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Georges Franju's debut feature: LA TÊTE CONTRE LES MURS (1959) - MoC Series edition in Sept or Oct (dependent on cover art)...

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La Tête contre les murs
Directed by Georges Franju
1959
93 minutes

An intense study of the clash between medical ideals, Georges Franju (Les yeux sans visage, Judex) made his debut feature a gripping examination of postwar psychiatric care, featuring a memorable cast, including Pierre Brasseur, Anouk Aimée, Charles Aznavour, 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. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present the debut feature of a late-flowering, great filmmaker.


SPECIAL FEATURES

• New high-definition transfer from pristine restored materials
• Newly translated optional English subtitles
• Original French theatrical trailer
• A new video interview with Jean-Pierre Mocky filmed in 2008
• A new video interview with Charles Aznavour filmed in 2008
• 48-page booklet containing writing by Jean-Luc Godard, Georges Franju, and Raymond Durgnat.

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