Eyes Without a Face
Eyes Without a Face is a 1960 French and Italian gothic horror film directed by Georges Franju and Claude Sautet.
A surgeon steals faces for his disfigured daughter. Filmed with a tenderness that makes it far worse.
goreledger editorial rating: 9/10 · Read the review
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Georges Franju made it in France in 1960 and audiences fainted at Edinburgh. It was cut in several territories and dismissed in France as beneath him.
The operation sequence is the reason: a face is removed in one continuous, clinical, almost silent take, filmed as a medical procedure with no music and no cutting away. It is the direct ancestor of every surgical horror sequence since.
What makes it endure is Édith Scob as Christiane, who spends the film in a smooth white mask with holes for the eyes, acting entirely with her hands and her walk. The mask is one of the great designs in cinema.
Maurice Jarre's score is a fairground waltz, which is either a mistake or the best decision in the film depending on the viewer.
The final image, in a wood, with doves, is unlike any other ending in this category.
Goreledger editorial rating
9 / 10
The face-removal operation, filmed in one clinical, almost silent take, is the ancestor of every surgical horror sequence since. Tenderness is what makes it far worse, and the white mask is one of cinema's great designs.
Our opinion, not an average. How we rate
Goreledger editorial profile
Describes the film, not its quality: high gore means very gory.
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Trailer
The sleeves
The same film, sold as a different film in each territory. Click any of them.
Where to watch
Finland
UK
USA
Legal sources only. Availability data from JustWatch via TMDB.
Checked 9 Aug 2026
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