#Édith scob

[normasshearer]

CLASSIC HORROR HEROINES

ÉDITH SCOB as Christiane Génessier in EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1960) dir. Georges Franju

When I look in a mirror, I feel I'm looking at someone who looks like me, but seems to come from the Beyond, from the Beyond.

[filmreveries]

“My face frightens me.”

Eyes Without a Face (1960) dir. Georges Franju

[filthydelinquent]

Les Yeux sans visage (Eyes Without a Face) - Directed by Georges Franju, 1960

[wetgeliscasualinterval]

Édith Scob, 1967.

[planforsolitude]

Michele Borzoni Kashmir, India(2009)

[gregor-samsung]

L'avenir [Things to Come] (Mia Hansen-Løve - 2016)

[punte]

Les Yeux sans visage, 1960

[speakingparts]

CASA DE LAVA, PEDRO COSTA [1995]

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[romanceyourdemons]

i fully understand why eyes without a face (1960) is considered a seminal piece in modern horror. an atmospheric and understated film, it tells the story of a doctor who is determined to replace the face of his daughter, damaged in a car accident, with the face of an unwilling donor. and yet despite this grisly premise, only a fraction of this film’s horror relies on the medical horror of scalpels and necrosis. rather than the exposure of gore, this film focuses on the sterile absence of humanity in its medical setting. thematically, father-daughter affection is replaced by possession and experimentation—the doctor must repair his broken daughter, not out of concern for her well-being, but to prove his own medical mastery and to maintain his property. he provides a home for unwanted dogs and isolated young women merely so that their flesh can be useful to him. the caged dogs and caged birds in this film provide open symbols for this, but the most impactful symbol in the film is the daughter christiane herself, played by édith scob. christiane’s blank white mask, worn dietetically over her disfigured face, is credited as the inspiration for michael myers’s in halloween (1971); in contrast to the utter physical inexpressiveness of michael, however, scob acts with exaggerated yet deliberate movements that almost seem inspired by clowning. combined with her porcelain doll mask, the total effect is one of simulated, recreated, and utterly controlled humanity. released in the same milieu as the french new wave and its celebration of youth culture, this film’s horror conceit critiques the tight, controlling leash the older generation feels entitled to put on the younger, even if the mechanism it uses to do so differs sharply from the consummate realism of much the new wave. i deeply enjoyed eyes without a face (1960), and i look forward to seeing more of its antecedents in later film

[irina-irina-irina]

Édith Scob

[normasshearer]

CREATIONS FROM EVERY MONTH OF 2023!

Post your favourite and most popular post from each month this year (it’s okay to skip months).

tagged by @slayerbuffy & @anthonysperkins thank you!! 💖💘💞

JANUARY

MOST POPULAR & FAVOURITE: roman holiday (1953)

FEBRUARY

MOST POPULAR: who's afraid of virginia woolf (1966) FAVOURITE: rock hudson in seconds (1966)

MARCH

MOST POPULAR: mildred pierce (1945) FAVOURITE: brief encounter (1945)

APRIL

MOST POPULAR: shame (1968) FAVOURITE: the children's hour (1961)

JUNE

MOST POPULAR: shirley maclaine in the children's hour (1961) FAVOURITE: no man of her own (1950)

JULY

MOST POPULAR: the lady eve (1941) FAVOURITE: brief encounter posters

AUGUST

MOST POPULAR: elizabeth taylor in cleopatra (1963) FAVOURITE: joan crawford in montana moon (1930)

OCTOBER

MOST POPULAR: édith scob in eyes without a face (1960) FAVOURITE: the innocents (1961)

NOVEMBER

MOST POPULAR: in a lonely place (1950) FAVOURITE: dead reckoning (1947)

DECEMBER

MOST POPULAR: meet me in st. louis (1944) FAVOURITE: barbara stanwyck in meet john doe (1941)

tagging @genes-tierney @gena-rowlands @davidlynch if you want!!

[screamscenepodcast]

It's been a long time since your hosts have travelled to France! This week we cover LES YEUX SANS VISAGE (1960) aka EYES WITHOUT A FACE from director Georges Franju!

Based on the Jean Redon novel, the film stars Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli and Édith Scob. It delivers French New Wave horror while keeping you at arm's length -- but will that work in its favour?

Context setting 00:00; Synopsis 27:26; Discussion 35:33; Ranking 57:43

[blackkcoffee]

Édith Scob - Eyes without a face (Les Yeux sans Visage) - 1960

[rookie-critic]

Rookie-Critic's Halloween Horror-thon: Part 4 - #16-20

#16: Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989, dir. Shinya Tsukamoto) [REWATCH]

A cult classic of Japanese cyberpunk horror and the debut film of one of my favorite Japanese directors, Shinya Tsukamoto (if you couldn't tell). The inspirational reach of this film is palpable if you know what to look for, having been cited by directors like Darren Aronofsky for his film Pi, Quentin Tarantino, David Fincher, and the Wachowskis for The Matrix. It's hard to argue with results like that. I personally love this movie, I have its scant 67-minute runtime nearly memorized and have seen it more times than I can remember. However, I can certainly acknowledge its shortcomings as something that's not accessible to most audiences. Plot is definitely more of a suggestion than a rule here, and a lot of the film is spent in a state of frantic bewilderment as you try to piece together what exactly is going on through the nearly incomprehensible madness onscreen, but ultimately the "why" of it isn't important. It's rare that I say this, but I almost prefer that the film doesn't really give the audience anything concrete to go off of. It gives enough, and for the purposes of its dissection (apropos word choice there, good job, Rookie) of the relationship between man and metal and the growing industrialization of the 80s, Tsukamoto does exactly what he needs to do, and doesn't overstay his welcome in the slightest. It's one of the bigger reasons why this film works better than either of its sequels/reimaginings, and why it's so well-regarded amongst international film buffs. A short, manic, bizarro-thrill ride, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Score: 8/10 Currently streaming on AMC+/Shudder.

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#17: Onibaba (1964, dir. Kaneto Shindo)

This, for a majority of its runtime, doesn't really feel like a horror movie. That being said, there are plenty of pieces of horror in it to where, by the end, I see why it's labeled as such. The suffocation of the grass field that surrounds our main setting from all sides aides the claustrophobic nature of the film, and casts an air of foreboding over every shot. It's an interesting watch that dives into the desperation we feel when we are starved of our base desires and how that can cloud our judgement, especially in times of great hardship (in this instance, war). It's a film that leaves itself wide-open for interpretation, and one I'm still pondering over days later. Score: 7/10 Currently streaming on Max.

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#18: Eyes Without a Face (1960, dir. Georges Franju)

This French horror from the early '60s is another that I've owned for quite some time, and just never taken the time to actually sit down and watch. It's a slow burn (much like a lot of these older, black-and-white films are), and there are moments that feel like they drag on for too long, but the parts of this film that do work, really work. What Franju and his team were able to accomplish with practical effects and makeup in this is exceptional by today's standards, let alone when the film was released in 1960. The acting from Édith Scob as Christiane is similarly excellent considering she acts through the entirety of her screen time with a mask on. To be able to convey emotion without the benefit of facial expressions and have it come through despite that handicap and the language barrier (the film is in French) rightfully earns this film the praise it has received over the decades. Score: 7/10 Currently streaming on Max.

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#19: Ginger Snaps (2000, dir. John Fawcett)

OK, so I've seen Jennifer's Body twice, right? Once back around the time it came out (I hated it then) and then once within the past 5 years because I heard it was underappreciated in its time and is worth re-evalutating (I still don't like it very much). So with the memory of Jennifer's Body still fairly fresh, I'm just gonna say this is so close to being the exact same movie (there's obviously some differences in their story: werewolf not succubus, sisters not best friends), to the point where I out loud in the group I was watching it with said "Jennifer's Body just straight ripped this off, right?" and got a fair amount of agreement. However, this, to me, is a much better film. It has a lot of the Diablo Cody-esque kitschy dialogue without tipping into hard cringe and the practical effects work, while B-movie-ish in nature (we're never, as a society, going to top the transformation sequence from An American Werewolf in London), is really well done. It strikes a good balance between camp and smartly written horror which Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle juggle competently. Isabelle especially steals the show here as the titular Ginger, and provides a good, if not slightly caricatured, depiction of female puberty. Narratively messy, but tonally sound, Ginger Snaps deserves its status as a cult classic. Score: 7/10 Currently streaming on Peacock.

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#20: Opera (1987, dir. Dario Argento)

Opera is largely considered director Dario Argento's last great film before the quality of his output started to drop, and I can see why. It has all of the things that make his movies so good: a compelling main character driven by an even more compelling lead performance, an engaging mystery that unravels itself naturally over the course of the film, and that impeccable giallo style that he is the king of. Cristina Marsillach gives an impassioned performance and easily garners the audience's sympathy. The biggest curiosity of the film is that the murder sequences, which are expertly shot and unique in that the killer always ties up our protagonist and tapes needles underneath her eyes so that she has to watch the horror that ensues, are always cut with this insane, Judas Priest-like heavy metal music playing over them. Let me tell you that the consistency with which that heavy metal music played throughout the film had me confused, and then put off, and then finally fully indoctrinated by the final time it happened at the film's end. So much so that when that final time was about to happen, I was quite literally on the edge of my seat with anticipation, because I could feel it coming, and then when it finally came on I jumped up and cheered. I'm not sure if the desired reaction was achieved, but man was it massively entertaining. It's a little goofy, but I feel like this was about as far as Argento's signature style can be pushed without being a parody of itself, and Opera still largely works in spite of that glaring oddity. Score: 7/10 Currently streaming on AMC+/Shudder.