Les YEUX SANS VISAGE

(vt Eyes without a Face; vt The Horror Chamber of Dr Faustus US)

   Film (1959). Champs-Elysees/Lux. Dir Georges Franju, starring Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli, Edith Scob. Screenplay Jean Redon, Franju, Claude Sautet, Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac, from a novel by Redon. 95 mins, cut to 88 mins, further cut to 84 mins. B/w.

   Released in the USA under the schlock "Horror Chamber" title and condemned in the UK as outrageous anddisgusting, this is, though the inspiration for many a subsequent exploitation movie, actually an austere and poetic work in the surrealist tradition, even in its use of stereotyped plot devices from pulp horror fiction. The sf element is advanced plastic surgery: a surgeon (Brasseur), guilty over his daughter's (Scob's) facial disfigurement (she wears a mask) in an accident for which he was responsible, uses his assistant (Valli) to kidnap young women; he attempts, without success, to transfertheir faces to his daughter; she goes mad and releases his experimental dogs; they chew his face off; she drifts away surrounded by doves. Scob's wistful, masked performance is extraordinary, as is Maurice Jarre's gravely classical film score.

   PN