Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.5

Eyes Without a Face Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov November 4, 2015

Georges Franju's "Les yeux sans visage" a.k.a. "Eyes Without a Face" (1960) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of the British Film Institute. The supplemental features on the disc include Pierre-Henri Gibert's documentary "Georges Franju's Evil Flowers"; the short films "Monsieur et Madame Curie" and "La Première Nuit"; video interview with actress Edith Scob; and audio commentary by Tim Lucas. The release also arrives with a 32-page illustrated booklet with writings on the film and technical credits. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Let's begin

The main protagonist in Georges Franju’s legendary horror film Eyes Without a Face is a mad surgeon (Pierre Brasseur, Children of Paradise, Le Quai Des Brumes) who is secretly trying to rebuild the badly disfigured face of his daughter (Edith Scob, Judex/Nuits Rouges, Holy Motors). He works with a very elegant assistant (Alida Valli, Senso, 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 the 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 which 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 audiences’ 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, Maynel 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 (People on Sunday, Marcel Carne’s Le Quai Des Brumes, Robert Rossen’s The Hustler).

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

Eyes Without a Face Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of the British Film Institute.

Please note that the screencaptures included with our review appear in the following order:

1. Screencaptures #1-19: Eyes Without a Face.
2. Screencaptures #21-24: Monsieur et Madame Curie.
3. Screencaptures #25-28: La Première Nuit.

Eyes Without a Face: The release has been sourced from the same master which French label Gaumont prepared and used in 2010 (see here) and Criterion accessed in 2013 (see here). This is certainly very good news as Eyes Without a Face looks quite beautiful in high-definition. Indeed, the improvements in terms of depth and clarity are substantial. The darker/nighttime footage, in particular, now boasts vastly superior shadow definition that translates into much better balanced visuals (see screencapture #5). There are some traces of careful grain management, but grain is retained and well resolved. Overall image stability is very good. My one and only criticism is that the contrast levels are set a bit too high during a couple of outdoor sequences, but the same effect is also present on the Criterion release (see the upper end of screencapture #9). All in all, this is a lovely presentation of Eyes Without a Face that makes it possible to experience the film in an entirely new way.

Monsieur et Madame Curie (1956): The short film looks a bit rough -- there are multiple scratches and damage marks as well as some general stability issues -- but detail and depth are actually very nice. Contrast and sharpness levels are stable. Grain is retained and visible throughout the entire film. In French, with optional English subtitles. (00.14.10/1080p/Dolby Digital 2.0).

La Première Nuit (1958): This short film looks simply stunning in high-definition. In 2014, it was remastered from the original 35mm negative with the support of CNC. The Eclair Group restored the picture, while L.E. Diapason restored the sound. In French, with optional English subtitles. (00.19.38/1080p/Dolby Digital 2.0).

Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content.

Eyes Without a Face Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French LPCM 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The audio was fully remastered during the restoration process and balance, clarity, and separation are very good. The improvements are especially obvious in sequences where Maurice Jarre's atmospheric score has a prominent role. The dialog is stable, clean, and very easy to follow.

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

• For Her Eyes Only: An Interview With Edith Scob - in this new video interview, legendary French actress Edith Scob recalls her first encounter with Georges Franju and how she was cast to play Christiane Génessier in Eyes Without a Face, and discusses the director's fascination with violence and the poetic overtones in his films that typically counterbalance it, his working methods, her contribution to Leos Carax's film Holy Motors, etc. In French, with optional English subtitles. (18 min).

• Audio Commentary by Tim Lucas - there is plenty of factual information about Georges Franju and the careers of the principle actors, the visual style of Eyes Without a Face as well as the impact it had on other filmmakers (Mario Bava), some of the more graphic footage that was expunged during the editing process, the key relationships between the main characters, etc.

• Les Fleurs Maladives de Georges Franju/Georges Franju's Evil Flowers - this documentary film takes a closer look at Georges Franju's diverse body of work, some of the key themes in his most prominent films (violence, poetic beauty, surrealistic overtones), and Eyes Without a Face and its very unusual atmosphere. Included in it are clips from new interviews with Edith Scob, scenarist Jacques Champreux (Nuits rouges, Judex), writer and film historian Kate Ince, director/cinematographer Bernard Queysanne, writer and director Jean-Pierre Mocky (The Stud), actor/director Robert Hossein (Vice and Virtue), and the late director Claude Chabrol. The documentary was produced by Pierre-Henri Gibert for Gaumont. In French, with optional English subtitles. (47 min).

• Short Films - presented here are two short films which Georges Franju directed during the late 1950s and prior to Eyes Without A Face. Additional comments are available in the video section of the review.
  
  Monsieur et Madame Curie (1956). In French, with optional English subtitles. (00.14.10/1080p/Dolby Digital 2.0).
  
  La Première Nuit (1958): In 2014, the film was remastered from the original 35mm negative with the support of CNC. The Eclair Group restored the picture, while L.E. Diapason restored the sound. In French, with optional English subtitles. (00.19.38/1080p/Dolby Digital 2.0).

• Booklet - 32-page illustrated booklet featuring essays by Kate Ince, Isabel Stevens, Roberto Cueto, Raymond Durgnat, Kevin Jackson, and Michael Brooke, and technical credits.

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

This recent release of Georges Franju's classic Eyes Without a Face is sourced from the same restoration which Gaumont and Criterion worked with when they prepared their local releases of the film a few years ago. However, the BFI has included Pierre-Henri Gibert's excellent documentary Georges Franju's Evil Flowers from Gaumont's release and added two of the director's early short films, one of which has been recently restored. I really like these supplemental features. The documentary has excellent information about Franju and his legacy, while La Première Nuit is quite brilliant. Wonderful release. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.