Eyes Without a Face

I was so excited last night when I turned on TCM and Eyes Without a Face (Les yeux sans visage-1960) was just about to start. I've written about this horror movie in the past, but it's been a while and I'd like to talk about it again in case any of my fellow horror movie lovers haven't stumbled across this gem yet. You are seriously missing out if you haven't.

Eyes Without a Face is a French film directed by George Franju. At the time, Franju is said to have never considered the film a horror story, but rather a tale of "anguish." He is correct in saying this, but only if the story was being told from the character, Christiane Génessier, point of view. Even though this is the character without the face, she is not the scary one, she's actually a very kind person. It is her father, Dr. Génessier, and her father's assistant, Louise, who are the creeps in the story and what they do makes this story horrific and terrifying.

 Due to a car accident, Christiane's face was destroyed by a car crash. Heartbroken, Dr. Génessier, who is a surgeon, decides that he'll do whatever it takes to try to reconstruct his daughter's face. In order to do this, and with the help of Louise, he kidnaps young women, removes their faces, and attempts to graft their faces onto Christiane's head. Although all of Dr. Génessier's experiments have failed and all of the victims have died, he will not give up. What will it take to make him stop before he ends up murdering even more unsuspecting women?

Eyes Without a Face is an engaging horror film. At a certain point of the film, it get's so disturbing that, even though it's really freaking you out, you cannot and will not stop watching the film. I love horror films that have this effect, two others that do this very well are Santa Sangre and The Exorcist.

The fact that the film is in black and white is a positive because it gives it a darker and ghostly feeling to it. Especially during Christiane's scenes, she looks a bit ghostly with her long gowns (made by Givenchy), but it highlights the emotions she displays in her eyes, the way that she walks, and the gestures she makes. Christiane is a silent character, so it's amazing to watch and see how she draws the audience in so well with only her expressions.