Georges Franju

Having worked as a stage designer, Georges Franju met Henri Langlois and together they set up the Cinémathèque Française. He then made a name for himself with his short, ruthlessly realist documentaries: “Le Sang des bêtes” about slaughterhouses, and “Hôtel des Invalides” about the “gueules cassées” or facially disfigured servicemen who survived the First World War. The same style of stark dramatisation can be found in his feature films such as “La Tête contre les murs” (with and scripted by Jean-Pierre Mocky), which takes place in a psychiatric asylum, and in his masterpiece “Les Yeux sans visage”, an authentic horror film and one of the genre’s rare unequivocal success in France. Franju made a fantasy movie with “Judex” in which he displays his taste for expressionist dramatisation. He also adapted works by Mauriac (“Thérèse Desqueyroux”) and Zola (“La Faute de l'abbé Mouret”).