Review of Eyes Without a Face (1960) by Carl M — 31 Jan 2013

A brilliant surgeon attempts to restore his daughter to her former beauty after a terrible car crash leaves her permanently disfigured. Using an experimental skin grafting procedure, Doctor Génessier comes closer and closer to achieving this goal, but modern medicine would never approve of his methods.

.. Georges Franju's French classic ushers in a new era of surgical horror that would bleed in to the B-movie cinema of the 1960's and 70's in films like DR. BLOOD's COFFIN or Jess Franco's THE AWFUL DR.

ORLOF. Where these later entries would exploit the theme for all of its gory potential, Franju focuses on the pathos of a character-driven drama that is riddled with grief, remorse, obsession, and despair.

Questions of morality and ethics constantly plague the characters as the lines of right and wrong are blurred. We can never be certain whether Doctor Génessier continues his efforts out of the love and guilt that he feels for his daughter, or if it is the obsession with his own success that secretly drives him.

We also find that the cost of vanity is eally quite deep, not just for the doctor and his daughter Christiane, but also for his victims. Many of these characters would choose death over disfigurement, devaluing a life lived without beauty.

The elegant cinematography disarms the audience when it comes time to perform the surgeries, since the scenes are shot with such clinical precision and convincing special effects as to completely uphold the suspension of disbelief in a thrilling display of the Grand Guignol.

Pierre Brasseur provides a flawless performance as Doctor Génessier, however it is Edith Scob who we truly identify with as Christiane. Scob's expressive performance speaks through the thick rubber mask which hides her facial features.

EYES WITHOUT A FACE is not only significant for defining a whole new sub-genre in Horror, but it is also an all-around great film, and a timeless classic of world cinema.