a Face. [37] The British film Corruption (1968), starring Peter Cushing, adds a new variation to the theme: a surgeon tries to restore his fiancée's beauty by repeatedly treating her with fluids extracted from the pituitary glands of murdered female victims. Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar has stated his film The Skin I Live In (2011), which features a mad scientist who performs skin grafts and surgeries on an unwilling victim, was heavily influenced by Eyes Without a Face. [38]
American film director John Carpenter has suggested that the film inspired the idea of a featureless mask for the Michael Myers character in the slasher film series Halloween . Carpenter recalls that the film crew "didn't have any money to make a mask. It was originally written the way you see it, in other words, it's a pale mask with human features, almost featureless. I don't know why I wrote that down, why Debra [Hill] and I decided on that, maybe it was because of an old movie called Eyes Without a Face." [39]
DVD film reviews have suggested the film influenced director John Woo; critics have compared the graphic detail of the face transplant scene in Woo's action film Face/Off (1997) to the face transplant scene in Eyes Without a Face. [8] [40] [41] Another resemblance is Woo's use of white doves in his films that is similar to the character Christiane's dove-laden escape in the film's finale. [8]
In 2001, on VH1 Storytellers , [42] singer Billy Idol cited the film as giving him the idea for his song "Eyes Without a Face". The song, which has the film's French title ("Les yeux sans visage") as a recurring line in the chorus, takes the father-daughter relationship from the film and recasts it as the deteriorated relationship between the narrator and his lover. The song became Idol's first top-10 hit in the U.S.
Georges Franju was a French filmmaker. He was born in Fougères, Ille-et-Vilaine.
Claude Sautet was a French film director and screenwriter.
Boileau-Narcejac is the pen name used by the French crime-writing duo of Pierre Boileau and Pierre Ayraud, also known as Thomas Narcejac. Their successful collaboration produced 43 novels, 100 short stories and 4 plays. They are credited with having helped to form an authentically French subgenre of crime fiction with the emphasis on local settings and mounting psychological suspense. They are noted for the ingenuity of their plots and the skillful evocation of the mood of disorientation and fear. Their works were adapted into numerous films, most notably, Les Diaboliques (1955), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, and Vertigo (1958), directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Josephine Hannah Chaplin was an American actress and the daughter of filmmaker Charlie Chaplin and his fourth wife, Oona O'Neill. She had a featured role in Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Canterbury Tales (1972) as May, the adulterous wife of the elderly Sir January.
Alida Maria Laura, Freiin Altenburger von Marckenstein-Frauenberg, better known by her stage name Alida Valli, was an Italian actress who appeared in more than 100 films in a 70-year career, spanning from the 1930s to the early 2000s. She was one of the biggest stars of Italian film during the Fascist era, once being called "the most beautiful woman in the world" by Benito Mussolini, and was internationally successful post-World War II. According to Frédéric Mitterrand, Valli was the only actress in Europe to equal Marlene Dietrich or Greta Garbo.
Françoise Rosay was a French opera singer, diseuse, and actress who enjoyed a film career of over sixty years and who became a legendary figure in French cinema. She went on to appear in over 100 movies in her career.
Les Yeux sans visage may refer to:
Pierre Brasseur, born Pierre-Albert Espinasse, was a French actor.
The Manster is a 1959 American science-fiction horror film. Shot in Japan, it was produced by George P. Breakston and directed by Breakston and Kenneth G. Crane from a screenplay by Walter J. Sheldon. Sheldon's script was based on Breakston's story which he originally titled The Split.
"Eyes Without a Face" is a song by the English rock musician Billy Idol, from his second studio album Rebel Yell (1983). It was released in April 1984 as the second single from the album. The song is softer and more ballad-like than most of the album's other singles. It reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Idol's first top-10 hit in the US. The recording features the voice of Perri Lister—she appeared in the banned video for "Hot in the City"—who sings "Les yeux sans visage" as a background chorus. The title of the song refers to the English title of French director Georges Franju's horror film Les Yeux sans visage (1960).
Blood of the Beasts is a 1949 short French documentary film written and directed by Georges Franju. It is Franju's first film and is narrated by Georges Hubert and Nicole Ladmiral.
Jean-Pierre Mocky, pseudonym of Jean-Paul Adam Mokiejewski, was a French film director, actor, screenwriter and producer.
Gina Manès was a French film actress and a major star of French silent cinema. After an early appearance in a Louis Feuillade film, she had significant roles in films of Germaine Dulac and Jean Epstein, including Cœur fidèle.
Édith Scob was a French film and theatre actress, best known for her role as the daughter with a disfigured face in Eyes Without a Face (1960).
Nuits Rouges is a 1974 French-Italian crime thriller film directed by Georges Franju. The film was released in the U.S. in an English-dubbed version by New Line Cinema under the title Shadowman in 1975. It is an adaptation of a 1973 French-Italian-Yugoslav TV mini-series titled "L'Homme sans visage".
Head Against the Wall, also titled The Keepers, is a 1959 French drama film directed by Georges Franju starring Pierre Brasseur, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Mocky, Anouk Aimée, and Charles Aznavour. It was director Franju's debut feature film. The story follows an aimless young man who is institutionalized for defying his wealthy father, and in the process airs several questions about how society defines and treats mental illness.
Judex is a 1963 French-language crime film remake of the 1916 French film serial of the same name concerning the adventures of pulp hero Judex. Directed by French filmmaker Georges Franju, the film stars Channing Pollock as Judex/Vallieres, Édith Scob as Jacqueline and Francine Bergé as Diana.
Yvette Etiévant (1922–2003) was a French actress. She starred in Yves Robert's War of the Buttons in 1962.
Bernard Lavalette was a French film and television actor.
Eyes Without a Face can refer to:
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