Nuits Rouges


Nuits Rouges is a 1974 French-Italian crime thriller film directed by Georges Franju. The film was released in the U.S. in an English-dubbed version by New Line Cinema under the title Shadowman in 1975.
It is an adaptation of a 1973 French-Italian-Yugoslav TV mini-series titled "L'Homme sans visage".

Premise

Paul de Borrego is a scholar whose field of research is the history of Templars. His discoveries are used by a criminal organisation led by the mysterious Faceless Man to help the latter expand his army of killers composed of people with dead brains.

Cast

Nuits Rouges was filmed in 1973. The film is a 100-minute theatrical version of a film originally commissioned for television. The budget for the film was so modest that Franju had to film all interiors of the film on a studio set.
Jacques Champreux who plays one the lead roles, had directed the series that inspired the film. He also had worked on Franju's Judex, which was also based on a film series.
Nuits Rouges is Franju's last feature film.

Release

Nuits Rouges was released on November 20, 1974, in France.

Reception

Nuits Rouges received mixed and even mocking reviews from French critics on its release. Nuits Rouges was released on DVD in the United Kingdom as part of Eureka's Masters of Cinema series along with another film by Georges Franju, Judex in 2008.