The 1960 ‘Les yeux sans visage‘ is the most famous film by filmmaker Georges Franju, a remarkable and slightly contradictory figure in the history of French and international cinema. He made very few films in his career, but his influence on his contemporaries and those who came after him was immense. Part of the legacy left off the sets is the founding in 1936 of the institution of Cinematheque Française in Paris together with Henri Langlois and a conception of the art of film that represents a synthesis of his work as a documentary filmmaker and a filtered assimilation of the aesthetics and creative methods of Surrealism. Contemporary with the filmmakers of the New Wave, he rejected their adherence to the immediate reality but shared with them the conception according to which the director is the main author of cinematographic productions. For him, however, the cinematographic aesthetics were more important than the narrative, the way the story is told taking precedence over the story itself. ‘Les yeaux sans visage‘ is a landmark in the history of the horror film, and has inspired filmmakers like Almodovar (‘La piel que habito’) or John Woo (‘Face / Off’) as a theme but also as an aesthetic.
‘Les yeux sans visage‘ is an adaptation of a detective novel by Jean Redon signed by the couple of screenwriters (themselves authors of detective novels) formed by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. The plot is, on the surface at least, quite simple and is told linearly. In the opening scene, a woman drives a car at night carrying a dead body. A masterfully filmed scene, as will be several to come (the cinematography belongs to Eugen Schüfftan). The woman behind the wheel is Louise, assistant to Dr. Genessier, a renowned surgeon specializing in skin grafts. His daughter had suffered a car accident for which he feels responsible, and the famous doctor will use his talents to find suitable donors to repair the disfigured girl’s face. Donors become victims of the evil couple’s plans.
The story is reminiscent of classic horror novels, starting with ‘Frankenstein’ with a scientific twist. In fact, skin grafts like those shown in the film are not 100% safe even today. How the story is filmed is what matters. In the ’50s the center of gravity of ‘horror’ film productions had moved overseas, but visually ‘Les yeux sans visage‘ descends rather from the German cinema of the 20s and early 30s. Surrealist elements are added to this, but the influence of the period in which director Georges Franju worked as a documentarian, author of films of a cruel realism in this genre, is also felt. The fantastic usually works as an insertion of the supernatural into the everyday. In the ‘horror’ universe, the opposite effect is sought – of everyday elements introduced into an atmosphere that defies logic. Several of the stronger scenes created censorship problems for the film in 1960 in Europe, and the version that was broadcast in 1962 in the United States was slightly ‘sanitized’.
Georges Franju knows well the secrets of the trade and a comparison of this film with Hitchcock‘s successful films is not at all exaggerated. Same as the international master of the genre, Franju amplifies the excellent visual part with an expressive soundtrack, with music by Maurice Jarre, the composer who also worked on the famous hits created by David Lean. From the cast I noted the excellent Alida Valli in a role of partner in crime very different from many others I knew from her career and Edith Scob who plays the role of the daughter with her face covered by a mask. We will especially remember her silhouette. Over half a century later, we will meet the actress again in Leos Carax‘s ‘Holy Motors’. Pierre Brasseur disappointed me a bit as the criminal scientist. He’s OK but leaves the impression that he missed the opportunity to create a memorable ‘bad guy’. ‘Les yeux sans visage‘ is a gem of the genre, forgotten in the drawers of the history of the horror movies. Don’t miss the opportunity to discover it, if you haven’t already.