I have spent a reasonable amount of time around schizophrenics and I can safely say that this is the clearest and most empathetic portrait of that illness I have ever seen. Harmony Korine's "Julien-Donkey Boy" is a brilliant movie and is accurate but it doesn't record the horror and sadness and isolation as well as "Clean Shaven". Korine's film is also much more light-hearted. David Cronenberg's excellent "Spider" is (as all Cronenberg's films are) more about David Cronenberg and his recurring themes (re-birth, degeneration, transformation) than it is about schizophrenia.
BASIC Plot line: Peter Winter is a young schizophrenic recently either released or escpaed from a mental institution. He keeps a shotgun in the trunk of his car and the film hints that he may be behind a series of child murders, although this is left vague. Peter desperately wants to see his daughter. The girl's mother died and Peter's mother put the girl up for adoption, fearing she would turn out to be schizophrenic as well. The bulk of the film is Peter's trek to find his daughter and the police's search for the child killer.
This is an absolutely captivating and brilliant film. It makes superb and beautiful use of sound. The viewer is thrust into the mind of a schizophrenic. We are constantly bombarded with images and sounds that Peter is hearing. A jumbled mass of static squelching, radio dialing, sonic squeals, abrasive voices, airplane wooshes, white noise, etc. Trees fly by. Black and white photos drift past. The film is a mad image collage, constantly shifting and moving. It's a torment. We understand that to live the life of a schizophrenic is to live in hell. Truly.
In the center of the chaos is Peter Greene's beautiful lead performance. Tragically handsome, with bright blue eyes and blonde hair. He looks like the all-American boy. Except for the insane light shining in his eyes.
The final scenes, where Peter finally gets to speak to his daughter, broke my heart. The young girl who plays the daughter has one of the most hauntingly sad faces you'll ever see in a film. When she asks Peter if her mother is really dead, the blank longing in her face will haunt me forever.
The last image of the film will always stay with me. It sweeps away any vestiges of creepiness the story accumulates and forces you to realize that schizophrenics are human beings as well. Simply because someone has a mental disorder does not mean that they are not human. The last image shows Peter's daughter trying desperately to reach out to him, because their time together was so precious but so short.
This film absolutely broke my heart. Extraordinarily sad.
BASIC Plot line: Peter Winter is a young schizophrenic recently either released or escpaed from a mental institution. He keeps a shotgun in the trunk of his car and the film hints that he may be behind a series of child murders, although this is left vague. Peter desperately wants to see his daughter. The girl's mother died and Peter's mother put the girl up for adoption, fearing she would turn out to be schizophrenic as well. The bulk of the film is Peter's trek to find his daughter and the police's search for the child killer.
This is an absolutely captivating and brilliant film. It makes superb and beautiful use of sound. The viewer is thrust into the mind of a schizophrenic. We are constantly bombarded with images and sounds that Peter is hearing. A jumbled mass of static squelching, radio dialing, sonic squeals, abrasive voices, airplane wooshes, white noise, etc. Trees fly by. Black and white photos drift past. The film is a mad image collage, constantly shifting and moving. It's a torment. We understand that to live the life of a schizophrenic is to live in hell. Truly.
In the center of the chaos is Peter Greene's beautiful lead performance. Tragically handsome, with bright blue eyes and blonde hair. He looks like the all-American boy. Except for the insane light shining in his eyes.
The final scenes, where Peter finally gets to speak to his daughter, broke my heart. The young girl who plays the daughter has one of the most hauntingly sad faces you'll ever see in a film. When she asks Peter if her mother is really dead, the blank longing in her face will haunt me forever.
The last image of the film will always stay with me. It sweeps away any vestiges of creepiness the story accumulates and forces you to realize that schizophrenics are human beings as well. Simply because someone has a mental disorder does not mean that they are not human. The last image shows Peter's daughter trying desperately to reach out to him, because their time together was so precious but so short.
This film absolutely broke my heart. Extraordinarily sad.