"Clean, Shaven" is pure film.
I was trying to find a movie to watch from all the films I had recently time-shifted from TV, and gave up on two others because they were so shallow. As soon as this began, I knew it was different and I had to watch it through to the end despite its very unpleasant nature.
One of the titles at the beginning worried me as it was for "Special Effects", so I knew there was going to be something gruesome coming up. However, there was nothing sensational about this film. It is the antithesis of the Hollywood shocker. The corpse on the examination slab was not a pretty young thing played by an actress - it was a realistic-looking (I presume) cadaver with all the potential nausea that that implies.
To me, pure film conveys something more than just a narrative to the viewer. It is imbued with ideas and feelings. It conveys these more through the medium of film itself than through trite dialogue or sensationalism. Lodge Kerrigan understands this and makes the most of the medium - using sound and vision to reveal the interior of a disturbed mind.
There are parts of the film that I do not claim to understand. The "body" in the boot, for example, is still a mystery to me. But I have no intention of watching this film again to find out what it all means. It is just too disturbing for me to view a second time. However, I'll hang on to the recording and watch it again one bright sunny summer's day when I can watch it critically rather than subjectively.
I don't understand why some IMDb reviewers regard this film as trite and over the top. This has to be a masterpiece - and a very disturbing one. Only 8/10 because it is so unpleasant to watch.
I was trying to find a movie to watch from all the films I had recently time-shifted from TV, and gave up on two others because they were so shallow. As soon as this began, I knew it was different and I had to watch it through to the end despite its very unpleasant nature.
One of the titles at the beginning worried me as it was for "Special Effects", so I knew there was going to be something gruesome coming up. However, there was nothing sensational about this film. It is the antithesis of the Hollywood shocker. The corpse on the examination slab was not a pretty young thing played by an actress - it was a realistic-looking (I presume) cadaver with all the potential nausea that that implies.
To me, pure film conveys something more than just a narrative to the viewer. It is imbued with ideas and feelings. It conveys these more through the medium of film itself than through trite dialogue or sensationalism. Lodge Kerrigan understands this and makes the most of the medium - using sound and vision to reveal the interior of a disturbed mind.
There are parts of the film that I do not claim to understand. The "body" in the boot, for example, is still a mystery to me. But I have no intention of watching this film again to find out what it all means. It is just too disturbing for me to view a second time. However, I'll hang on to the recording and watch it again one bright sunny summer's day when I can watch it critically rather than subjectively.
I don't understand why some IMDb reviewers regard this film as trite and over the top. This has to be a masterpiece - and a very disturbing one. Only 8/10 because it is so unpleasant to watch.