Review of Eyes Without a Face (1960) by Jean-Francois V — 26 Jun 2010

"Eyes Without a Face" is a film that tries to drag you into disturbing territory with its story of an evil doctor who, just like Hannibal Lecter, lifts off young women's skin from their faces, except he's not a crazed serial killer, but a doting (or incestuous?) father with the professional ethics of a Dr Mengele.

I guessed what spoiled the "enjoyment" of the film for me (I'm using quotes, because the film was obviously not meant to be "enjoyed") was the fact that the daughter with the "angelic" face was aware of what her father was doing to restore her former beauty, so you get the feeling of a totally vain person who just wants her looks back and doesn't care if others are horribly mutilated in the process. How are you supposed to feel compassion for such a moral monster?

If you like medical horror, films where the victim is anesthetised and done horrible things while unconscious, if this is what chills your spine, then this movie might be for you. Franju's favorite horror film was a documentary on a man who was smiling while his skull was cut open with an electric saw and his brain tumour burned. He is also famous for directing a documentary on a slaughterhouse in Paris, also included on the Criterion DVD, not because he was an early animal activist, but because he found beauty in the "truth" of animal slaughter.

For me, the film dragged a lot. It's the kind of film where a man drives to the garage door, gets out of his car, walks to the garage door, opens it, gets back into his car, drives into the garage, gets out of his car again, closes the garage door, and then walks upstairs. You also have the feeling that the whole thing is a precursor for the torture porn genre, frustrated with the censorship of the day (1959), and that what Franju was mostly interested in was showing the grisly operation, which must have caused quite a shock back when gore was not something our culture was saturated with.