May Flowers: Eyes Without a Face (1960)
Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at 8:23PM Robert G from Sketchy Details here. I'm drawn to the beautiful imagery hidden in horror films. There's something intriguing about the dissonance between something so beautiful in the middle of an otherwise disturbing feature.
Eyes Without a Face is one of the more aggressive horror films from the Black & White era. The entire film concerns a doctor trying to restore his daughter's beauty after a car accident severely burned her face. He goes so far as to fake her death after a failed medical experiment to better control his wandering child.
Even with the graphic imagery and grave subject matter, Eyes Without a Face is ultimately a film about hope and the attempt to renew a young life. This is made quite clear in the funeral scene.
After all the guests have left, Dr. Genessier and his assistant Louise are left to tend to the large quantity of flowers left at the grave. The arrangements are traditional--white lilies--but seem unnaturally bright and alive against the foggy background.
Where Dr. Genessier is unwavering in his plans, Louisa is losing faith. She's the one who always has to clean up his mistakes. She loses her composure in the Genessier family tomb against a wall of perfectly white daisies.
A slap across the face is all it takes to bring Louisa back to reality. Her patient, Genessier's daughter, deserves a chance to be beautiful again, just like the flowers at her staged funeral.
Reader Comments (3)
I just saw this fim for the first time only last week. And it was because Almodóvar mentioned it as an inspiration for La piel que habito. I don't know how I missed this classic. I found it quite disturbing and beautiful, almost poetic film. The police investigation didn't make a lot of sense (like SPOLIER ALERT setting a young girl as bait for the murderer doctor and then leaving her unprotected) but the film is a gem. Also I was so glad to find a still ravishing and misterious Alida Valli in it.
If La piel que habito is half this good, I'm in.
This is such an amazing movie - I was lucky enough to have my first viewing of it on the big screen a few years ago. I'm a horror movie buff, but I think any true film fan will find much to enjoy in it.
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