The Gene Siskel Film Center is running, through May, a special look at scary movies: the Mask of Sanity: Psychological Horror Films, and starts off with the incredibly stark French film, 'Eyes without a Face' (1959).
Ahead of its time in terms of its grotesque and boundary-pushing story, director Georges Franju's 'Eyes without a Face' is about a plastic surgeon, Dr. Genessier, played with stoic complexity and a quiet strangeness, by Pierre Brasseur, who wants to reconstruct his daughter's face after a horrific car accident, which was his fault.
His wide-eyed and innocent daughter, Christiane, played with an interesting mix of animal-like qualities by Edith Scob, has the incredibly difficult task of acting with a white, completely immovable mask atop her face almost the entire film.
She must convey the heartache of being shrouded, even in her own home because she does not have skin on her face, through only her incredibly transfixing eyes and delicate inflections with her voice.
Right away the audience understands that Dr. Genessier will stop at nothing to reconstruct his daughter's once perfect face.
He takes increasingly sinister actions with the help of his accomplice, Louise, played with a sickening maternal edge, by Alida Valli, to lure look-a-like young women to his operating table, in order to extract the skin from their face.
Disturbing, weird and incredibly unsettling this film is a visual and emotional thriller for the well-weathered horror film buff.
The straightforward and purely observational camera executed by Eugene Schufftan, which rarely communicates the frightening actions taking place balances the imposing, emotional and challenging composition by Maurice Jarre.
Upon examination, 'Eyes without a Face' questions the ability within human nature to commit the most abominable and horrific acts for the pure, innocent benefit of a loved one.
Every frame of the film is soaked with this psychological paradox that keeps building to the brutal conclusion of Dr. Genessier's fatalistic plan.
Playing tonight and Tuesday, February 8th at the Gene Siskel Film Center.
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