FORMAT: DVD (REWATCH)
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
(As posted on October 25th, 2007)
After his daughter’s face is terribly disfigured in a car crash, a slightly crazed doctor (Pierre Brasseur) works frantically in his lab to perfect a face transplant. His assistant (Alida Valli from Suspiria) lures girls back to the lab where they are anesthetized and become unwilling facial donors. Meanwhile his timid daughter (Edith Scob), who wears a creepy featureless mask, becomes increasingly loony, especially after the latest botched surgery.
This atmospheric and stylish film, directed by Georges Franju benefits from some truly unsettling operation scenes where victims' faces are scalpeled off with impeccable precision. They must have really been something to see back in the '60s and pack quite a punch today. Unfortunately for the most part though, the film can’t make up its mind whether it wants to be an arty French movie or a balls-out horror movie. Even though most of the movie is stuck in this bizarre state of genre limbo, it’s still worth a look just for those nasty operation scenes alone. The stiff pacing and art house sensibilities don’t do it any favors either.
The performances are a mixed bag as Brasseur doesn’t make much of an impression as either a concerned father or a mad scientist. Valli fares much better and brings a touch of sensitivity to her otherwise underwritten role, but it’s Scob who really steals the movie. With her majestic, hopelessly sad eyes peering through her expressionless mask, her touching performance elevates the movie and gives it a much-needed shot of pathos.
Some people will be turned off by the subtitles and the slack pacing, but others will want to check it out for the botched facial surgeries and Scob’s memorable performance. Besides it’s not every day that you can say you saw a French mad doctor movie, is it?
AKA: House of Dr. Rasanoff. AKA: Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus.
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