Eyes Without a Face (French: Les Yeux sans visage) is a 1960 horror film directed by Georges Franju and starring Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli, Juliette Mayniel, and Édith Scob.

Based on a novel of the same name by French author Jean Redon [fr], it revolves around a plastic surgeon who is determined to perform a face transplant on his daughter, who was disfigured in a car accident.

An international co-production between France's Champs-Élysées Productions and Italy's Lux Film, Eyes Without a Face was shot in Paris and the surroundings suburbs, and at Boulogne Studios.

The film's initial critical reception was not overtly positive, but subsequent theatrical and home video re-releases improved its reputation.

The body (which was disposed of by his assistant Louise) belongs to a young woman whose face skin Dr. Génessier removed and unsuccessfully attempted to graft onto his daughter.

After her father leaves with promises to restore her face, Christiane, wearing a mask to cover her disfigurement, calls her fiancé Jacques Vernon, Dr. Génessier's assistant, but hangs up without saying a word.

While the doctor talks with the police, Christiane, disenchanted with her father's immoral experiments, while slowly losing her mind from guilt and isolation, decides to act.

Borkon bought the rights to the Redon novel and offered the directorial role to one of the founders of Cinémathèque Française, Franju, who was directing his first non-documentary feature La Tête contre les murs (1958).

[5] Franju had grown up during the French silent-film era when filmmakers such as Georges Méliès and Louis Feuillade were making fantastique-themed films, and he relished the opportunity to contribute to the genre.

For years, a rumor persisted that "Redon" was actually a pen name for prolific pulp novelist Frédéric Dard, apparently arising from a contribution of a back-cover quote for the paperback.

First, working with Claude Sautet who was also serving as first assistant director and who laid out the preliminary screenplay, Franju hired the writing team of Boileau-Narcejac (Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac) who had written novels adapted as Henri-Georges Clouzot's Les Diaboliques (1955) and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958).

[8] Modern critics have observed the film's two imposing musical themes, a jaunty carnival-esque waltz (featured while Louise picks up young women for Doctor Génessier) and a lighter, sadder piece for Christiane.

[19] 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 film-maker claiming the film to be in a "minor genre, quite unworthy of his abilities".

[6] 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 [the film] an old-fashioned air".

"[25] The review said there was "a strange and poetic opening" and Schuftan's "haunting camerawork allies itself perfectly to Maurice Jarre's obsessive score" while" Brasseur and Valli were "sadly wasted" and that they "do what they can with almost non-existent characters".

The critic consensus says "A horrific tale of guilt and obsession, Eyes Without a Face is just as chilling and poetic today as it was when it was first released".

Franco's version of the story concerns the efforts of a mad surgeon, Dr. Orloff, to reconstruct the face of his disfigured daughter Melissa.

Faceless has a similar plot involving beautiful women who are abducted by Dr. Flamand's (Helmut Berger) female assistant and kept hostage.

The doctor uses the skin of the women to perform plastic surgery on his disfigured sister, but the experiments leave the victims mutilated and dead.

[37] These homages are seen in the plot line of a police lieutenant who is investigating the circumstances behind the death of a young girl whose body has scars around the eyes.

The lieutenant's investigation eventually leads him to a plastic surgery clinic, a similar plot motivation to Eyes Without a Face.

[38] The British film Corruption (1968), starring Peter Cushing, adds a new variation to the theme: a surgeon tries to restore his fiancée's beauty by repeatedly treating her with fluids extracted from the pituitary glands of murdered female victims.