Eyes Without a Face

 

To peer, to stare, to gaze: whatever you call it, the act of looking is one of the most important gestures in the world of cinema, if only as the camera how often been described as a ‘mechanical eye’, capable of capturing images that the human eye cannot (for example during endoscopy). But what would happen if the eyes were stripped of the ‘landscape’ that surrounds them? In other words, what would happen if we came into contact with an individual blessed with eyes but not a face?

Such is the predicament explored in Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face, a somewhat gruesome French proto-horror about a mad scientist, and his permanently disfigured daughter. Not that this disfigurement is visible to the spectator: indeed, for much, but not all, of the film, her face – or rather what remains of her face – is protected by a smooth plastic mask, generating a peculiar impression of facial stasis. Not only that, but the film also includes one of the most disconcerting ‘close-ups’ ever to be released in cinemas, when the mad scientist tries to graft the skin of another person onto the face of his daughter. Horrific, yes – but also surprisingly modern: for all its shock-value, Eyes Without a Face has also been identified as a film that predicted, with incredible clairvoyance, many modern innovations in plastic surgery and facial reconstructive surgery.

Want to know more?

Read about Eyes Without a Face here.

Watch the trailer here.