When Eyes Without a Face was first released in 1959 this French film received very mixed responses from European critics, from exultant praise to utter disgust. Recut in 1962 for US release it was retitled The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus
and double-billed with Manster (which I've also seen but wont talk about here). Audiences on the whole did not know quite what to make of it, but a mildly vocal following kept it alive over the years. Since then it has been restored and rediscovered as the film the makers always intended. But the discussion still continues on whether it is a horror movie or an art film.
The story goes that a brilliant and highly respected surgeon is kidnapping young women and removing their faces seeking to repair his own beloved daughter's disfigurement. Until her face
is restored she must wear an expressionless mask with no discerning features except for her beautiful eyes staring out from the alabaster. Hence the original French title, LesYeux sans visage, which even sounds better in French.
And it sounds like an opportunity for a bit of gore, but little of such is actually shown. The skill of director Georges Franju for suggestion creates images in the mind so visceral you almost remember seeing gruesome horrors never made visual. Also, the film is so seductive, so sensual and delicately smooth you are virtually hypnotised as you peer within the darkness of the doctor's mansion and his within own tormented mind.
Perhaps stylistically inspired by Jean Cocteau's poetic cinema the film knows how to linger and even touch on moments of expressionism, such as when the doctor's innocent daughter, wearing that ethereal mask, wanders through the mansion like a doll-like ghost. But this works all the more for the stark realism that also surrounds the admittedly outlandish premise. Hauntingly beautiful, disturbingly cruel, this perfect balance of dreamery and verisimilitude makes this film unique and worthy of the title of Cult Classic.
Yeux Sans Visage is also a reminder to movie buffs to stretch beyond their own language group. French cinema, especially French Fantastic Cinema continues to awe me. From this film to Andre Hunebelle's Fantomas movies in the mid '60s and more recent films like Dark Portals: The Chronicles of Vidocq, I continually find new and wonderful works of art to enjoy. Edith Scob, who stars in it, is still making movies in France, BTW.
I'm appreciating French fantastique. It has been overshadowed by their melodramas for far too long. I even liked flawed films like "Brotherhood of the Wolf".
Edith Scob is still going!?!
Interesting that your last post was on Astroboy, he too was a creation of a grieving father a brilliant and respected scientist. Astro was created in the form of his young son, who died in a car accident.