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Released by: Severin Films
Released on: June 4th, 2022.
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Helmut Berger, Brigitte Lahaie, Telly Savalas, Christopher Mitchum, Stéphane Audran, Caroline Munro, Howard Vernon
Year: 1987
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Faceless – Movie Review:
Directed by Jess Franco from a script by producer Rene Chateau, 1987’s Faceless is one of Jess Franco’s more accessible films, and a rare effort from the prolific director that features quite a few recognizable cast members in the picture.
The story, which owes a pretty huge debt to Franju’s Eyes Without A Face, tells the sordid tale of a prominent and wealthy plastic surgeon named Dr. Frank Flamand (Helmut Berger) who is involved with beautiful sister Ingrid (Christiane Jean) in what is essentially an incestuous relationship. Flamand has also got something going on with his leggy, blonde assistant, Nathalie (Brigitte Lahaie). All is not well in Flamand’s life, however, as he’s left a certain client very unhappy with his work. This results in acid being thrown at him, but it doesn’t hit its intended target and instead hits, and facially disfigures, poor Ingrid.
Not one to take this lying down, Flamand, with plenty of help from Nathalie, starts kidnapping beautiful young women around Paris so that he can use what only they can give him in an attempt to restore Ingrid to her former beauty with a face transplant, locked away in a remote ward and watched over by the maniacal Gordon (Gerard Zalcberg). This goes well enough until the paid unwittingly kidnap a beautiful brunette named Barbara Hallen (Caroline Munro) and lock her away in there ward. When she disappears, her protective father, Terry (Telly Savalas) becomes concerned. Not quite the man to take on the job himself, he uses his wealth to hire a private eye named Sam Morgan (Chris Mitchum) to travel to Paris and find out what happened to Barbara.
While all of this is going on, it is becoming increasingly clear that Flamand is starting to lose it. He turns to his old friend Dr. Orloff (Howard Vernon, of course!) to find out who can help him complete the face transplant and is referred to none other than Dr. Karl Heinz Moser (Anton Diffring), a former Nazi scientist capable of doing exactly what Flamand requires of him. The only thing missing is a few more faces to work with…
While its plot might be somewhat predictable and riddled with clichés, Faceless is one of Franco’s best efforts from the eighties and it shows what he was capable of when able to work with a good cast on a decent budget. Granted, some of the practical effects work in the film is less than perfect but the movie features some pretty solid, and at times surprisingly strong, scenes of gore and good production values. The French locations work perfectly for the story being told and give the picture plenty of atmosphere, and the score is pretty effective as well. Even if the picture doesn’t feel as personal (or obsessive) as some of his more unique efforts (the fact that he didn’t edit the picture and that Chateau exerted his control over much of the picture likely having something to do with that), this more commercial and accessible Franco pictures definitely entertains.
The cast play a big part in this. Having Helmet Burger play the film’s main heavy is a big win, he’s excellent in the role and a perfect fit for the movie. He also puts a lot into his work here, and delivers a pretty enthusiastic turn. Casting him alongside Christiane Jean and Brigitte Lahaie, who was trying to break away from her hardcore adult film work around this period, probably didn’t hurt things much, as they’re both a lot of fun in their respective parts. Caroline Munro isn’t given as much to do except be terrified and abused but she does that quite well, while Mitchum makes for a decent enough ‘fish out of water’ as the American hired to travel abroad and save the day. Savalas was shot separate from most of the rest of the cast but he’s amusing enough in his small role, and look for none other than French New Wave darling Stéphane Audran in a small role as the wealthy Madame Sherman.
Faceless – UHD Review:
Faceless comes to UHD in an HEVC encoded 2160p 4k transfer framed at 1.66.1 widescreen with HDR e encoding. Picture quality is really strong here. There’s plenty of natural film grain but virtually no print damage to note at all, while the color reproduction looks excellent. We get nice, deep black levels and accurate looking skin tones. There are no problems with any noticeable noise reduction, edge enhancement or compression artifacts and the higher resolution and strong bit rate result in really strong depth, detail and texture throughout the duration of the film.
As far as the audio goes, we get 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 options in French and English with optional subtitles provided in English only. Both tracks are clean and properly balanced with decent range, free of any hiss or distortion. The subtitles are easy to read and free of any noticeable typos.
Extras on the UHD include a French language audio commentary with Jess Franco and Lina Romay that covers the basics of Franco's career and his work around the world, Lina's career, how they both came to work on the film, the different locations that were used for the shoot in Paris, the French financing, who really wrote the script, the film's shooting schedule, Franco's preference for shooting on location, working with Rene Chateau, some of Franco's issues with the film including that he didn't edit it, where some of the ideas for the movie came from, why he worked with Howard Vernon as often as he did, dealing with censorship over the years, working with the different cast members in the film, how the film connects to Jean-Paul Belmondo and lots more.
We also get French and English trailers for the movie as well as menus and chapter selection options.
The rest of the extras are on the included Blu-ray disc, including a host featurettes, starting with The Female Predator which interviews actress Brigitte Lahaie. She speaks for sixteen minutes about meeting Rene Chateau who had fallen out with Belmondo at the time, how and why they met in the first place, how she feels he wanted to direct with led to tension between he and Franco, the influence of Eyes Without A Face, shooting fast and cheap, the quality of the cast, her thoughts on her role in the movie, the state of French cinema of the time, where her career was at during the time and how her notoriety helped with publicity, what it was like working with Franco versus Rollin, how Savalas was only on set for one day, working with the other cast members, the 'perks' she enjoyed on set and why she enjoyed them, how she looks back on the movie quite fondly and how she feels about the film overall.
Facial Recognition is an featurette with author and critic Kim Newman that spends twenty minutes talking about the film's place in the 'plastic surgery' horror movie subgenre, some of the earlier entries in the arena such as The Raven with Boris Karloff and Jail Bait with Delores Fuller, the role of mad scientist characters in these films, some of the recurring tropes that tend to appear in these movies, the influence and importance of Eyes Without A Face, how the film connects to Franco's earlier Dr. Orloff movies, how the film compares to other Franco pictures from this period in his career, his thoughts on the cast in the picture and the importance of Franco's work overall.
Parisian Encounters interviews actress Caroline Munro that clocks in at twenty-six minutes and sees the storied actress discussing how she first heard about and met Jess Franco, landing the part in Faceless and her thoughts on the script, being excited to work with the film's other cast members, how Franco was familiar with her from her Hammer pictures of which he was a fan, her thoughts on the role she played in the film and how it was 'out there,' really getting along well with most of her co-stars, the eighties vibe of the film's look, specific memories of shooting a few key scenes and other career highlights.
Predators Of The Night is a featurette with author Stephen Thrower where he spends twenty-six minutes dissecting the film. It is quite spoiler heavy (there's a warning before the featurette starts) but he speaks quite knowledgably about how he came to work for Rene Chateau on the picture after he had stopped working with Golden Films, the artistic freedom he enjoyed on the lower budgeted films, how this production differed, the state of the film market and its effect on Franco's output, how making Dark Mission put him back on the map, how the top notch cast was assembled for the picture, the different set pieces that the film exploits, films that likely influenced Franco's work here, the critical tone of the way the film is put together and Franco's own thoughts on the movie.
The disc also includes a selection of EPK interviews with Helmut Berger, Chris Mitchum and Telly Savalas. There's just under nine minutes of material here and we get some nice behind the scenes footage in here as well. There are also quite a few archival interviews on the disc, starting with Jess Franco who talks for eighteen minutes about his thoughts on filmmaking in general and how he doesn't want a trademark per se, his thoughts on genre, working with Chateau and the rest of the cast, the influence of Eyes Without A Face, collaborating with Chateau on the script, working in Paris, where he and Chateau didn't see eye to eye, the locations used for the film, his thoughts on the performances in the movie, the nudity in the film and more.
An archival interview with Chris Mitchum runs fourteen minutes and details how he didn't want to be seen as following in his father's footsteps and wanted to make his own movies, how he wound up getting the role in Faceless, how he got squeamish during some of the film's gorier moments, working with the cast and her thoughts on Lahaie and her presence on set, working with Berger who he felt really enjoyed his role, his thoughts on Franco as a director and what it was like working with him, what it was like on set, what it was like working in Europe and some of the problems that he had working with Chateau, who wasn't paying him. We also get selected scene commentary with Mitchum that covers twenty-seven minutes of the movie and covers some of the slip ups evident in the film, working with Savalas, thoughts on his character, the films shooting schedule, thoughts on some of the other performances in the movie, working with Franco and his directing style and more.
Therese II: The Mission is a parody short from 1987 starring Lahaie. This runs just under four minutes and was including on 35mm prints of the film's French theatrical release as a 'preliminary program.' In it, Lahaie gets into costume as a nun while a narrator talks about her character's background.
Finishing up the extras are French and English trailers for the feature, menus and chapter selection. It's also worth pointing out that Severin has packaged this release with limited edition slipcover.
Faceless - The Final Word:
Faceless is a blast, one of the best efforts Franco was involved with in the eighties. It’s the right mix of gore, sleaze, sex appeal and overall weirdness with strong production values and a top notch cast and Severin has done an excellent job bringing it to UHD with a fantastic presentation and on a disc absolutely loaded with quality supplemental material. Highly recommended!
Click on the images below, or right click and open in a new window, for full sized Faceless Blu-ray screen caps!
