Eyes Without a Face [WS] [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

French director Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face (Les Yeux Sans Visage) is an unsettling, sometimes poetic horror film. Pierre Brasseur plays a brilliant plastic surgeon, Prof. Genessier, who has vowed to restore the face of his daughter, Christiane (Edith Scob), who was mutilated in an automobile accident. With the help of his assistant (Alida Valli), he kidnaps young women, surgically removes their facial features, and attempts to graft their beauty onto his daughter's hideous countenance. This naturally has an adverse effect on the "donors," some of whom commit suicide rather than go through life faceless. Franju's haunting, muted handling of basic horror material is what lifts Eyes Without a Face out of the ordinary and into the realm of near-classic. When the film failed to draw crowds under its original title, however, the distributors decided to exploit it as a two-bit "scare" flick with the new title The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 (Vistavision)
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Features:
  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • "Blood of the Beasts" (Le Sang des Betes), Georges Franju's 1949 short documentary about the slaughterhouses of Paris
  • Archival interviews with Franju on horror, cinema, and the making of "Blood of the Beasts"
  • Excerpt from "Les Grands-Peres du Crime," a documentary featuring Eyes Without a Face writers Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac (Diablolique, Vertigo)
  • Theatrical trailers
  • Stills gallery of rare production photos and promotional material
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • Plus: New essays by novelist Patrick McGrath and writer and film historian David Kalat

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Pierre Brasseur - Prof. Genessier
       Alida Valli - Louise
       Edith Scob - Christiane Genessier
       Francois Guerin - Jacques Vernon
       Juliette Mayniel - Edna Gruber
       Beatrice Altariba - Paulette
       Alexandre Rignault - Insp. Parot

• Director:

  Georges Franju

• Producer:

  Jules Borkon

• Screenwriter:

  Pierre Boileau, Georges Franju, Thomas Narcejac, Jean Redon

• Book Author:

  Jean Redon

• Screenwriter:

  Claude Sautet

• Cinematographer:

  Eugen Schüftan

• Composer (Music Score):

  Maurice Jarre

• Editor:

  Gilbert Natot

• Production Designer:

  Auguste Capelier

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Antoine Archimbaud

• Makeup:

  Gerard Klein

• First Assistant Director:

  Claude Sautet

REVIEW:

• Often cited as one of the most poetic horror films ever committed to celluloid, French director Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face has a lingering effect that conjures more melancholy malaise than outright fright. Franju opts for a deliberate pacing that perfectly compliments the somber tone of his dark tale, and cinematographer Eugen Schufftan's moody nighttime photography provides the ideal visual representation of the inner turmoil experienced by both the father who longs to make up for past indiscretions (regardless of the pain he inflicts to achieve his goal) and the daughter whose horrendous appearance serves as a constant reminder of the mistake that will haunt him to the grave. As the nearby howls of caged hounds haunt the quiet halls of the doctor's vast estate, viewers are constantly reminded of the horrors set to be unleashed at a moment's notice. Considering that such an artful "horror" film with so many expressionistic embellishments was released by its original stateside distributor, United Artists, under the lurid banner The Horror Chamber of Doctor Faustus, audiences expecting a blood-soaked fright-fest were no doubt disappointed. Though the film does offer a few shots that remain fairly shocking even decades after the film's 1960 release, the true horror lies in the madness of regret and the torture of remaining dead to those one holds dearest, despite living on to experience their shattering despair. In addition to soulful performances by leads Pierre Brasseur and Edith Scob, Italian screen veteran Alida Valli provides a memorably sinister turn as Prof. Genessier's (Brasseur) devoted and unquestioning assistant. Re-released to stateside theaters in mid-2003, Franju's downbeat frightener reached a whole new generation, who embraced the director's seductively dark vision. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi