Georges Franju

[HerrSchreck]

Georges Franju (1912-1987)

"What I really stand for is even the opposite of anarchism, because I abhor all that is individual whenever collective movements can be seen to be neccessary."

"I am in favor of shooting outdoors like many people, but what I'm thinking of here is not films themselves but the institution of cinema. It's obvious that location shooting struck a fatal blow to the prestige of an art whose secrets and rituals, as well as initiates, were protected by studio walls."


Filmography

Dernier mélodrame, Le (1979) (TV)
Discorde, La (1978) (TV)
"Homme sans visage, L'" (8 episodes, 1975)
- Le secret des Templiers (1975) TV episode
- Le rapt (1975) TV episode
- Le sang accusateur (1975) TV episode
- La marche des spectres (1975) TV episode
- La mort qui rampait sur les toits (1975) TV episode
(etc,)
Nuits rouges (1974) R2 Editions Cahiers du Cinema Coffret Franju w Judex, R2 PAL MoC double feature w Judex
Ligne d'ombre, La (1973) (TV)
Faute de l'abbé Mouret, La (1970)
"Service des affaires classées, Le" (4 episodes)
- Le coffre aux souvenirs TV episode
- L'ennemi intime TV episode
- Un chien de sa chienne TV episode
- Une chance sur un million TV episode
Marcel Allain (1966)
Rideaux blancs, Les (1965) (segment "Les rideaux blancs")
Thomas l'imposteur (1964)
Judex (1963) R2 Editions Cahiers du Cinema Coffret Franju w Judex & Nuits Rouges, R1 Sinister Video, R2 PAL MoC double feature w Nuits Rouges
Thérèse Desqueyroux (1962)
Pleins feux sur l'assassin (1961)
Yeux sans visage, Les (1960) R1 CC dvd,R2 Second sight DVD, R1 Kino VHS, R2 Connoiseur VHS
Tête contre les murs, La (1959)
Première nuit, La (1958)
Notre Dame - cathédrale de Paris (1957)
Monsieur et Madame Curie (1956)
Sur le pont d'Avignon (1956)
Théâtre national populaire, Le (1956)
À propos d'une rivière (1955)
Mon chien (1955)
Navigation marchande atlantique (1954)
Poussières, Les (1953)
Grand Méliès, Le (1952) Included in R1 Flicker Alley Melies; The First Wizard of Cinema
Hôtel des Invalides (1952)
En passant par la Lorraine (1950)
Sang des bêtes, Le (1949) included in R1 CC dvd of Les Yeux sans visage
Métro, Le (1934)


Web Resources

Strictly Film School on Les Yeux sans visage

Film Philosophy: The Films of Georges Franju by Michael Duplessis, USC.

Editions Caheirs du Cinema Judex/Nuits Rouges page.

imdb Franju page

filmereference.com Eyes Without a Face page


Forum Resources

MoC Judex Nuits Rouges page

CC Eyes Without A Face page

Georges Franju page


In Print

Books

Georges Franju by Kate Ince

Georges Franju; Une esthetique destabilization by Gerard Leblanc

Georges Franju; Impressions et aveux by M.-M. Brumagne

Franju (Movie Editions) by Raymond Durgnat

Articles:
La Technique Cinématographique (Paris), no. 196, 1959.

Lebovits, Jean-Marc, and Francis Tranchant, "Entretien avec Georges Franju," in Cinéma (Paris), March 1959.

Vérité, J. M., in Cinéma (Paris), July 1959.

Variety (New York), 26 August 1959.

Truffaut, François, "Entretien avec Georges Franju," in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), November 1959.

Dyer, Peter John, in Monthly Film Bulletin (London), March 1960.

Delahaye, Michel, in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), April 1960.

Vas, Robert, in Sight and Sound (London), Spring 1960.

Oms, Marcel, in Positif (Paris), May 1960.

Tailleur, Roger, "Pour un portrait," in Prèsence du Cinéma (Paris), June 1960.

Callenbach, Ernest, in Film Quarterly (Berkeley), Summer 1962.

Ajame, Pierre, "Georges Franju; ou, La Terreur comme un des beaux-arts," in Nouvelles Littéraires (Paris), 30 January 1964.

MacLochlainn, A., "The Films of Luis Buñuel and Georges Franju," in Film Journal (New York), Summer 1971.

Gow, Gordon, "Franju," in Films and Filming (London), August 1971.

Wood, Robin, "Terrible Buildings: The World of Georges Franju," in Film Comment (New York), November-December 1973.

Milne, Tom, "Georges Franju: The Haunted Void," in Sight and Sound (London), Spring 1975.

Badder, D. J., "Georges Franju," in Film Dope (London), April 1979.

Conrad, Randall, "Mystery and Melodrama: A Conversation with Georges Franju," in Film Quarterly (Berkeley), vol. 35, 10 March 1982.

Revault d'Allonnes, Fabrice, in Cinéma (Paris), 24 September 1986.

Chevrie, Marc, in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), November 1986.

Klein, Andy, in Los Angeles Magazine, vol. 33, no. 9, September 1988.

Svehla, G.J., "Revisiting The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus,"' in Midnight Marquee (Baltimore), no. 38, Spring 1989.

Peyras, P., "Si tes yeux t'offensent, arrache-less!" in Focales, no. 1, 1992.

Peyras, P., "Que cache le cadre de Bazin?" in Focales, no. 2, 1993.

Brownlie, T., "Eyes Without a Face (Les yeux sans visage)," in Film (London), vol. 4, no. 3, 1995.

Sinclair, Iain, "Homeopathic Horror," in Sight & Sound (London), vol. 5, no. 4, April 1995.

Télérama (Paris), no. 2371, 21 June 1995.

Brown, G., "The Looking Glass," in Village Voice (New York), vol. 40, 21 November 1995.

"Franju Classic Gets New Facelift," in Video Watchdog (Cincinnati), no. 31, 1996.

[Hopscotch]

Has anyone read the Ince book? I've searched my library high and low and it's definitely missing. Might have to pull an ILL, but I'd like to know that it's worth it.

[Zazou dans le Metro]

'La tete contre les murs' coming in March

[wpqx]

Sadly my Judex DVD appears to be a low grade VHS rip complete with impossible to read light subtitles. Having seen the original I was at least able to follow the story fairly easily. Still hoping to find a copy of Hotel des Invalides it seems the only early film of his available is Blood of the Beasts.

[Cold Bishop]

Sadly my Judex DVD appears to be a low grade VHS rip complete with impossible to read light subtitles.

You are aware that Eureka has released this?

[wpqx]

I was not aware and my financial situation being what it is, import DVDs are pretty much out of the question. The fact that it is out there makes me look forward to eventually revisiting it, but by then some nice R1 company might just put it out.

[david hare]

The La Tete disc is an absolute stunner, and while the movie has some formal - perhaps I should say structural limitations - I would leave others to pursue Durgnat's book (which is wonderful) and anything else they can find to read on Franju.

What is so striking in this picture, if seen as a transition from the shorts to feature length is the abundance of imagistic leitmotifs, and emblems of obsessions which figure in everything from Hotel des Invalides onwards. Birds, figurines, and striking pieces of landscape. I could not help noticing this particular shot of a bizarrely disconnected group of high trees forming an arbor in total isolation on a lonely road.

FIrst shot:



is from La Tete contre les Murs at 13:00

Second shot



is from Gremillon's Maldone at 1:30

His movies are full of these often barely perceptible invocations.

[JonathanM]

You are aware that Eureka has released this?

It's rather well cleaned up too. Crisp as a freshly laundered SS uniform.

I'd be interested in hearing what people on here think about Judex actually as I found it a really frustrating experience. There are moments of searing beauty. The Cocteau and Impressionism-fueled fancy dress ball and the weird but incredibly memorable scene in the pub where the villains dance. I don't think those scenes will leave my consciousness for quite a while yet.

However, the story-telling in the film is horrific. Given Franju's track record you'd expect him to have a good handle on genre film-making but the narrative was so disjointed and filled with weird and pointless set pieces that it felt as though rather than paying homage to the source material, he was in fact taking the piss out of it.

Was I being a bit too much of a genre geek?

[Gregory]

David, I like that you picked out those shots of the tree-lined road. They happen to be part of a set of similar images that resonate strongly with me for some reason.

Compare also this Henri Cartier-Bresson photograph (1968) of Brie:

[HerrSchreck]

Yea, those are images that will resonate very strongly with anyone thoroughly schooled in the giants of French Impressionist film. You get tremors of Kirsanoff (the departure of the two sisters along the dreary tree-lined country-road into Menilmontant, which is probably the founding of this archtype; not to mention Brumes de Automnes), some very specific shots in Epstein, and of course Gremillon.. Maldone in particular. I love Grem's use, in the shot above from Maldone, of either a reflector or a spot blasting down into the upper of the frame. The image is bursting to the brim with emotional resonance. It seems to whisper dreary secrets from the past, and cautioun viz the future.

Ah, the resonance of properly lensed country roads...

[Gregory]

...You get tremors of Kirsanoff (the departure of the two sisters along the dreary tree-lined country-road into Menilmontant, which is probably the founding of this archtype.

Yes, that's a wonderful shot, with the camera in the midst of the tunnel, showing the girls disappear and re-materialize. In a lesser film this technique might come across merely as a time ellipsis (or whatever the term would be), but here the effect is more mysterious.

[Cinetwist]

However, the story-telling in the film is horrific. Given Franju's track record you'd expect him to have a good handle on genre film-making but the narrative was so disjointed and filled with weird and pointless set pieces that it felt as though rather than paying homage to the source material, he was in fact taking the piss out of it.

Well it is worth noting that Franju really wasn't a fan of Feuillade's Judex (it is his weakest I've seen too) and he thought that it failed, Judex simply isn't as compelling a protagonist, what with being so virtuous. I read this from an interview he gave in the early eighties I think, but I can't remember in what journal. So it's quite likely that he wasn't paying homage to Judex at all but to Feuillade/Cocteau/impressionism in general. Whether he was taking the piss out of it, I'm not so sure.

I'll try and find the interview this evening.

[karmajuice]

If you're looking for quality storytelling in Judex then you're looking for silver in a goldmine. The film is so narratively incoherent that it's practically anti-narrative. Based on what Franju has said about the film (the Masters of Cinema DVD booklet is a great resource for this), he knows good and well that the story makes no sense. That doesn't concern him. He sought to evoke the surreal and impressionistic images inherent in these pulp stories -- I would argue that the twists and deus ex machinas and the fractured narrative are all a part of this effort, and are all heightened with that purpose in mind. It straddles the line of parody, certainly, and it is self-conscious in its conception and structure, but not for the purpose of poking fun at pulp. Let's call it neo-pulp, because its relationship to Feuillade (and pulp in general) is similar to the distinction between neo-noir and film noir.

And it's true that Franju wanted to remake Fantomas rather than Judex, but I think he tried to make the most of what he had. Even if he had remade Fantomas, I imagine it would be similarly structured.

[HarryLong]

he knows good and well that the story makes no sense. That doesn't concern him. He sought to evoke the surreal and impressionistic images inherent in these pulp stories

Intriguingly my first viewing of JUDEX was on a rather washed-out video on which the subs were practically indecipherable much of the time. I just gave up & let the visuals have their way with me. It worked beautifully. (But then I was slightly prepared for this by LES YEUX which is overwhelmingly visual with a very slim storyline.)
In many ways it's unfortunate Franju couldn't acquire the rights to FANTOMAS. The Hunnebelle series is fun, but hardly the kind of experience that Franju would have made of the material (of course I'm presuming an alternate universe where Jean Marais would still be cast as the master villain).

[Zazou dans le Metro]

Restored Franju 'Eyes' here with french subs and interesting bonus. Screen caps on the test page.

http://www.ecranlarge.com/dvd_review-list-7749.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cross posted on french dvds with fr subs thread

[HerrSchreck]

Odd.. in some shots (like the closeup of Scob w the mask) the CC looks more contrast balanced (look at her hair, you can see the strands in more detail).. then in others i e the one w the car, the CC looks darker.

All in all it looks like a wash. The CC is one of their finest releases, and certainly I feel no need to upgrade.

[yoshimori]

My favorite Franju (and my favorite Cocteau) finally on disc ...

Thomas l'imposteur

... in France, no subs, but a sub file can easily be tracked down for those who need/want it: