classic French horror film ‘Eyes : Releas in 1960. Georges Franju’s horror classic Eyes Without A Face has shock audiences around the globe for over six decades. When the film premier at Edinburgh Film Festival. Seven audience members faint. Prompting the director to exclaim: “Now I know why Scotsmen wear skirts!”
classic French horror film ‘Eyes Without A Face’
Despite the film’s ability to cause viewers to drop “like flies” at screenings. Eyes Without A Face has stood the test of time and remains one of the greatest horror pictures ever made. The movie follows Doctor Génessier on his quest to fix the face of his daughter. Christiane. Which was disfigur in a car accident that he caused. Génessier and his assistant Louise kidnap girls with similar looks to Christiane. Forcing them onto the operating table before slicing their faces off.
The doctor’s attempt to transplant other women’s faces onto his daughter is ultimately unsuccessful. The film culminates in Christiane murdering Louise and freeing the captive dogs that soon murder Génessier before walking away from her deceas oppressors.
Eyes Without A Face is a magnificent piece of cinema, shrouded in moody atmospherics.
The exquisite black-and-white cinematography is shadowy and haunting, emphasising Christiane’s spectral presence. She wanders the hallways of her house in a long white nightgown, gliding her hands across the walls and touching objects that previously contained a sense of promise. Now she is isolat and lonely. Barred from the outside world. Pretending she is dead. Her ghostliness suggests that she exists in a liminal space between life and death.
The control that Christiane is placed under makes for a fascinating study of the patriarchy and the role of the father. Génessier utterly controls her, preventing her from even looking in a mirror. Furthermore, Christiane’s fiancé is one of her father’s students, suggesting that Génessier has most likely had a part to play in forming their relationship. Génessier attempts to play God, but his angelic daughter punishes him for such behaviour. It quickly becomes apparent that the doctor is not trying to fix his daughter’s face out of love. Instead, it is out of a quest for power, marred by guilt.
Génessier cannot have people witness the irreparable damage he caused by his reckless driving – that would weaken his position of power. By taking control of women – choosing their fates through his position as a respected surgeon – Franju’s film highlights the ease with which men can abuse their positions of power. The film’s subtle feminist themes are emphasised at the end, where Christiane saves herself and frees Paulette, one of her father’s almost victims. Instead of the police or her fiancé coming to Christiane’s rescue, she walks away herself, a dove in hand, a clear symbolic indicator of her newfound path to peace and freedom.
This is a film concerned with corruption.
The shiny, smooth mask Christiane is forced to wear is a symbol of destruction and the fragility of innocence, beauty, and power. Her father’s control is helmed by fear, alluding to the greater human fear of modernity and technology. Christiane’s beauty and innocence are ‘destroyed’ by a car – typically a symbol of progression and prosperity.
With technological and medicinal advancements comes, of course, the potential for people to abuse these developments. This fear is signified perfectly in Eyes Without A Face, which weaves this fear with an exploration of male corruption. Since its release, Franju’s feature has indelibly impacted the film industry, inspiring the Michael Myers’ mask in Halloween and even John Woo’s Face-Off. Despite some incredible horror films coming out of France since the release of Eyes Without A Face, it still remains one of the county’s best exports and one of the most beautifully-crafted horror films ever made.
