Eyes Without a Face(2003)

Rialto Pictures

1h 30m
- Drama
- Horror

Release Date: Oct 31, 2003 | Limited

7.6

A surgeon causes a car accident which leaves his daughter disfigured and goes to extreme lengths to give her a new face.

Releases

Original Release | Oct 31, 2003

View Advanced Data

Box Office Results

Updated as of May 14, 2026 11:49 AM ET

Results

Opening Weekend US & Canada:
$19,628
Total US & Canada:
$58,565
Total International
$1,689
Total Worldwide:
$62,793

Current Showtimes

orround

Wed Aug 26
Thu Aug 27
Fri Aug 28
Sat Aug 29
Sun Aug 30
Mon Aug 31
Tue Sep 1

Director & Top Cast

Georges Franju
Director

Pierre Brasseur
Le docteur Génessier

Alida Valli
Louise

Juliette Mayniel
Edna Grüber

Alexandre Rignault
L'inspecteur Parot

Béatrice Altariba
Paulette Meroudon

Charles Blavette

L'homme de la fourrière

Edith Scob

Christiane Génessier

Claude Brasseur

Un inspecteur

Michel Etcheverry

Le docteur Lherminier - médecin légiste, Forensic surgeon

Yvette Etiévant

La mère du petit malade

René Génin

Henri Tessot

Lucien Hubert

Un homme à l'enterrement

Marcel Pérès

Un homme à l'enterrement

François Guérin

Le docteur Jacques Vernon

France Asselin

Actor

Charles Bayard

Un homme à la conférence

Gabrielle Doulcet

Une admiratrice du docteur Génessier

Technical Specifications

Aspect Ratio: 1.66 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: France,Italy

Language: French

Summaries

Plot Summary

On a night just outside Paris, France, a woman drives along a riverbank and dumps a corpse in a river. After the body is recovered, Dr. Génessier identifies the remains as those of his missing daughter, Christiane Génessier, whose face was horribly disfigured in an automobile accident that occurred before her disappearance, for which her father was responsible. Dr. Génessier lives in a large mansion, which is adjacent to his clinic, with numerous caged German Shepherd Dogs and other large dogs.Following Christiane's funeral, Dr. Génessier and his assistant Louise, the woman who had disposed of the dead body earlier, return home where the real Christiane is hidden (it is explained that Louise is deathlessly loyal to Génessier because he repaired her own badly damaged face, leaving only a barely noticeable scar that she covers with a pearl choker). The body belonged to a young woman who died following Dr. Génessier's unsuccessful attempt to graft her face onto his daughter's. Dr. Génessier promises to restore Christiane's face and insists that she wear a mask to cover her disfigurement. After her father leaves the room, Christiane calls her fiance, Jacques Vernon, who works with Dr. Génessier at his clinic, but hangs up without even saying a word.Louise lures a young Swiss girl named Edna Grüber to Génessier's home. Génessier chloroforms Edna and takes her to his secret laboratory. Christiane secretly watches her father and Louise carry Edna to the lab, and then goes to tenderly caress the dogs her father keeps caged, who eagerly accept her love, and are unaffected by her appearance.Dr. Génessier performs heterograft surgery, removing Edna's face. The doctor successfully grafts the skin onto his daughter's face and holds the heavily bandaged and faceless Edna against her will. Edna escapes, but falls to her death from an upstairs window. After disposing of Edna's corpse, Génessier notices flaws on Christiane's face. Her face grows worse within days; the new tissue is being rejected and she must resort to wearing her mask again. Christiane again phones Jacques and this time says his name, but the phone call is interrupted by Louise.Jacques reports the call to the police, who have been investigating the disappearance of several young women with blue eyes and similar facial characteristics. The police have gained a lead concerning a woman who wears a pearl choker, whom Jacques recognizes as Louise. Inspector Parot, an officer investigating Edna's disappearance, coerces a young woman named Paulette Mérodon (recently arrested for shoplifting) to help investigate by checking herself into Génessier's clinic. After being declared healthy, Paulette leaves for Paris and is promptly picked up by Louise, who delivers her to Dr. Génessier. Génessier is about to begin surgery on Paulette when Louise informs him that the police want to see him.While the doctor talks with the police, Christiane, who has long been disenchanted with her father's experiments, and has been slowly losing her sanity from guilt and isolation, frees Paulette and stabs Louise in the neck. She also frees the dogs and the doves that her father uses for experiments. Dr. Génessier dismisses the police (who readily accept his explanations) and returns to his lab, where an abandoned German Shepherd Dog he had only recently obtained for his experiments attacks him, inciting the other dogs to follow suit - maddened by pain and confinement, they maul him to death, disfiguring his face in the process. Christiane, unmoved by her father's death, walks slowly into the woods outside Génessier's house with one of the freed doves on her hand.

Storyline

After causing a car accident that left his daughter Christiane severely disfigured, the brilliant surgeon Dr. Génessier works tirelessly to give the girl a new face. He does so, however, by abducting young women and attempting facial skin transplants. He has been woefully unsuccessful to date. The doctor's world begins to collapse all around him when his daughter discovers exactly what he has been doing, both to herself and to others. — garykmcd A brilliant but insane surgeon, Dr. Génessier, aided by his assistant, Louise, abducts beautiful young women. He then surgically removes the skin from their faces and tries to transplant them onto the face of his beloved daughter, Christiane, whose face has been disfigured in a car accident that he caused. All of the transplants fail, and all of the young women die, but Génessier keeps on trying in spite of everything. — Yepok A brilliant but insane surgeon, feeling guilty over his daughter's facial disfigurement which was caused by a car accident that he was responsible for, a disfigurement that is so horrible that she wears a mask to cover it, uses his female assistant to abduct beautiful young women. He then tries, always without success, to surgically transplant the skin from their faces onto his daughter's face. — io Near Paris, France, the brilliant and famous surgeon Dr. Génessier destroyed the face of his beloved daughter, Christiane, in a car accident that he caused. He becomes insane, trying to restore her face through several successive, but ultimately unsuccessful, surgical transplants of the skin of the faces of beautiful young women who are abducted by his assistant, Louise. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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