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Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli, Edith Scob, François Guérin, Juliette Mayniel ... see more see more... , Béatrice Altariba , Charles Blavette , Claude Brasseur , Michel Etcheverry , Yvette Etiévant , Rene Genin , Lucien Hubert , Marcel Peres , Alexandre Rignault

French director Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face (Les Yeux Sans Visage) is an unsettling, sometimes poetic horror film. Pierre Brasseur plays a brilliant plastic surgeon, Prof. Genessier, who has ... read more read more...vowed to restore the face of his daughter, Christiane (Edith Scob), who was mutilated in an automobile accident. With the help of his assistant (Alida Valli), he kidnaps young women, surgically removes their facial features, and attempts to graft their beauty onto his daughter's hideous countenance. This naturally has an adverse effect on the "donors," some of whom commit suicide rather than go through life faceless. Franju's haunting, muted handling of basic horror material is what lifts Eyes Without a Face out of the ordinary and into the realm of near-classic. When the film failed to draw crowds under its original title, however, the distributors decided to exploit it as a two-bit "scare" flick with the new title The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Flixster Users

86% liked it

7,022 ratings

Critics

98% liked it

42 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 24 min.

Directed by: Georges Franju

Release Date: October 24, 1962

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DVD Release Date: October 19, 2004

Stats: 577 reviews

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Les yeux sans visage dvd 'Les yeux sans visage' Edith Scob and Alida Valli Eyes Without a Face Les Yeux Sans Visage Eyes Without a Face Eyes Without a Face Eyes Without a Face
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Flixster Reviews (577)

  • fb1664868775
    October 25, 2011
    fb1664868775
    A horror classic that is still shocking today.
  • StarCrossedVoyager
    October 23, 2011
    StarCrossedVoyager
    A fantastic film with an original narrative and great performances from all the cast. I didn't expect too much but it really did justice to this era of filmmaking. The only problems were it wasn't exactly medically correct (for this time anyway, I'm unsure of how advanced they we... read morere then). Also it just seemed to end. I realise that the two got their comeuppance and died after killing all those other poor girls yet I want to know what happened to Christiane. Where did she go? Did everyone find out what they were doing there? What did the girl who was set free do? Overall a brilliant film that I'd definitely recommend!
  • binky013
    March 8, 2011
    binky013
    Roger Ebert, please calm down. With apologies to Misael and XTC:

    Excruciating --

    and I don't mean that in a good way. Walter, I almost added this sucker to our infamous list -- and it was a free download!

    I guess it takes way more to creep me out than when I was you

    ... read moreng. If I have one positive thing to say about this, uh, experience, it's that the animals ultimately rule. I laugh as I type that, thinking about Willard ordering his rats to KILL. One star for the triumph of animals, and one star for making me think about Willard. The only laugh derived from this -- what was that word? Oh, yes, "experience." And I'm talking 180 from Jimi Hendrix here.

    Oh, and another positive: At least this was more interesting than suffering through The Social Network.
  • rubystevens
    February 24, 2011
    rubystevens
    seriously creepy. from the writers of diabolique and vertigo. alida valli was soo evil and the ending was just beautiful. hey does anyone remember that billy idol song?
    'les yeux sans vis-age...'
  • flixsterman
    February 24, 2011
    flixsterman
    An obsessed surgeon becomes a serial killer in order to provide his disfigured daughter with skin grafts. Exquisitely gruesome.
  • DrBenway
    February 24, 2011
    DrBenway
    An atmosphere of dread and sinister obsession with sudden moments of graphic violence. One of the horrors is watching the surgical procedures in their entirety in a staged and detached fashion. A bit slow at first, but art-house sensibility and horror were key ingredients to ma... read moreke it a favorite.

    A bonus on the dvd from Franju is a darkly comic documentary based on slaughterhouses that's not suited for vegetarians.
    Eyes Without A Face
  • Stinger839
    February 24, 2011
    Stinger839
    Horror Not to Miss List Commentary:
    Great cinematography and a Gothic plot quite controversial for a feature film on its time. Compared to Hitchcock's Psycho in terms of visual language, it does deliver but didn't strike me as the "perfect piece" it was hyped to me as. Still, mos... read moret viewers will be able to bite into this a bit more firmly, as my big gripe was predictability of this film within the whole of Gothic horror tales.
  • ceWEBrity
    February 24, 2011
    ceWEBrity
    Stark, surreal and almost poetically beautiful, Eyes Without a Face is likely to be the most unique film I've seen in a very long time. The visual composition surges with grace, right down to every last detail, and it all feels summarized by that bizarre mask that Christiane wear... read mores. A perfect face hiding something truly horrible.

    This film made me feel many ways - touched, curious, horrified, darkly amused, nervous, shocked, sad. It is both human and inhuman at the same time, striving desperately to lend dignity to the barbaric practices that the doctor runs through. It is hard to find a clear villain, and when the film finishes you're left unsure as to where your allegiances lie. Eyes Without a Face is clearly-written and structured extremely well, but it is not immune to ambiguity. Fortunately, it only adds to the mystery of the film, rather than detracting from it.

    The movie can't help but fall victim to the problems inherent in any 50-year-old horror movie, but it is still extraordinarily crafted. See this.
  • mjgildea
    February 24, 2011
    mjgildea
    Eyes Without a Face definitely takes a while to get going but it's worth it. Whoever did the lighting for the first act needs to get new glasses. The surgery scene came off as a bit contrived, but if you watch the interview with Franju in the special features it makes sense. It w... read moreasn't really made clear who was the crazy one at the end but either way the final scene is so incredibly haunting you don't really care.
  • pier007
    February 24, 2011
    pier007
    original, dark, and fun french thriller, written by the same duo who made possible Hitchcock's Vertigo and Clouzot's Diaboliques

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Critic Reviews

Variety Staff
September 26, 2007
Variety Staff, Variety

It has some queasy scenes, but unclear progression and plodding direction give this an old-fashioned air. Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum
September 26, 2007
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

As absurd and as beautiful as a fairy tale. Full Review

David Edelstein
October 29, 2004
David Edelstein, Slate

Among the most disturbing horror films ever made. Full Review

Wesley Morris
February 20, 2004
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

Outre as it is, never tires as hypnotic, touching, ghastly fun. Full Review

Colin Covert
December 18, 2003
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

It infects your dreams with dread and desperation. Full Review

Roger Ebert
October 31, 2003
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Franju constructs an elegant visual work; here is a horror movie in which the shrieks are not by the characters but by the images.

Kenneth Turan
October 30, 2003
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

Like a nightmare that never ends, this is a vision of madness, loneliness and, yes, horror that, once seen, demands to be viewed over and over again. It is that haunting, and that good. Full Review

J. Hoberman
October 28, 2003
J. Hoberman, Village Voice

A masterpiece of poetic horror and tactful, tactile brutality. Full Review

Stephen Holden
May 20, 2003
Stephen Holden, New York Times

Sends a chill that extends from the cheekbones through the eye sockets to the back of the skull. Full Review

Ian Berriman
September 27, 2010
Ian Berriman, SFX Magazine

Wedding lyrical beauty to a gruesome scenario, it bridges the chasm between arthouse poetry and exploitation voyeurism. Full Review

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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