Vintage original 47x63 in. "country of origin" French grande poste from the classic horror film, EYES WITHOUT A FACE (Les Yes Sans Visage), produced in France in 1960 and directed by Georges Franju. The stone lithograph artwork was created by Jean Mascii and features a full-length image of Christiane Génessier, the horribly disfigured daughter of Docteur Genessier (a mad surgeon who tries to graft the faces of other young women onto his unfortunate daughter), who is lying unconscious on the ground. The upper portion of the image features another shot of Christiane wearing her mask. 

This is the highly desirable, large format, "country of origin" French poster, which is unrestored in very fine condition. There are a few areas where the paper has separated along the cross-folds which do not detract from this poster in any way. The colors are as fresh and vibrant as when this poster was printed in 1960 and there is no fading whatsoever. Posters from this popular horror film are very desirable and this large format 47x63 "grande" poster is much more sought-after than the smaller format "petite" French poster. 

Director John Carpenter once suggested that selecting the mask that Michael Myers wore in Halloween (1978) was influenced by Edith Scob's mask in this film. 

Hubert de Givenchy created the gowns that Christiane wears throughout the movie. When the film appeared in the Edinburgh Film Festival in 1960, it was reported that seven audience members fainted during the surgery scene. Director Georges Franju responded, "Now I know why Scotsmen wear skirts." 

Originally released in the US in an edited version titled The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus" - an odd title considering there's no one named Dr. Faustus in the film. Although the film passed European censors upon its original release in 1960, the film's disturbing facial surgery scene still caused controversy. During the original release of the film, an English film critic for The Spectator was nearly fired for writing it a positive review, while the general critical reaction had been poor. The initial release of the film was met with negative reactions from film critics. One French critic stated the film was "in a minor genre and quite unworthy of his [director Georges Franju] abilities." Franju responded by saying that the film was his attempt to get the minor genre to be taken seriously. Franju never considered the film to be a horror story, but instead felt it was tale of anguish. 


In 1984, Billy Idol released the single, "Eyes Without a Face," from the album, "Rebel Yell" (1983). The song features background vocals by Idol's then-girlfriend, Perri Lister, who sings in the chorus the phrase "les yeux sans visage," which is the French translation for "eyes without a face" and the original French title of this film. The film was re-released uncut (and under its original title) to US theaters for the first time on Halloween night of 2003.