Where Martyrs veers off from the latter is its unique treatment of torture as a means of achieving what the leader of the film’s pseudo religious cult, simply called ‘Mademoiselle,’ describes as ‘transfiguration,’ the moment when the body, through extreme physical suffering, moves beyond awareness of the physical to a state of transcendence where the ‘victim/martyr’ is able to see what is beyond death (“what is on the other side”). This sets up a nice touch of irony which sees them leave for the countryside to evade the police, but land in the clutches of a family of Texas Chainsaw-styled cannibals led by a rabid neo-Nazi. 2] of the terrified woman coming out of a underground cell where she has been captive for years, entering a world as if for the first time made me wonder whether Laugier had ever read Plato’s famous Myth of the Cave?). The website's critical consensus states, "A real polarising movie, this Gallic torture-porn is graphic, brutal, nasty and gruesome and not to everyone's taste. Mademoiselle and her entourage of nicely dressed bourgeoisie, the handsome, middle class couple that ‘manage’ the victims for the cult, or the seemingly normal family that Lucie slaughters at the beginning of Martyrs, defy torture film character convention. Refusing to let anything spoil their romantic weekend break, a young couple confront a gang of loutish youths with terrifyingly brutal consequences. Volume 13, Issue 5 / May 2009 Quotes will be submitted for approval by the RT staff. Be doubtful. Copyright © Fandango. [3] The matter of ‘shorn women’ is also quite clearly alluded to in Martyrs, which I will now discuss. The sequence attains such a sense of impending doom that each time we hear the trapdoor unlock or see Anna’s space brighten from the incoming light of the open trapdoor, our muscles tighten in fearful anticipation of another beating. Although the term ‘vrai visage’ is never spoken in Martyrs there is an equal obsession over reducing their victims to the point where they reveal a “pure gaze.” Anna’s ‘keeper’ reacts with rapturous joy when she sees what they perceive as ‘the martyrs’ look’ on Anna’s face. [10], The French Commission de classification des œuvres cinématographiques rated the film 18+ (unsuitable for children under 18 or forbidden in cinemas for persons under 18), which the producers of the film appealed. Written by Hypatia was a Greek philosopher and Mathematician around the time that the Christians began to revolt in Alexandra. In Les yeux sans visage Pierre Brasseur plays Dr. Genéssier, a respected physician who, with the help of a female accomplice Louise (Alida Valli), kidnaps young women and performs horrendous medical experiments on them in an effort to find a successful facial transplant donor for his daughter, Christiane Genéssier (Edith Scob), who had her face disfigured in a car crash. Etienne: Thank you Mademoiselle. The Orphan Killer (2011), Subverting The Slasher a... Texas Chainsaw 3d (2013) or Final Girl to Final Wo... Alien (1979) Wombs, Eggs and Cute Alien Babies! While awaiting the proper donor Christiane (Edith Scob) wears a featureless, egg shelled mask to cover her disfigured visage (fig. Anna collects her body and gives it a ritualized burial (cross-like scars on Lucie’s body furthers the theme of martyrdom, as do later shots of the tortured Anna in a Christ-like position). Lucie, realizing that her insanity will never leave her, commits suicide.[4]. The French police and the state Milice (militia) organised raids to capture Jews and others considered “undesirables” by the Germans in both the northern and southern zones….Pétain himself was sentenced to death for treason, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment” (Wikipedia).