Clean, Shaven - Criterion Collection (1995)

Intense 79 minutes

This film is very intense and 79 minutes is about what I could take of it! We follow Peter (played by Peter Greene), a man with some kind of schizophrenia and parts of the film is how he sees the world. We are given very few explanations and the plot contains some interesting ambiguities. Clean, shaven is more about the audiovisual than about narrative and/or social criticism. Through the film we hear voices like an untuned radio, sometimes in the scene and sometimes it is inside Peter's head. Clean, shaven also contains a few quite nasty strong scenes (a corpse in close up, Peter trying to cut of his nail etc) that sensitive viewers should be prepared for. Even though the film is set in strange and ugly milieus like desolate industrial areas and shabby mansions it also contains a kind of beauty or at least it's own special aesthetics. Also, the actors are excellent, especially Peter Greene who manages to look really tormented throughout the movie.

The Criterion edition also contains some extras like commentary and a video essay. I'm really glad I have seen this special movie. Recommended to everyone interested in cinema, especially american independent! September 30, 2008

Brilliant

This film is truly exceptional and unique on all fronts. A masterpiece. Peter Greene seems to be genious in the role. May 20, 2008

Cutting deep

The life of Peter Winter is pure auditory hell. Suffering from schizophrenia, Peter's head is constantly filled with voices cussing and using threatening language, white noise, and distorted radio frequencies. Obviously unwell, Peter is released from an institution and seemingly beats to death a young girl whose soccer ball strikes his windshield only minutes after he is released from prison.

Peter has only one thought in his mind: to be reunited with his daughter, so therefore after he is released from the institution he makes a beeline towards his mother's home where his daughter is staying. However, before going home, he stops at a hotel and the viewer is given a scene in which Peter's true level of dementia is displayed. With a pair of scissors, Peter cuts into his scalp to remove a transmitter which he believes is lodged in his head. After this grizzly scene, Peter repeatedly cuts himself with a razor. Travelling in an old junky car with its windows and mirrors covered with newspaper, Peter makes it to his home where he learns that his daughter is gone having been given up for adoption, so he goes in search for her leaving behind him, supposedly, a line of dead bodies of girls he beat to death.

Clean, Shaven, obviously, is not a pleasant film to watch, but through its skilled use of sound and chaotic visuals, it attempts to give the viewer a look not only inside the head of an individual suffering from schizophrenia, but of also how said individuals are viewed by society at large. Peter seems extraordinarily dangerous, but the crimes he supposedly commits are never shown on screen, making the viewer wonder if he really did commit the crimes or if it is the stereotype of schizophrenics that makes him or her believe that Peter committed the crimes.

Clean, Shaven is to be watched for the acting of Peter Greene who plays the role of Peter Winter. If not embodying the persona of someone suffering from schizophrenia, Greene definitely takes society's stereotype of the schizophrenic and displays it magnificently. One can almost feel his awkwardness in social situations with both his hatred of them and his desire to be accepted. Not for the squeamish, there is a truly agonizing scene involving fingernails, Clean, Shaven is a must for those interested in the depiction of mental illness in filmic form and for those who are interested in the way audio elements truly form a film and the viewers perception of said film. May 16, 2008

Enter the void

This film is an underrated modern masterpiece. Every aspect of this film (much like the mind of a schizophrenic) is disorientating, yet all the pieces come together to form a tapestry of isolation, confusion and ultimately love.
Not to be missed. April 12, 2008

a criminally underrated movie. more than highly recommended.

i'd heard about this film many years ago while having a "disturbing films" conversation with a coworker. the guy's opinions weren't generally that profound, but i made a mental note to check it out. that was maybe ten years ago and now i feel like i cheated myself...this is simultaneously one of the most beautiful and most depressing movies i've ever seen.

fans of eraserhead will love the sparse and desolate look to the locations. fans of experimental electronic music will marvel at the amazing soundtrack...and i mean actual sounds, not songs. in fact, there is a complete lack of music in this one; the sounds providing the background are the noises in peter's head and they range from tense to downright terrifying. peter greene's performance is gut wrenching as he delivers quite possibly the most sincere and touching depiction of severe mental illness i've ever seen on screen. if you think donnie darko was pathological, this character will haunt you for days.

and that is probably the main thing about it...i've been disappointed by a lot of movies lately, but this was downright wrenching to watch - i couldn't turn away for a minute even as the scenes of death and peter's deterioration got uglier and uglier. the closest effect i can think of is the initial "punch in the gut" of henry: portrait of a serial killer, but this lacks the tongue-in-cheek moments of that movie as well as it's bleak and malicious sensibilities.

touching. moving. you might hate it, but if you want a brutally honest look at schizophrenia and the effects it has on the lives of anyone in its vicinity this needs to be seen. don't wait as long as i did. January 10, 2008

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