Sharp as a scalpel, soft as a caress, this is a weird masterwork.
Comment
09/26/07
Eyes Without a Face (1959)
97 %
Reviews Counted: 37 Fresh: 36 Rotten:1 Average Rating: 8.1/10
Consensus:
A horrific tale of guilt and obsession, Eyes Without a Face is just as chilling and poetic today as it was in 1959.
Runtime: 90 mins
Synopsis: Based on Jean Redon's novel LES YEUX SANS VISAGE, French director Georges Franju's gloomy, atmospheric horror film EYES WITHOUT A FACE is a masterpiece of cinematic poetry. After his daughter Christiane (Edith Scob) becomes horribly disfigured in a car accident of which he was the cause,... [More]
Genre: Foreign Films
Starring: Pierre Brasseur, Edith Scob, Alida Valli, Claude Brasseur, Alexandre Rignault
Director: Georges Franju
Screenwriter: Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac
Producer: Jules Borkon
Composer: Maurice Jarre
Screenwriter: Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac
Producer: Jules Borkon
Composer: Maurice Jarre
Reviews
Top Critic Top Critic
ends up occupying uncharted territories somewhere between the gothic horrors of Frankenstein, the fairytale lyricism of La Belle et la Bete, and the charnel-house realism of Franju's own abbatoir-set documentary Le Sang Des Betes.
05/18/08
It has some queasy scenes, but unclear progression and plodding direction give this an old-fashioned air.
09/26/07
Top Critic
In its sedate, measured virtuosity, eloquently haunting imagery abuts the queasily naturalistic. It's both beautiful and grisly, lyric and sinister.
04/05/06
Has a baroque beauty rarely seen in the horror genre...the haunting final images are worthy of Poe or Cocteau.
05/27/04
Eyes Without a Face has the staging and rhythm of Noir, and, up until one incredible scene, employs horror with implication and ambiance.
04/06/04
[Director Franjau] concentrates on weaving an incredibly frail spell and keeps it wafting in just the right spaces throughout the film; the beautiful black-and-white, Cinemascope cinematography helps a great deal.
03/01/04
Franju conjures images -- sometimes gory, sometimes poetic, sometimes fantastical -- that genuinely haunt: the essence of the cinema distilled.
01/09/04
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