Film: Eyes Without a Face

Director: Georges Franju
Genre: Horror
Source: France (1960)
Rating: Unrated--probably PG-13
Location/Format: Hulu Plus
Grade: B+

Films like Eyes Without a Face can't help but bear the burden of their age a bit--the special effects are clearly dated--but I was really taken by the unique feel of this film. It's almost dreamlike at times, and it is always, for lack of a better word, haunted. The film opens on the discarding of a dead body, but even before that the opening credits give us a clue that things are "off" somehow. As the credits roll, the side of a road flashes by us, but as though we are facing backwards in a moving car. We can't see where we're going, and so we feel immediately a lack of control--like perhaps we are being taken somewhere against our will. It's effective, and it works for the film on a number of levels--are we the kidnapped girls, taken against our will? Are we Christiane, caught up in our father's mad scheme? Thus even before anyone appears on screen we are primed to empathize with the victims even more than we already would.

And don't get me wrong when I criticize the effects. Perhaps the "gore" doesn't look as effective as it would today, but there is plenty of imagery in the film that is deeply resonant. Most significantly, when Christiane puts on her mask, she floats through the film like an ethereal specter--largely silent, willowy, coldly frozen. Actress Edith Scob moves with a birdlike, otherworldly quality. Her long limbs and piercing eyes do an incredible job depicting her fear, her confusion, and her possible insanity.

Similarly, Pierre Brasseur's implacable stoicism as Doctor Genessier is incredibly effective. He is the mad scientist of so many movies past, but played as the calm, affectless (and merciless) experimenter rather than the wide-eyed wildman. It's extremely effective, and it makes his bouts of egomaniacism all the more believable.

The film is full of other great imagery as well: the cages of the dogs, the second graveyard scene, the final shot as the credits roll. These are fantastic and powerful visual cues to Franju's more artistic take on this unusual story. And I thought the unusual use of music (often using no music at all for some of the most dramatic scenes) was ahead of its time as well.

It's a great little film, and one that I would like to watch again to really analyze more.

Alternate Film Title: "World's Worst Policemen?"