2024 Blind Spot Series: Eyes Without A Face
Official synopsis: A surgeon (Pierre Brasseur) causes an accident which leaves his daughter (Edith Scob) disfigured and goes to extreme lengths to give her a new face.
I fell off the wagon with my Blind Spots the last few months. A lot of what I wanted to watch isn't available on streaming, so I had to pivot a bit. I was hoping to make this my October watch, but I can't count on this to still be around then. I'm about 3 months behind, but hopeful I'll be able to catch up in the coming months. Summer always tends to distract me. I'd rather be outside.
What surprised me the most about this film was how graphic it was. It's nothing like the gore and body horror you see today, but I was legitimately surprised with what they showed considering this film was made in 1960. I expected nearly everything to be off screen, but they really get into it.
It's very foreboding. You legitimately fear for all the women that the surgeon and his assistant come across. You also want to scream at them for the dumb decisions they are making. It covers a lot of ground in 90 minutes. I also never realized how familiar I was with the score. When it started playing, I actually wondered if I had seen this before and just mentally blocked it out. It gets reused quite a bit in media since then. Unsurprising of course, it's very good.
I'm glad I got back into the swing of my Blind Spots with something like this. It gives me the excitement I need to go back to my list (and my alternates)
Grade: B
Glad to see you back to the Blind Spots! Interesting choice to get rolling again. It's a very, very dark film and from what I've read caused quite the sensation when it came out in 1960.
ReplyDeleteOf course it was European so they weren't constricted by the weakening but still present Production Code as Hollywood was but even for a foreign film the depictions of gore were pretty severe for the time. I'm certainly no fan of ghoulishness but in this case, unlike so much of the trash that came after, it was in service to a complex story. It also couldn't be dismissed as some cut rate release because of the presence of several respected French performers, including Alida Valli (Louise) who was an enormous star at the time having worked with both Hitchcock (The Paradine Case) and Orson Welles (The Third Man) as well as major European classics such as "Senso" and "Il Grido". I haven't seen much of director Franju's other work but three years after this he did make the wonderful "Judex", which I highly recommend.
I can't say it's a film I'm burning to rewatch, it's quite disturbing and ultimately very sad but it held me rapt when I did view it and stayed with me afterwards.
Me too! Though I'm so behind. I think this one will stay with me too.
DeleteI do love this film as I see where Billy Idol got the idea for the song as it's one of my all-time favorite songs ever.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I do in selecting my Blind Spots is to see if they're available on a streaming service, available to rent on YouTube, and if there's a physical copy (as I now have all of my remaining Blind Spots for the year via Blu-Ray). I am fortunate that I am one of those who still care for physical media.
I'll have to listen to that song, I'm not sure I'm aware o f it. I normally do that too, but the problem I run into is these things leave streaming or someone hoards the DVD copy at my library.
DeleteI haven't even heard of this before. It sounds interesting
ReplyDeleteIt's streaming on Max if you want to check it out!
DeleteI like this one a lot. It's like a B-movie made by someone too talented to make it, like getting Orson Welles to direct an episode of a sitcom. It's also my favorite uncanny valley mask. Christiane is terrifying specifically because of that completely empty face.
ReplyDeleteYes! That's a great way to put it.
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