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An intense study of the clash between medical ideals, the first full-length work from Georges Franju ( Les yeux sans visage , Judex ) is a gripping examination of postwar psychiatric care, boasting a memorable cast including Pierre Brasseur, Anouk Aimée, Charles Aznavour, Paul Meurisse, and Jean-Pierre Mocky. Mocky plays François Gérane, an aimless young man whose delinquent tendencies cause his father to have him committed to a psychiatric ward. There, under the cold command of Dr. Varmont (Brasseur), he finds himself fighting for his dignity, sanity, and freedom, barely holding on through the new-found love of his girlfriend Stephanie (Aimée) and the promise of rival Dr. Emery's (Meurisse) more humane techniques. Compassionate yet unflinching, La Tête contre les murs is a bold precursor to the likes of Samuel Fuller's Shock Corridor and Milos Forman's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest , revealing Franju's poetic gift for creating images both concrete and evocative, and an ominous hint of the clinical horrors yet to come in Les yeux sans visage .
Original Release
03/20/1959
US Release
04/04/1959
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Pierre Brasseur | Dr. Varmont |
Paul Meurisse | Dr. Emery |
Anouk Aimee | Stéphanie |
Jean Galland | Maître Gérane |
Jean Ozenne | Comte Elzéar de Chambrelle |
Thomy Bourdelle | Colonel Donnadieu |
Rudy Lenoir | Le planqué |
Roger Legris | Decauville / Decauvill |
Henri San Juan | Patron du billard |
Edith Scob | La folle qui chante |
Directors
Writers
Jean-Pierre Mocky, Hervé Bazin, Jean-Charles Pichon
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Pierre Brasseur | Dr. Varmont |
Paul Meurisse | Dr. Emery |
Anouk Aimee | Stéphanie |
Jean Galland | Maître Gérane |
Jean Ozenne | Comte Elzéar de Chambrelle |
Thomy Bourdelle | Colonel Donnadieu |
Rudy Lenoir | Le planqué |
Roger Legris | Decauville / Decauvill |
Henri San Juan | Patron du billard |
Edith Scob | La folle qui chante |
René Alié | |
Luc Andrieux | Un infirmier |
Doudou Babet | Le Noir |
Claude Badolle | |
Claude Castaing | |
Jean Henry | |
Pierre Kolitchev | |
Jean Labarrère | |
Jacques Mancier | |
Claude Mansard |
Producers
Name | Role |
---|
Jérôme Goulven | Producer |