| Pierre Brasseur .... Doctor Genessier Edith Scob .... Christiane Genessier Alida Valli .... Louise Fran�ois Guerin .... Jacques Yeah you're probably asking yourself "What the #### is Les Yeux Sans Visage?".Well it was released in the US in 1962 as the chopped up Horror Chamber of Dr Faustus on a double bill with the US-Japanese flick The Manster.Talk about an eclectic double bill!And until you've seen the uncut French version with English subtitles you haven't seen a thing. The story boils down to the very dominating and cold Dr Genessier trying to restore his daughter Christiane's ruined face.He was speeding and had an auto accident which destroyed her face.Using grafting techniiques he uses the faces of other young girls to put on his daughter.He is aided by Louise, whose ravaged face he once restored.Louise kidnaps the girls and brings them to the Doctor's hospital. Deciding it would be better for everyone to think his daughter is dead this cold SOB dumps his last kidnap victim into the river and identifies her body as his daughter.The actual father of the victim is turned away after Genessier makes the identification.He has the girl buried in the family crypt on a bleak winter day. Christiane is forced to wear a "china doll" mask over her face.Edith Scob has to act with her eyes and body and does a wonderful job.She conveys heartbreak, self loathing and loss with a gesture or a look.She wants to die.She calls her fiancee Jacques on the telephone just to hear his voice.She can say nothing for the world thinks she is dead.Her only true companions are the dogs her father experiments on and the caged doves.In fact she is caged mentally just as the animals are. Louise kidnaps a girl and they perform a gruesome operation on her.This was strong in 1959 and still strong today.The girl's face is cut away and lifted off of her skull for all to see.No "cut aways" here.The girl is left alive as a prisoner until the doctor decides "what to do with her".She breaks away one day and after running through the house leaps to her death out a window. Christiane is happy with her new face.But unfortunately it begins to rot away.She is forced once again to don the mask and wait for the next victim.She calls Jacques and he puts two and two together.He goes to the police with his suspicions that his fiance is alive.The police draft a young girl to enter the hospital.She winds up on the operating table as a soon to be face donor.But help arrives from a most unexpected source... This movie is definitely NOT for everyone.Not due to the gore scene but rather that it is a mood piece.It doesn't fit into the thrill a minute pace and doesn't deliver many scares.What it does deliver is a gray mood of hopelessness and despair.The sky is gray.The ground is barren.It is cold and rainy looking.The trees are dead.Bleak poetry abounds. The music is appropriate and a bit unsettling.This is well photographed but does move at a snail's pace at times.While your heart goes out to Christiane and the victims, no one else is likeable or more than a cypher.The ending may have you scratching your head.It is rather symbolic if you think about it enough.Well directed by Georges Franju. This is best watched late at night.But if you have to watch it during the day, wait until it is gray and overcast. |
| Les Yeux Sans Visage |
 |