Eyes Without a Face
Director: Georges Franju Run Time: 88 min. Format: 35mm Rating: NR Release Year: 1960 Language: French with English Subtitles
Starring: Alida Valli, Juliette Mayniel, Pierre Brasseur
A car accident ignites a father’s obsession with replacing his daughter’s destroyed looks in Nitehawk’s 35mm presentation of EYES WITHOUT A FACE.
George Franju’s Eyes Without a Face (Les Yeux Sans Visage) is a slow-paced meditation on horror. After a car accident disfigures his daughter Christiane, a brilliant surgeon named Dr. Génessier feels such guilt that he kidnaps young women in order to graft their perfect skin onto her face (an act depicted in one of the most graphic scenes in film). Wearing a stoic mask, Christiane keeps to herself and to their guard dogs in their remote French estate but when she discovers what her father is doing for her, she makes sure it never happens again. A mixture of hauntingly gorgeous and disturbing imagery, Eyes Without a Face is an influential part of horror cinema and one that shows the very powerful importance placed on a woman’s beauty.
Part of Nitehawk’s FINAL GIRL October program.