Radiance Films: Head Against the Wall (1959) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Radiance Films

French actor-writer-director Jean-Pierre Mocky first starred in the 1946 drama The Eternal Husband before directing the 1959 drama The Chasers which he remained behind the camera for as a writer-director.  Despite having a sizable resume, the actor’s intended first feature film as a writer-director-star La Tête Contre Les Murs also known as Head Against the Wall didn’t quite go as Mocky originally planned.  

Based on the 1949 novel of the same name by Hervé Bazin and written for the screen by Mocky with dialogue by Jean-Charles Pichon, the studio was reluctant to go with a young first-time actor-director so they ultimately went with future Eyes Without a Face director Georges Franju whose slower, more ethereal and surrealistic approach differed from Mocky’s.  The resulting film, true to Mocky’s original vision or not, nevertheless stands the test of time and joins such fare as Samuel Fuller’s Shock Corridor as one of the more atmospheric and lyrical portraits of the dehumanizing psychiatric hospital system and Radiance Films have alongside Mocky’s 1970 film Solo released it in a new 4K scan conducted by Éclair Classics with strong extras.

 
François (Jean-Pierre Mocky) leads a carefree existence as the petulant spoiled son of a wealthy lawyer.  With zero experience in the workforce while drowning in debts and stealing the heart of a young woman he meets on the way, he tries to steal some cash from his father in addition to committing arson by burning a vital wet legal document.  As punishment, rather than calling the authorities he has François committed to an isolated countryside psych-ward presided over by a sadistic Dr. Varmont (Pierre Brasseur).  

While befriending fellow inmates, he tries to casually escape with his new girlfriend who paid him a random visit to no avail.  During his incarceration, François catches wind of Dr. Emery (Paul Meurisse) who reportedly is far more humane than Varmont.  Unable to transfer to Emery’s wing, François grows increasingly desperate while the ever-fascistic talons of Dr. Varmont continue to close in around the man even when he’s miles away from him. 

 
Predating both Shock Corridor and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest as an angry condemnation of the psychiatric institution with the David vs. Goliath setup of Don Siegel’s Riot in Cell Block 11, Georges Franju’s debut feature adaptation of actor-screenwriter Mocky’s screenplay is a powerfully dark and foreboding classic of 1950s French cinema.  With the uncompromisingly bleak resolve of Henri-Georges Clouzot, dynamic and noir filled cinematography by German cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan of The Hustler and a starkly terrifying and doom filled atonal score by legendary Lawrence of Arabia and Jacob’s Ladder composer Maurice Jarre, the film has the unstoppable dramatic force of a sledgehammer.  Between leading actor-writer Mocky’s powerful leading performance with eyes that range between confident and petrified, Pierre Brasseur’s proto-Laurence Olivier tormentor from Marathon Man, La Dolce Vita actress Anouk Aimee and fellow Clouzot actor Paul Meurisse, the ensemble cast and crew make up quite the taut and formidable psych-ward-as-prison drama. 

 
Despite Mocky’s misgivings about the slower, more melodic approach to his screenplay which he originally had every intention of directing himself, Georges Franju’s film of Head Against the Wall was an out-of-the-gate critical triumph including receiving effusive praise from the legendary Cahiers du Cinema film magazine and fellow contemporary Jean-Luc Godard.  The score itself eventually was released on disc in 2005, a kaleidoscopic atonal kinetic soundscape that haunts and spells implacable doom for the listener and viewer that’s every bit as frightening as the composer’s 1990s works.  

Georges Franju managed to continue in the direction of dark provocation following Head Against the Wall, but for its central star and screenwriter it took Jean-Pierre Mocky a little bit longer to achieve his undiluted creative vision which came with the crime film Solo also recently released thru Radiance Films from the same restoration team.  Featuring archival interviews with Mocky, director Franju and an interview with Mocky pro Eric Le Roy, Radiance Films once again have struck another home run out of the park in what is plainly a must-own release for anyone interested in dark, uncompromising French cinema or the unique screen personality of its leading man.

--Andrew Kotwicki