Film Review
In common with many of Robert Hossein's directorial efforts,
Les Yeux cernés is a film
that is stylish, moody and intensely evocative of its period, but
disappointingly lacking in substance.
Even with the combined acting talents of
Hossein, Michèle Morgan and Marie-France Pisier, the film fails
to convince, essentially because the plot is so ludicrously transparent
that you have to be a comatose dimwit not to work out the identity of the killer
and the blackmailer within the first ten minutes.
Like Hossein's earlier (and slightly better) films
Les Scélérats (1959) and
Le Jeu de la vérité (1961),
the surfeit of surface style does not distract us for long from the yawning vacuity of
a clockwork narrative that is populated by two-dimensional automata
making a poor job of convincing us that they are human beings.
The film's only real interest is the imaginative way in which it is shot and
edited, which does at least convey a mood of mounting oppression and
paranoia, although this would clearly have had much greater impact if
more effort had gone into refining the script.
Les Yeux cernés
is rich in sixties cool of the most superficial kind, but pretty bereft of depth and human interest.
© James Travers 2009
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Next Robert Hossein film:
Le Vampire de Düsseldorf (1965)
Film Synopsis
When Vollmer, the owner of a sawmill, is shot dead in a small Austrian
town, there is no shortage of suspects. Friedrich, the inspector
leading the police investigation, learns that Vollmer, a tough and
ruthless man, was hated by just about everyone, including his estranged
wife. Not long after her arrival in the town, Madame Vollmer
begins to receive anonymous letters from someone who promises to reveal
to her the identity of the killer in exchange for a large sum of
money. The widow immediately feels threatened and confides her
fears in her husband's former manager, Franz. But, Madame
Volver's anxiety soon turns to paranoia and she becomes convinced that
it is Franz who is her enemy...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.