2018 Blind Spot Series: Eyes Without a Face

I couldn't let October pass without crossing one more off my Blind Spot list. Of course, we're going for horror. If you want to read more posts in the Blind Spot Challenge, click on the site of our host Sofia, Returning Videotapes. If you stick around here, let's talk about...

Why did I pick it? I've been aware of this movie for quite some time. I had planned on watching it at some point, but wasn't really in a rush to do so. Then, two things happened over the course of the last couple years. The first thing was you guys. Eyes Without a Face" began popping up in my little corner of the blogosphere quite often. Either one of you blogged about it, mentioned it in your comments here, or commented about it on one of the blogs I frequent. The other thing was I started spending a lot of time at a site called List Challenges. If you're unfamiliar, it's a site where users create lists and other users go through them to see how many they've experienced. This movie shows up on plenty of the movie lists. Finally, I got tired of feeling left out, and here we are.

Eyes Without a Face tries to take full advantage of it's scant 88 minute runtime and gets rolling right away. We open on a frantic woman driving along at night with a body in the back seat. Eventually, she pulls over and dumps the body in a lake. Apparently she didn't do that good a job because, almost immediately, Dr. Genessier (Pierre Brasseur) is called by the authorities to identify the same body He does, confirming that it is his missing daughter, Christiane (Edith Scob). However, we quickly find out Christiane isn't really dead. We also learn that the woman who dumped the body, Louise (Alida Valli), is his live-in assistant. What gives?

Some time ago, it turns out, Dr. Genessier caused a car accident that left Christiane basically faceless. Ever since, he and Louise have been kidnapping young women and performing face transplants. The problem is Christiane's body keep rejecting the faces. Dr. Genessier is a persistent fellow, so we go from there.

This film has lots of things going for it. One of the biggest is that it develops the main characters thoroughly, yet never slows down the pace. It's largely dialogue driven, but conversations push the plot forward in a compelling fashion. The mounting crimes juxtaposed with the police trying to figure out what's going on keeps things moving along nicely. What really intrigues us, though, are the relationships between Dr. Genessier and the two women in his life. We know we can't abide what the doctor and Louise are doing, but we understand his reasons Louise is the easiest person to hate, but we eventually learn why she's involved, giving us cause to pause. Christiane has our empathy from minute one. By the end, however, we're not sure how we feel about her, either. This rollercoaster of emotions never really scares us, per se, but it it does make us uncomfortable at various points along the way, including the ending.

One of those uncomfortable moments comes from the film's lone instance of what could be considered gore. We get to see the doctor perform a face removal. Given that this movie was made in 1960, I fully expected he camera to cut away, no pun intended, not showing us anything. Instead, we mostly stay focused on the doc's handiwork with the scalpel. Though I was surprised they sowed it, I was more surprised how real it looks, even almost 60 years after its release. On the other hand, another much simpler effect doesn't work at all. We can easily identify a padded suit, and it threatesn to ruin the climax.

I like this film a lot. It explores lots of the themes I spoke of during my list of favorite Frankenstein inspired movies. There's certainly a case to be made for including this moivie on that list. I may even retroactively add it. The film also moves quickly and leaves us with things to ponder. The performances, which I haven't mentioned, are really good across the board. Pierre Brasseur gives a wonderful conflicted genius. We really understand that he's a firm believer in the old adage that the ends justifies the means. Alida Valli is just flat out creepy as Louise. It's her job to coerce young girls to come to the doctor's house and the ease with which she approaches and chats them up is unnerving. Finally, Edith Scob, often wearing an emotionless mask not much unlike the one worn by Michael Myers in the Halloween franchise, overcomes her visage to create a compelling character. The work of the three combined helps us empathize with or disdain them for reasons that fell organically human, not just because this one or that is labeled the hero or the villain. In reality, none of them rises to the level of hero. Our feelings about them are just as confusing as the ones they themselves are experiencing, with Louise being the uncomplicated exception.

Forgive me for what I'm going to say next.

As good as this movie is, I'd be all about a remake that added 20 or 30 minutes to the runtime. True, this is a dialogue driven film. What's also true is that I praised it for making excellent use of that trait. However, it can't escape the one flaw all such movies have. Tons of that dialogue is expository. We learn of so many important events simply because one person informs another about them. I'm a big proponent in "show, don't tell." Many of these events are things that could and should be shown. Will that make it a bloodier affair? Probably. Will fans of this movie be offended that someone has the gall to remake a beloved classic? Almost certainly. So what? Let's be clear, I'm not advocating for dumbing it down in favor upping the body count. I am suggesting this film could be enhanced by letting things play out before our eyes rather than just telling us about them. There's no denying that Eyes Without a Face tells a wonderful story in the time it's allotted. It's also a movie that has left us a lot that could be expanded.

Click here for more Blind Spot Reviews

Click here for Brittani's Blind Spot Review of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds