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Eyes Without a Face

Les yeux sans visage

France, Italy

1960

90 Min
Black and White
1.66:1
French
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
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1,572 Views

DIR Georges Franju

PROD Jules Borkon

SCR Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac, Jean Redon, Claude Sautet

DP Eugen Schüfftan

CAST Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli, Edith Scob, François Guérin, Juliette Mayniel, Alexandre Rignault, Beatrice Altariba, Charles Blavette, Claude Brasseur

ED Gilbert Natot

MUSIC Maurice Jarre

SOUND Antoine Archimbaud

Cannes (Cannes Classics), AFI FEST (Guest Director Program), !F Istanbul (!f Cult)

Synopsis

Secluded in the French countryside, a brilliant, obsessive doctor attempts a radical plastic surgery to restore the beauty of his daughter’s disfigured face—but at a horrifying price. At once ghastly lyrical, Eyes Without a Face is a true rarity of horror cinema and has influenced countless films. —The Criterion Collection

Director

Original

Georges Franju

Georges Franju (12 April 1912 – 5 November 1987) was a French filmmaker. He was born in Fougères, Ille-et-Vilaine.

Before working in French cinema, Franju had several different jobs. These included working for an insurance company and in a noodle factory. Franju was also briefly in the military in Algeria and was discharged in 1932. On his return, Franju studied to become a set designer and later created backdrops for music halls including Casino de Paris and the Folles Bergère.

In the mid-thirties, Franju and Henri Langlois met through Franju’s twin brother Jacques Franju. As well as creating the 16 mm short film Le Métro, Langois and Franju also started a short-lived film magazine and created a film club called Le Cercle du Cinema with 500 francs he borrowed from Langlois’ parents. The club showed silent films from their own collections followed by an informal debate about them amongst members. From Le Cercle du Cinema, Franju and Langlois founded the Cinématheque… read more

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Displaying 4 of 32 wall posts.
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zondabez

4Jan12

Não crendo em coincidências, esse filme dialoga com a resenha anterior, "Seconds". Mas na visão de Franju, as tentativas de um clássico 'médico louco' em obter um novo rosto para sua filha resultam em experiências aterrorizantes com belas jovens francesas. O contraponto entre planos abertos e fechados, ruídos e silêncios em preto e branco constroem um clima soturno e fantástico. O medo aqui surge da simplicidade.

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xrystyna

16Dec11

beautiful and inmpressive cinematography and a couple of really good scenes, however i wish actors were better. i'd say, 3,5 stars - but mubi doesn't give this possibility.

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Sadhaka

2Dec11

Hadn't seen this in quite a while. This time it really gave me an uncomfortable and disquieting feeling. Brilliantly executed... distilled terror.

zondabez likes this

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nargs

24Sep11

just finished watching the film, it beat all my expectations. cant say anything about what i enjoyed the most as it will spoil it, but its easily one of my favourite films now :)

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Fans

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Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
W184

The Forgotten: Death by Light

By David Cairns on January 14, 2010

Above: An heir is electrocuted by an arc light. Smoking. Pleins feux sur l'assassin, (loosely, "Open Fire at the Killer") is the 1961 film

read article
W184

Tuesday Morning Foreign Region DVD Report: "La tête contre les murs" (Franju, 1959)

By Glenn Kenny on October 6, 2009

Some films, and filmmakers, just can't catch the right kind of breaks as far as international reputation goes. A very smart United States distributor

read article
W184

The Forgotten: Homunculus, mon amour

By David Cairns on December 11, 2008

Everything’s either forgotten, or in danger of being forgotten. Apart from a tired array of Christmas classics, cinema of the past seems enveloped

read article
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Georges Franju and the Terrible Waking Dream

By Daniel Kasman on April 10, 2008

Above: Edith Scob in Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face (1960). The films of Georges Franju are full of sleepwalkers, automatons, and prisoners

read article

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Reviews

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Eyes Without a Face

By Tony Paulett​o on December 18, 2009

This exceptional surrealist horror is remeniscent of Tim Burton’s early work. Even the music is notably Danny Elfman-esque. The most impressive attribute of Eyes Without a Face is that it exceeds the…  read review

Eyes Without a Face

By Joshua Robert Hathawa​y on November 2, 2009

This film portrays the horrific acts of a doctor trying to save his daughter and the daughter who would rather die than be saved by these terrible deeds but these ideas could have been distilled in…  read review

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DVD

Buy the DVD from The Criterion Collection.