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Rating: 
Summary: Franju where are you?
Review: But what about Georges Franju? What do we know about him and what other films has he made other than "Eyes Without a Face?" I know about, but haven't seen, his ground-breaking documentary "Blood of Beasts" ("Sang des Betes"). I actually own a copy of another film he made called "Judex" which is totally different than either of these. And it is wonderful also.I can't believe he only made three films.Where are the others?
"Eyes Without a Face" is a masterpiece of horror because it goes to the heart of what we fear most-loss of our looks and the pathetic preoccupation with staying young and looking like the magazines and advertisers tell us to. The film is sad because the doctor can't do anything physical to help his daughter.All his skill is useless in the face of her disfigurement. Trying to change fate is useless, learning to live with it is not.
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Summary: Skin deep indeed!
Review: Foolishly dubbed a Horror Film, this is so much more!Favourite scene? Finale : towards the end of the movie when the exquisitely masked and now quite insane daughter [Edith Scob], like a nightmarish Coppelia, is surrounded by the fluttering birds as papa's screams fade ..... Oh, the things people do for love! It's a tale of plastic surgery - reconstructive plastic surgery gone awry, a father's love for his daughter, and unfulfilled love [Alida Valli], the assistant, who will do anything for her lover. A guilt-driver father is determined to restore his daughter's shattered beauty, and there are plenty of available transients [they live in the country, which makes this "activity" oh, so convenient]. But the transplanted faces [there are many], are being rejected by daughter . . . .and the process must be repeated... Another rather queasy moment? Victim's POV - she sees her face literally being lifted off her skull [fortunately in black and white - color would detract from this horror]. Originally badly recut and dubbed in English, this is a must see in the original French - perhaps a DVD version is on the horizon? A superior and exquisitely elegant product.
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Summary: Poetry in 'horrific' motion
Review: Georges Franju might be the most underrated director of French cinema history that I know of. His films were marveled at by no less than both Jean Cocteau and Jean Luc-Goddard. As far as *Horror Cinema* goes, "Eyes Without A Face" AKA "Les Yeux Sans Visage" might be the most poetic, eerie film ever lensed. The haunting portrait of Christiane, masked, faceless, and disfigured since an earlier car accident, combined with the obsession of her brilliant father-surgeon, determined to find and graft a 'new' face for her, will leave horrific impressions of intense beauty that will not easily be forgotten. A mixture of fantasy and realism that combines for a movie that far surpasses today's "horror story" standards. Check it out if you're not looking to see a typical 90's "run-of-the-mill" slasher film, AND if you have the patience and understanding to notice the subleties of poetry-in-motion when it surfaces in a genre outside of it's normal influence.
Rating: 
Summary: A Memorable Foreign Horror Film
Review: I had never seen this film before and thought I would try it solely based on the customer reviews and AMAZON.com recommendations. I was not disappointed. This is a truly striking film. The movie is French with English subtitles which in no way detracts from its enjoyment for English-speaking viewers. The film is about a guilt-ridden plastic surgeon seeking suitable skin grafts for his horribly disfigured daughter. The daughter's disfigurement was due to an automobile accident that was the fault of her surgeon-father. The "doners" for the skin grafts are unsuspecting, attractive young women. I will leave you, the reader, to take it from there. The acting is superb. The photography is crisp black and white and is rather "artful" in a way. I am not the biggest fan of foreign horror films but this one is good and easy to follow. As far as the quality of the video itself, it is excellent. I obtained the new release from Kino Video and I have no complaints. The video was struck from an excellent quality print with only very minor and very infrequent "speckles of age". The videotape is quality superb and well worth the price.
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Summary: A Portent of Movies to Come
Review: This startling work combines the plot of a splatter movie with the cold, composed style of 1950's Stanley Kubrick. You can sense in it the French appreciation of Poe, Cornell Woolrich, and the Gothic. It has many touches of dark humor and irony that complement the ominous, poetic visual style. Strange moments of anguished emotion keep breaking through the tightly constructed surface of the film. It also anticipates the more graphic horror films to come in the future. The famous "operation" scene will make your skin crawl even after 40 years. The real subject is, of course, our fetishization of female beauty, and what that dehumanization really costs. The figure of a ruthless, murderous doctor performing obscene medical experiments also must have had special relevance to a France that had experienced the terrors of German occupation during World War II. Maurice Jarre's music is memorably spooky. You won't soon forget this one.
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Summary: Horror Poetry
Review: When I first saw this film as a young man, those releasing it in the States were obviously trying to cash in on the hard-core horror market so they released it under the unconcionable title "Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus." This is probably why I laid my $.25 down and walked in to see it. I had a pentient for trashy horror flicks that I don't seem to have entirely outgrown. Anyway...it was obvious even to me that this was a cut above what I was used to seeing. Yes, there were some graphic scenes that would make most peoples' skin crawl, but it was more than that. As I was able to see it again some 40 or so years later I realized why. This movie gets under your skin with haunting imagery and sadness. The story, about a doctor who uses his assistant to kidnap young woumen so he can remove the skin from their faces in order to restore the face of his own daughter, actually started a small sub-genre in horror films. This is by far the best I've seen. The black and white cinematography is beautiful. Few films use light and shadow to the effect they are seen here. And when the daughter is first seen with her featureless, white mask it is one of the creepiest and saddest moments in film. These aren't shallow, evil people we're witnessing here. These are people driven by guilt and dedication, carrying out acts that make sense to them in their circumstances. The mechanics of the plot, particularly those involving the police, are somewhat pedestrian, but there is more than enough here to overcome the minor shortcomings. When the viewer reaches the end of the film, to see the shot of the daughter outside her house on a windswept night, few moments in cinema ever reach the same degree of power, horror and poetry as those caught here.
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