Directed by Georges Franju • 1960 • France
Starring Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli, François Guérin
At his secluded chateau in the French countryside, a brilliant, obsessive doctor (Pierre Brasseur) attempts a radical plastic surgery to restore the beauty of his daughter’s disfigured countenance—at a horrifying price. EYES WITHOUT A FACE, directed by the supremely talented Georges Franju, is rare in horror cinema for its odd mixture of the ghastly and the lyrical, and it has been a major influence on the genre in the decades since its release. There are images here—of terror, of gore, of inexplicable beauty—that once seen are never forgotten.
In this 2013 interview, actor Edith Scob discusses the making of EYES WITHOUT A FACE and her iconic character, Christiane Génessier.
This excerpt from an episode of the French television series “Cinéma de notre temps” features Georges Franju explaining why he made BLOOD OF THE BEASTS, the challenges of expressing cinematic “truth,” and the aesthetic advantages of black and white over color.
In this excerpt from “Le fantastique,” a 1982 episode of the French television show “Ciné-parade,” director Georges Franju discusses fantastic cinema, his theories about horror, and finding terror in the everyday.
