La Tete Contre Les Murs (aka Head Against The Wall) (1959)

An emotionally disturbed young man (Jean Pierre Mocky) is institutionalized against his will at a mental asylum by his spiteful father (Jean Galland). There, two doctors with decidedly different methods in treatment attempt to cure their patients. One (Pierre Brasseur) is more traditional and disciplinary and by the book and also a bit of a hypocrite (he chastises an intern for using the word lunatic to describe a patient but in private with another doctor, he does the exact same thing). The other (Paul Meurisse) is less authoritative and allows more freedom. Based on the novel by Herve Bazin and directed by Georges Franju. The same year he directed the elegant horror film LES YEUX SANS VISAGE, Franju directed this less known but insightful look into mental asylums and its treatment of patients. It's far more restrained and matter of fact than the overheated melodrama of its American counterparts like THE SNAKE PIT or ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST and therefore by default, more disturbing. The similarities to Ken Kesey's CUCKOO'S NEST are evident and one wonders if Kesey had seen it as the film came out in 1959 and Kesey's novel published in 1962. Maurice Jarre contributes one of his very best scores. With Anouk Aimee and Charles Aznavour, who would probably have gotten an Oscar nomination if this had been an American film.