Lets give it up for Edith Scob!!! Man o' man. I'm not too sure about her earlier output but she was all over this movie. Talk about having a tough challenge. She's given a role where there aren't many lines and the only way she can communicate is through her eyes and her body language. Every time she was on screen, despite her mask, I was enraptured. She moved like a ghost through the house. Her eyes, damn, I've never seen more expressive, more deeply emotional eyes in a movie for a long time. Her whole role was almost ethereal. Loved it. When we got to see her face grafted, she was absolutely beautiful. Excellent performance.
It seems the running theme in this movie though was of sight and the eyes. Less so about actual appearances. There were so many moments where there were close-ups on character's eyes. Even in black and white the women in this movie all had beautiful eyes. I think this movie had a lot to do with having to see things every day that maybe you didn't want to see. The one girl in the movie didn't really want to see Christiane's deformed face, and it horrified her. Christiane had to witness as her father and Louise murder girl after girl in order to save Christiane. Here we have horrible things going on right in front of our eyes every day and we often fail to see them. We look away. That was an underlying message I often felt this movie was giving out. The one point when Christiane wished she was blind. I can see that as metaphorical. Not only did she not want to see her face, but her face in a way was also serving as a reminder of the horrible acts being performed in her name. I found myself shedding a slight tear every time Christiane picked up the phone to talk to Jaques. That was heartbreaking. The sense of longing in her eyes. You don't see much acting like that anymore.
Then we have Dr. Genessier. In a way he had a moral obligation to Christiane. He caused the bulk of her pain and suffering with his wanting to control everything. I can understand the considerable guilt he was feeling. But we can't forget that he is the villain here. This is a man so convinced of his abilities that he feels that he can save anyone despite the time period's technology. Its cliche to mention the god-complex for the millionth time but this movie referenced it a lot better than anything having to do with genetics has in the past.
By the end of the movie you can just tell that Christiane has lost all hope. Its in her eyes. A weariness that sticks out quite well. The doctor's death is quite befitting to him and seems to have a slight reference to Frankenstein in that his creations or experiments turned on him. In a way Christiane was his biggest experiment. His longing for control of everything seemed to consume him more than his love of his daughter. By the end of the movie I felt that he was just grafting faces to see if he could successfully do it.
All in all this movie is fantastic. This is my second viewing of it and all of this movie shoots back to a time when movie-making was a lot more simple. Excellent.
i'd forgotten to mention how much I loved her dad's death scene.. freaking awesome
ReplyDeleteThat is karma right there!!! Karma can be such a bitch. Even though it was a little sooner and a little more immediate, it was the best example of karma one can see.
ReplyDeleteyeah, agreed, he really did get his just dessert there
ReplyDeleteI didn't get the dogs. Other than to kill him at the end, why were they there?
ReplyDeleteWhen he is taking in the dog, is he showing his humanity?
I actually kept expecting him to feed a faceless girl to the dogs.