Eyes Without A Face (1960)
TL;DR This movie is about a father who holds a grisly secret to help his daughter's disfigurement recover in the aftermath of a car accident.
Everytime I thought of black and white media my mind always went straight to The Twilight Zone. Because that's what I grew up watching. Hard to believe it there was a time before internet (millennial here!) but I was a teenager when internet was in its infancy and my only access to internet was through that prehistoric AOL dial-up service when video streaming wasn't nearly as popular as it obviously is today.
Needless to say, I wasn't dependent on the internet whatsoever for watching any movies or TV shows. I spent a lot of time IRL being a couch potato watching dorky stuff on cable TV like the History Channel and Discovery (back when it showed ACTUAL GOOD QUALITY PROGRAMS). My favorite channel was Sci Fi, of course. I looked forward to 4th of July every year because that's when they would have Twilight Zone marathons. A lot of fond memories for sure. It was practically a core memory so that's why I thought every spooky black and white show was just a Twilight Zone incarnation. Far from the truth, actually. There's so many great media out there that's unfortunately criminally underrated. I think Eyes Without A Face is pretty well known but it wasn't well known to me at all. I must've been living under a rock. Now that I saw it, I absolutely appreciate this film and how it influenced horror on general.
This movie tells the story of Dr. Génessier who is ravaged with guilt after his daughter, Christiane, is horribly disfigured from a car accident. So what does he do? He does what any loving father would do! Lure women, knock them out and peel their faces off in hopes of successfully giving her daughter a new face! Das sweet.
But kinda illegal.
So here is his journey for his daughter.
I found this movie to be a work of art. Partly because I just love black and white movies and tv shows and all around just oldie stuff up to the 80s in general. It adds to the placid terror ambience. The soundtrack here is just another layer to how elegantly horrifying it is too. I love the music to Christiane's scenes best as it absolutely tends to give you an insight to her personality due to her body language and the way the music is sweetly haunting yet you feel that yearn that she yearns and the melancholy as she obviously misses the life she once had including her fiance that now believes she is dead. It's depressing and you tell that right away from her without her speaking a word.
Watching a movie in a different language, it's difficult at times to tell when there's bad acting or not due to being so focused on reading the subtitles and trying to stay on track with the plot points on the movie. I will say though how interesting it is to hear all of them speak French along with their accents. Such a beautiful language.
I don't really have a bad thing to say about this movie to be honest. This is one of the few movies where I kept my phone away from me the longest and giving my undivided attention viewing this film. That's how great I think this is.
Actually, I take that back. I do have a few gripes but the main one is the special effects. So when Dr. G does that surgery thing...it's silly looking. Not graphic nor scary at all. In fact, it reminds me when I was a kid and played with my baloney sandwich, cut holes in it and proceeded to place it on my stupid face. That's what the face graft special effects looked like. Didn't look at all repulsive. I oughta cut them some slack though, it was in the late 50s and early 60s anyway. Special effects without a doubt has come a long way since then.
If this movie had a message what would it be? Beauty is only skin deep. Literally.
What disclaimers are in here? Literally nothing because the so called graphic scenes in this movie is not at all realistic looking. It's a gold star standard go to movie when you want something low key but still frightfully entertaining.
Age demographics? Another great film ideal for most of all ages.
So with that being said, what is the verdict?
Beautiful and rather poetic
If you are interested in watching Eyes Without a Face then please CLICK HERE to see which streaming services you can watch it on via the free streaming guide app JUSTWATCH!!
