La Tete contre les Murs (Head Against the Wall) was the first feature film directed by Georges Franju. Prior to that he made a dozen shot features and documentaries most remarkable of them being his debut 1949th documentary "Blood of the Beasts". Franju is mainly known for being the co-founder in 1936 of the French Film Archive.
Originally Head Against the Wall was the dream project of Jean-Pierre Mocky, who made a screenplay adaptation of the novel by Herve Bazin and invited Franju to direct it. With Franju came the rest of the cast, namely: Pierre Brasseur, Paul Meurisse and Charles Aznavour, who proved here that he not only can sing, but act also, and how!
The main character of the film François (Jean-Pierre Mocky) is a troubled young man whose main occupation in life is motor-cross racing and whose mother had recently committed suicide. The only glimpse of light in his life is Stephanie (Anouk Aimee). Since the tragic death of his mother he finds it especially difficult to live with his despotic father Mr. Gerane. The tension between them comes too far resulting in François being sent to a Mental Hospital by his father, under a false medical report. Here we come to the second main theme of the film (the first being father-son, in fact generations conflict) which is sanity behind the insanity, sanity in the world of the insane. Entering this world François finds a friend Heurtevent (Charles Aznavour) who is like him has little to do with the place they are in. He's a kind of a very sad day-dreamer who simply wants to get free from Hospital's surroundings and constant control of a kind of a substitute for his father, it's director - Dr. Valmont (Pierre Brasseur) and peacefully live somewhere by the seaside. Together with François they are beginning to make plans to escape. 7/10
