"Les Yeux Sans Visage" by Georges Franju is a French-Italian horror film, of the new wave era. In the movie, a girl's face is horribly disfigured in an accident, she is hidden by her family, and is forced to wear a mask. Afterwards, her father, a doctor, kidnaps another girl and removes her face, attaching it to his daughter.
This film, while in the horror genre, is very violent, but a lot of the violence and gore is not actually seen because of the social restrictions at the time that called for a lot of censoring. Originally released in the 1960, it has been released many times after that on various medias- the most recent of which is VHS in 2001. When it first came out, a lot of Europeans disregarded it because of the dark nature of the film, which was looked down upon at the time. When the director, Georges Franju, was asked about his film and how he came up with the concept, he said:
I really like the visual imagery in this film, a lot of the shots are minimalistic, and the fact that the film is in black and white creates another level of simplicity and neatness. The simple horror in the movie alongside the surrealism in the plot creates a very specific and precise movie, that has recently become a cult classic.
This film, while in the horror genre, is very violent, but a lot of the violence and gore is not actually seen because of the social restrictions at the time that called for a lot of censoring. Originally released in the 1960, it has been released many times after that on various medias- the most recent of which is VHS in 2001. When it first came out, a lot of Europeans disregarded it because of the dark nature of the film, which was looked down upon at the time. When the director, Georges Franju, was asked about his film and how he came up with the concept, he said:
"I was told, 'No sacrilege because of the Spanish market, no nudes because of the Italian market, no blood because of the French market and no martyrized animals because of the English market.' And I was supposed to be making a horror film!"
I really like the visual imagery in this film, a lot of the shots are minimalistic, and the fact that the film is in black and white creates another level of simplicity and neatness. The simple horror in the movie alongside the surrealism in the plot creates a very specific and precise movie, that has recently become a cult classic.
