Eyes Without a Face (1960)

Acting:		Partying:		Girls:
Blood:		Language:		Gore:
Violence:		Humor:		Sexuality:
Torture:		Predictability:		Overall:

It's always nice to put aside the immense pile of DVDs that I'm most eager to view and instead go with a film that I've, for some reason or another, been pushing aside for as long as I can remember. With all the gory glamour that's going on in horror today, I must admit that I too am always looking to see the next "big thing" whether it be of the extremely gruesome or the most visually frightening. As a result, Eyes Without a Face has been part of my collection for some time now, and after all these years, the film has finally made its way into my player, not once...but twice this weekend. I can immediately say that it is quite easy to hold this film up to the classic B&W standards that are Carnival of Souls and the original The Haunting, with all three films being released at around the same time. In fact, while viewing Eyes Without a Face, I was constantly being reminded of some of the brilliant ways that directors used to, and in those two examples especially, eerily personify such gorgeous architecture whether or not the films scenes took place in an old mansion, church, or in this films case, a home bursting of expensive furnishing and glamour. But don't be fooled. Even though the film introduces itself as something much more elegant than what the actual story synopsis will suggest, it also carries a mysterious cadence throughout its entire running time that will always let the audience know that underneath this beautiful mask lays a tragic and gruesome skin. This face is revealed more and more as the film progresses.

What makes Eyes Without a Face so effective, even by today's standards, is Georges Franju's elegant take on such a gruesome situation. What the audience perceives within the film is a beautiful young girl named Christiane that was in an unfortunate accident that nearly killed her and her father. Once her body finally healed, only her face was left with massive amounts of scares. While her farther, a well known surgeon and neurologist, devotes all of his free time to the full recovery of her face, she is left to wear a mask which is actually a very accurate mold of the actual contours of a females facial features, however; even with this mask Christiane is forbidden to be seen in public surroundings. ...

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