Eyes Without A Face - Reception

Reception

On the film's initial release, the French critics' general response was moderate, ranging from mild enthusiasm to general disdain or disappointment, claiming it to be either a repetition of German expressionism or simply a disappointment of the director's leap from documentary filmmaker to a genre filmmaker claiming the film to be in a "minor genre, quite unworthy of his abilities". Franju responded to these comments claiming the film was his attempt to get the minor genre to be taken seriously. In England, Isabel Quigly, film critic for The Spectator, called it "the sickest film since I started film criticism", while a reviewer who admitted that she liked the film was nearly fired. A review in Variety was negative, noting specifically that the "stilted acting, asides to explain characters and motivations, and a repetition of effects lose the initial impact" and an "unclear progression and plodding direction give an old-fashioned air".

With the September 1986 re-release of the film, in conjunction with retrospectives at the National Film Theatre in London and at the Cinémathèque Française in France of the director's back catalogue, the film's critical status began to be re-evaluated. French critics' response to the film was much more positive than it was on its original release, with former editor-in-chief of Cahiers du cinéma Serge Daney calling the film "a marvel". The film was re-released in its original form to American theatres on October 31, 2003 and received great critical acclaim. Based on 35 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Eyes Without a Face received an average 97 percent overall approval rating with an average rating of 8.1/10. The reviewers commented on the film's poetic nature and noted the strong influence of French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau. Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader praised the film, referring to it as "absurd and as beautiful as a fairy tale". J. Hoberman of The Village Voice declared the film "a masterpiece of poetic horror and tactful, tactile brutality". The Encyclopedia of Horror Films noted the Cocteau influence, stating that "Franju invests with a weird poetry in which the influence of Cocteau is unmistakable". David Edelstein of Slate also compared the film to Cocteau's work, commenting that "the storyline is your standard obsessed-mad-doctor saga, one step above a Poverty Row Bela Lugosi feature ... ut it's Lugosi by way of Cocteau and Ionesco".