Eyes Without a Face

The mind reels at what 1960's EYES WITHOUT A FACE is trying to convey.  Unhealthy parenting? An effort to have some vicarious satisfaction through a child that was not achieved elsewhere? The perils of playing God? Using science but then trying to beat it at its own game? Or does director Georges Franju have more abstract ideas?  The fruitless pursuit of perfection? Justifying heinousness and murder to save someone else?

Dr. Genessier (Pierre Brasseur) is a respected Parisian physician who harbors terrible secrets in the bowels of his remote mansion.  He's experimenting on a pack of dogs.  Additionally, his daughter Christiane (Edith Scob), reported missing and later deceased after an automobile accident- which left her horribly disfigured - is actually hiding in the mansion, reduced to wearing a face mask.  Genessier's loyal assistant Louise (Alida Valli) has been tasked to find and kidnap pretty young women, whose faces will be skin grafted onto the remains of Christiane's.  Each time, initial success rapidly turns to failure as the heterographed tissue is rejected by Christiane's immune system.  The poor girl wishes that she truly had passed on.  

EYES WITHOUT A FACE, which is dripping with atmosphere and emotion, does transcend its Creature Feature and otherwise firmly B-movie origins in its smooth yet always uncomfortable approach.  The sense of dread and portent that films achieves is admirable, and hugely influential for many filmmakers to follow.  Franju doesn't exactly create an art film, yet seems more fascinated by psychological implications than cheap tropes.  One surgery scene is surprisingly graphic and difficult to watch, yet feels more clinical than exploitive.  

We don't get a strong character sketch of Dr. Genessier, but his actions give flight to many a musing on a tortured soul who has found a way to merge his scientific mind with his heart.  But what sort of heart would snuff the lives of innocents, even to give his daughter a "life"? And what sort would it be even if he was successful? Maybe today's science would preclude the sort of complications detailed in this movie, but the souls within would be no less rattled.  At least that's what I think Franju is arguing.  

The film's rather satisfying ending is also a new beginning for a character, and could be an interesting movie of its own.

P.S. -  Unfortunately, a part of Maurice Jarre's score kept reminding me of the theme to Curb Your Enthusiasm, which needless to say hurt the mood a bit.