Eyes Without a Face 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Eyes Without a Face 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 17, 2025

Georges Franju's "Eyes Without a Face" (1960) arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the release include archival program with actress Edith Scob; excerpt from an episode of the French television show Cine-parade; the documentary "Blood of the Beasts" (1949); original trailers; and more. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Note: The text below was previously used in our review of the first Blu-ray release of Eye Without a Face, produced by Criterion in 2013.

The main protagonist in Georges Franju’s legendary horror film Eyes Without a Face is a mad surgeon (Pierre Brasseur, Le Quai Des Brumes) who is secretly trying to rebuild the badly disfigured face of his daughter (Edith Scob, Judex). He works with a very elegant assistant (Alida Valli, Suspiria) who routinely abducts young girls whose beautiful faces are later on used to reconstruct his daughter’s face. The doctor lives alone in a giant mansion somewhere on the outskirts of Paris.

The first half of the film focuses on the doctor’s experiments and his assistant’s careful search for beautiful girls. Both know exactly what they are doing and are fully committed to the ongoing project. The camera occasionally shows the doctor’s daughter, who seems to be on the verge of a serious nervous breakdown, but he calmly assures her that it is only a matter of time before she will be able to have a normal life.

The girl wears a simple yet elegant mask that covers everything but her eyes. When the camera comes close to her, it is easy to see that her eyes are incredibly beautiful. These are some of the best sequences in the entire film -- the visuals are quite unsettling yet, at the same time, deeply poetic.

The second half is drastically different. The camera again comes close to the girl with the mask, but the poetic beauty is almost completely replaced with a striking sense of realism. There are a couple of sequences that feel as if they were extracted from an instructional documentary meant to be seen only by medical professionals. One of these sequences is particularly creepy.

This uncharacteristic blending of poetic beauty and realism is what separates Franju’s Eyes Without a Face from other similarly-themed films from the same era. On one hand, it seems like a contemporary Gothic film that wants to seduce the audience with very dark but elegant imagery. On the other hand, it is so direct and raw, even by modern standards, that by the time the final credits roll, it feels like the film might have been created to test the audience’s tolerance for graphic horror. Needless to say, viewing Eyes Without a Face is a very, very unique experience.

Brasseur is absolutely spectacular as the mad surgeon who is totally obsessed with his secret work. The first sequence in which he carefully touches the face of the young girl on the operating table causes that strange ‘knotted-up’ feeling in the stomach, which never truly disappears after it. The beautiful Valli is also very convincing as Brasseur’s loyal assistant. Scob’s performance has become legendary and for a good reason -- her beautiful eyes reveal exactly how she feels while waiting to discover whether her father’s latest procedure was successful. A young and very beautiful Juliette Mayniel also has a small role in the film. (A year earlier, Mayniel had her acting debut in the late Claude Chabrol’s second feature film, Les Cousins).

Eyes Without a Face was lensed by the great cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan (Le Quai Des Brumes, The Hustler).

The soundtrack was created by Maurice Jarre (David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago).

Eyes Without a Face 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Criterion's release of Eyes Without a Face is a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. The 4K Blu-ray is Region-Free. However, the Blu-ray is Region-A "locked".

Please note that some of the screencaptures included with this article are taken from the 4K Blu-ray and downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray disc.

Screencaptures #1-17 are taken from Blu-ray.
Screencaptures #20-40 are taken from the 4K Blu-ray.

The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this release:

"Undertaken by Le chat qui fume for Gaumont, this new 4K restoration was created from the 35mm original camera negative. The monaural soundtrack was remastered from the 35mm original soundtrack negative."

In America, Eyes Without a Face made its high-definition debut with this Blu-ray release in 2013. It is the only other release of the film that I have in my library. The combo pack offers a native 4K presentation of the 4K restoration mentioned above, which is not graded with Dolby Vision or HDR.

The overall quality of the native 4K presentation is very good. On my system, delineation, clarity, and depth looked great, often even outstanding. There are some areas with small yet noticeable density fluctuations, but these are inherited limitations that were visible on the previous 1080p presentation as well. There are no traces of any problematic digital corrections. Image stability is very good. So, does the native 4K presentation bring any meaningful upgrades in quality? On my system, the higher resolution certainly helps various close-ups look a little bit better. However, the same close-ups already look wonderful in 1080p, so the size of your screen will again determine what type of upgrade you see there. The bigger your screen is, the more convincing this upgrade will appear to you. On the native 4K presentation, the grayscale looks slightly more convincing now. I was a bit surprised by this development, so I compared several areas to be absolutely certain that what I was seeing was a consistent improvement. It is, and blacks and grays appear better balanced virtually everywhere. However, I must mention that in some darker material, select blacks almost begin to crush. Nevertheless, I prefer how the grayscale is set on the native 4K presentation because it helps the entire film acquire a slightly lusher appearance. If there are any other upgrades, they were certainly not prominent enough on my system. The native 4K presentation is very healthy.

Eyes Without a Face 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this release: French LPCM 1.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

If there is anything different on the French LPCM 1.0 track that the native 4K presentation of Eyes Without a Face uses, I missed it. All exchanges are clear and easy to follow. Maurice Jarre's atmospheric soundtrack sounds wonderful, too. The range of nuanced dynamics is somewhat limited, but this is an inherited limitation. I did not encounter any distracting age-related anomalies.

Eyes Without a Face 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K BLU-RAY DISC

• Special Features - there are no special features on the disc.

BLU-RAY DISC

• Edith Scob - in this archival program, Edith Scob (Christiane Génessier) discusses her contribution to Eyes Without a Face and Georges Franju's directing methods. Scob also explains what makes the film unique and addresses its critical reception in 1960. The program was produced for Criterion in 2013. In French, with optional English subtitles. (9 min).

• "Le Fantastique" - presented here is an excerpt from an episode of the French television show Cine-parade in which Georges Franju explains what separates fantastic and horror cinema. In French, with optional English subtitles. (6 min).

• Boileau-Narcejac - Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac wrote the script for Eyes Without a Face. In this collection of excerpts from the documentary Les grands-peres du crime, the two discuss their friendship and work. In French, with optional English subtitles. (8 min).

• Trailers - original U.S. and French trailers for Eyes Without a Face.
  
  1. French Trailer. In French, with printed English subtitles. (4 min).
  2. U.S. Trailer for a double-bill presentation with The Manster. In English, not subtitled. (4 min).

• Blood of the Beasts - Georges Franju's short documentary Le sang des betes a.k.a. Blood of the Beasts (1949) offers a fascinating but quite disturbing look at Paris' abattoirs. The film is presented with two tracks: the original French soundtrack (Dolby Digital 1.0) and an English dub (Dolby Digital 1.0). With optional English subtitles. (23 min, 1080p).

• Franju on the Film - an excerpt from an episode of the French television series Cinema de notre temps in which Georges Franju discusses Blood of the Beasts. In French, with optional English subtitles. (3 min).

• Booklet - an illustrated booklet featuring Patrick McGrath's essay "Appearances to the Contrary" and David Kalat's essay "The Unreal Reality", as well as technical credits.

Eyes Without a Face 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The list of famous directors who have copied something from Eyes Without a Face is pretty long. John Frankenheimer did when he made Seconds. Pedro Almodóvar did when he made The Skin I Live In. Leos Carax did and even invited Edith Scob to work with him in Holy Motors. There are many reasons why Eyes Without a Face has been such an influential film, but the biggest is that it enters a place where the horror it sells becomes authentic. This is not as simple as it sounds because in this place only the truly great films survive the scrutiny of the rational mind. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.