Two weeks from tonight Anthology Film Archives will start a Franju series:

HEAD AGAINST THE WALL
1959, 95 minutes, 16mm. In French with English subtitles. Archival print courtesy of the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
After committing “irrational” acts of vandalism aimed against his father, a troubled young dropout is committed to an insane asylum because of a false medical report. Exploring the darker regions of the human psyche, Franju reinforces themes of madness, imprisonment and the sanity behind insanity with an actual psychiatric hospital as the filming location.
“[A] devastating noir about a young dropout whose bourgeois father plunks him into an insane asylum. The great chanteur Charles Aznavour makes his screen debut as a friendly epileptic. Godard called it ‘an insane film about insanity, a film of an insane beauty.’”–Elliott Stein, VILLAGE VOICE
–Friday, March 14 at 7:00, Monday, March 17 at 9:15, and Thursday, March 20 at 7:00.
Upcoming Showings:
Friday Mar 14 7:00 PM
Thursday Mar 20 7:00 PM
Monday Mar 17 9:15 PM

EYES WITHOUT A FACE
1960, 88 minutes, 35mm. In French with English subtitles. Distributed by Rialto Pictures.
“[The] film, based on a novel by Jean Redon, is about a plastic surgeon who’s responsible for the car accident that leaves his daughter disfigured; he attempts to rebuild her face with transplants from attractive young women he kidnaps with the aid of his assistant. As absurd and as beautiful as a fairy tale, this chilling, nocturnal black-and-white masterpiece was originally released in this country dubbed and under the title THE HORROR CHAMBER OF DR. FAUSTUS, but it’s much too elegant to warrant the usual ‘psychotronic’ treatment. It may be Franju’s best feature, and Eugen Schufftan’s exquisite cinematography deserves to be seen in 35mm.” –Jonathan Rosenbaum, CHICAGO READER
Upcoming Showings:
Friday Mar 14 9:00 PM
Sunday Mar 16 5:00 PM
Wednesday Mar 19 7:00 PM

THERESE DESQUEYROUX
1962, 109 minutes, 16mm. In French with English subtitles.
“Emmanuèlle Riva (of HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR) as François Mauriac’s Thérèse, the provincial bourgeois lady who attempts to murder her gross, prosperous husband (Philippe Noiret) for the best and worst of reasons: he is dull. It’s an oblique yet almost painfully lucid account of the stifled emotions that lead to attempted murder. You see bourgeois comfort and hypocrisy through the eyes of the sensitive intelligent person who registers exactly what it all is – you see through Thérèse the poisoner’s eyes. The film is measured and relentless, and very beautiful in an ascetic way… Riva is perfectly balanced against Noiret (whose performance here was prized and celebrated).” –Pauline Kael
–Saturday, March 15 at 9:15, Monday, March 17 at 7:00, and Wednesday, March 19 at 9:00.
Upcoming Showings:
Saturday Mar 15 9:15 PM
Monday Mar 17 7:00 PM
Wednesday Mar 19 9:00 PM

JUDEX
1963, 104 minutes, 16mm. In French with English subtitles.
A rare opportunity to see Franju’s superbly elegant and thrilling tribute to the adventure fantasies of Louis Feuillade. Judex, eponymous righter-of-wrongs and master of disguise, attempts to prevent arch villain Diana Monti (glorious in her black cat-suit), from laying her hands on the fortune of a crooked banker. Thus begins a magical clash between good and evil, where deception abounds, innocent women are kidnapped and occult powers bring villains back to life.
Illuminated throughout by the director’s unique sense of poetry, Franju creates some truly surreal set-pieces (such as the masked ball with all the dancers wearing sinister bird-masks). The beautiful black-and-white photography evokes a lost era of silent adventures, but transforms the simple innocence of those serials into something profound.
“Vigo, Fellini, Feuillade, Murnau, Dreyer, even Carné meet together with Henry James,…Breton, Baudelaire, Kafka and Proust.” –SIGHT & SOUND
Upcoming Showings:
Saturday Mar 15 7:00 PM
Sunday Mar 16 9:00 PM
Thursday Mar 20 9:00 PM
Tuesday Mar 18 7:00 PM

SHORT FILMS
Total running time: ca. 90 minutes.
LE GRAND MELIES (1936, 25 minutes, 16mm, English version)
This delicate, poignant film covers the career of Melies from toystore and stage magician to pioneer filmmaker. Melies is played by his son, Andre.
BLOOD OF THE BEASTS / LE SANG DES BETES (1949, 20 minutes, 35mm, English version)
Franju’s first film is considered to be one of cinema’s purest achievements: an unflinching portrait of the bloody routine of butchery in a Paris slaughterhouse. Jean Cocteau said of BLOOD OF THE BEASTS, “There is not a single shot that does not move us, almost for no cause, through the sole beauty of the style, the great visual calligraphy.”
HOTEL DES INVALIDES (1951, 23 minutes, 35mm, in French with English subtitles)
Franju’s scathing, surreal portrait of the Paris veteran’s hospital. This attack on war is considered (along with BLOOD OF THE BEASTS) to be one of the major achievements in French documentary filmmaking.
LA PREMIERE NUIT (1958, 20 minutes, 16mm, no dialogue)
In LA PREMIERE NUIT, a young boy descends into the Paris Metro, which is transformed by Franju into a mysterious world of shadows and monstrous engines.
All prints courtesy of the French Ministry.
Upcoming Showings:
Tuesday Mar 18 9:15 PM
Sunday Mar 16 7:00 PM
Saturday Mar 15 5:00 PM

This could just as easily be an Édith Scob festival, as she's in all of the features being shown. I've never seen THERESE DESQUEYROUX...

And yet again one is compelled to ask...

Where the hell is Franju on DVD? (More specifically, where the hell is JUDEX?)

The Franju shorts will also be showing at the Cleveland Cinematheque on Sunday, April 6, at 4p.m. I'd love to see most of them, but just know I haven't the stomach for BLOOD.

JUDEX was (and may still be) available from Sinster Cinema. The print was dark and often the subtitles were illegible against light backgrounds, but at least it's something. I think JUDEX was also released in France last year by Cahiers Du Cinema, without subtitles, but I'm not clear as to whether it was for purchase by itself own or included with the magazine as a bonus dvd.
I've only seen HEAD AGAINST THE WALL in french without subtitles on a dvr apparently from an old PAL-VHS edition.
The thing I want to see is the extended ending for EYES WITHOUT A FACE, which I'd read about online in a french review for the original R2 DVD release. read the final paragraph here, which comments on the original R2's lack of extras (It's in french without translation, sorry)

Who? Huh? Wha? Extended ending for Eyes Without A Face?!?

Mind giving us simpleton English speakers a quick summary of what they say, Mr Fancy Can Speak French Guy? ;)

Paraphrasing slightly:

"Of course nirvana would have been reached had the present edition offered the famous final scene cut from the assembly, detailing the noctural wandering of Christiane into the street - filmed from behind, she finally tore off her mask before crossing into the path of a car. The final shot held on the face of the driver, petrified with fear."

Merci, Steve. Although I really find the present ending just about perfect, I always thought she should cast off the mask as she melts into the night. I like the extended idea though, a very EC Comics kind of final shock, bringing the movie full circle with images of the car and faceless death.

I wasn't aware of the extended ending... but that explains a photo that I've seen of a car striking (a rather stiff looking dummy of) Christiane. Probably a good idea that it was omitted, like the clear-eyed views of her ruined face.

Oh, my. I'd have to see it, of course, but I don't like that idea of an ending at all. I love the current ending. It's lyrical, poetic and really lifts the movie beyond the typical horror tropes of the time.

Of course I have to work every time that JUDEX is playing. Where, oh where, is this movie (and NUITS ROUGE) on English subbed DVD?

D.

The feeling of suspension as Christine wanders into the woods contributes so much to the ending of EYES. Perhaps the alternate ending was a requirement filmed for French censors, much like the hastily 'tagged-on' feel of the extended ending for Hitchcock's VERTIGO.

Going to see JUDEX tonight -- thanks for this!!

best,
FBC

Saw "EYES" & "JUDEX" last night at the ANTHOLOGY in Manhattan...
Was great to see "EYES on a big screen in 35mm...The photography and contrasts/compositions looked so beautiful. You see many things you cannot see on a small screen watching a DVD. One thing I never noticed before was the Doctors' eye bulging out of it's gory socket after being mauled by the dogs. Even the cute little terrier had it in for him. Plus the characters seem so much more vile & sick, as well as the creepyness & dread of the hell-house...

"JUDEX" was in 16mm & there were 4-minute pauses between the 2 reel changes, which made the experience a bit ho-hum. The print was all right, but nothing restored or great. A lot is lost in a so-so print. Still, I have been waiting to see this since reading about it in CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN magazine back in the early 70's.
While the first half is pretty humdrum, it is the last half that really captures the charm. FRANJU kept the story in the time period of the original, with way too many circle fade-outs & storytelling jumps, making you feel you missed a few chapters. FRANJU also combined the JUDEX story with a bit of LES VAMPIRES, creating a IRMA VEP-type character as the main villian. Which is cool, & boy did she look great in that tight black leotard. There were other nods to LES VAMPIRES as well, twisting the original serial story. We even get a cameo by hottie SYLVA KOSCINA popping out of nowhere to help our heroes with her building climbing skills. Truthfully, it was uneven, with some important story/character background left untold. But it was still good to see. The imagery of the heroes & villians in black, & their actions, was very cool indeed. With the presence of EDITH SCOB & the music composer of "EYES", you also notice some other "EYES"-like ideas FRANJU reused. Like the dogs, knives stabbed into upper body areas, doves, abducting/carrying bodies around...
This print was from France, & if this is one of the best copies out there, I can understand why no company wants to release it on DVD. Still, we can hope that a much better one exists & is restored, so this can finally been seen by the fans...

You might want to see my blog today, which offers some grabs from the French Region 2 set of JUDEX and NUITS ROUGE from Cahiers du Cinéma:

http://videowatchdog.blogspot.com/2008/03/...uits-rouge.html

Better elements apparently do exist...