La tête contre les murs
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Synopsis
After he steals money from his wealthy father one too many times, the rebellious François (Jean-Pierre Mocky, Litan) is forcibly committed to a psychiatric institution. Labelled a delinquent and an arsonist, he endures the dehumanising treatment reserved for society’s rejects, and attempts to thwart the archaic methods of the cruel Dr. Varmont (Pierre Brasseur, Children of Paradise). Adapted by Mocky from Hervé Bazin’s shocking autobiographical novel, this poetic and furious debut feature from Georges Franju (Eyes Without a Face) features an all-star cast including Anouk Aimée (La Dolce Vita) as François’s only visitor, Paul Meurisse (Les diaboliques) in the role of the more modern Dr. Emery, and Charles Aznavour (Shoot the Pianist) as a long-time resident of the institution.
Picture 9/10
Radiance presents Georges Franju’s (and, to an extent, Jean-Pierre Mocky’s) La Tête contre les murs (Head Against the Wall) on Blu-ray, delivering the film on a dual-layer disc in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1. The 1080p/24hz high-definition presentation is sourced from a new 4K scan performed by Éclair Classics.
The restoration itself looks excellent, with the base scan doing an incredible job in capturing the film’s finer grain structure and details. Éclair’s cleanup work is also impressive, leaving nothing significant behind in terms of damage. Grayscale is also fantastic, delivering a fairly wide range with smooth gradations, rich blacks, and clean, nicely defined highlights, all of which leads into fantastic looking shadows and a superb photographic appearance.
Of course, none of that would matter if the encode wasn’t up to snuff, and, as usual with Radiance's presentations, it more than delivers. Fine grain is rendered effortlessly, remaining clean and free of noise, even in a handful of smokey interiors, retaining that filmic appearance I like to see. As a result, we get a razor-sharp image through much of the film's runtime, at least as long as the elements and photography allow it.
Overall, it's another wonderful presentation from Radiance.
La tête contre les murs - Screen Captures
Audio 6/10
The lossless PCM French monaural soundtrack also sounds quite good. Audio remains clean throughout, free of any significant distortion or intrusive noise, while also exhibiting a surprising level of range. Dialogue, music, and effects are all reproduced clearly, making for a strong overall presentation.
Extras 5/10
Radiance includes a handful of archival features, starting with a 10-minute interview with Mocky from 2008. Here he explains how the film was a passion project of his, born from a desire to address the conditions within France’s psychiatric institutions. It was also a project he originally intended to direct himself, but, unfortunately for him, the powers-that-be were firmly against handing the reins to someone with no directing experience and pushed for virtually anyone else. Mocky was at least allowed to choose the director, eventually settling on documentary filmmaker Georges Franju.
Though Franju was clearly enthusiastic about the project, Mocky’s recollections make it sound as though the director was occasionally out of his element, with Mocky claiming he still ended up putting much of the production together himself, including assembling the cast, many of whom would later appear in Franju’s Eyes Without a Face. Franju’s relative inexperience with narrative filmmaking also comes through to a degree in a 12-minute French television interview from 1958, where he appears with singer-turned-actor Charles Aznavour. Despite Aznavour’s popularity, Franju admits he was largely unfamiliar with him and his music, something the host mean-spiritedly gets a little aggressive about. On top of that, Franju and the host discuss the film’s subject matter before the segment shifts to Aznavour, who talks about his transition into acting and his feeling that he was still very much an amateur in that field. It's a nice archival piece.
The disc closes with a 26-minute interview featuring Eric Le Roy, head of collections at the CNC. He covers the origins of the project and Franju’s involvement, echoing some of what Mocky discusses in the earlier interview, though he suggests Mocky may have had even more influence on the finished film than Mocky himself lets on. This opens up a discussion about the film's authorship and where exactly Franju’s and Mocky’s respective fingerprints can be found. Le Roy points to specific details throughout the film and even highlights a few scenes where Mocky may have actually been working behind the camera. Still, Franju’s touch is clearly there, and Le Roy examines a number of sequences where the director’s style is very much evident, offering glimpses of what we would get with Eyes Without a Face.
Much of this is also touched on in the accompanying booklet, exclusive to this limited edition. It features a lengthy excerpt from Raymond Durgnat’s book Franju, covering the film’s origins, themes, and direction. The piece takes up the majority of the 27-page booklet.
There may not be a great deal here, but it’s all worthwhile material, focused squarely on the film’s production and the creative relationship between Mocky and Franju.
Closing
The release delivers a wonderful new presentation along with a solid selection of supplements that cover the film's origins and the early stages of both Franju's and Mocky's filmmaking careers.
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