Analysis of a short film 'The Big Shave' A level Media Studies

1. ANALYSIS OF AN EXISTING
SHORT FILM
Polina Zalevskaya
A level Media Studies

2. • A short film I decided to analyze is ‘The Big Shave’, as I find this
work rather provoking and experimental. In addition, it would be
interesting to analyze one of the first works of a well-established
director.
• Directed and written by: Martin Scorsese
• Release date: 1976
• Running time: 6 minutes

3. • Font of the title is sans serif, letters are bold and are not placed close to each
other. This suggests what kind of genre and atmosphere will this film have. It
definitely won’t be a romantic comedy or a romantic drama.
• It fades out and the audience is introduced to the setting - a bathroom. There
are close-ups of a toilet, toilet paper, shower and so on. Everything is white apart
from toothbrushes and a brush. White walls look rather heavy and uncomfortable.
Generally, it looks like a bathroom in some institution, such as a mental hospital,
rather like a bathroom at home. This is also suggested by the fact that there are
no towels and everything looks very clean.

4. • Non–diegetic, romantic jazz starts playing. This is a song by Vernon Duke
and Ira Gershwin written in 1936 known as ‘I Can’t Get Started’. Later on, the
music becomes tenser and makes the audience feel like something is about
to happen.
• There is a slow fade out.

5. • A young man walks in. He is yawning, which suggests that it’s an early morning
and he is sleepy. Also, he is wearing a white shirt which ‘fits’ him into the
setting. Even though the absolutely white bathroom feels creepy and
uncomfortable, cheerful music disregards that feeling and since someone
walked in, the room immediately feels more alive. Especially when he opens a
bathroom cabinet and there is some personal stuff in it – all kinds of bottles
probably a shower gel, shampoo and so on, we get a feeling that it’s just a
regular bathroom at home.

6. • Once the main character starts shaving, the audience can try to guess what he is
up to. Is he going to work? On a date? The romantic and high-spirited music adds
to the atmosphere. He is focused on his task and pays all his attention to it.
• All shots are close-ups and this makes the audience feel like they are peeking
into a scene.

7. • A sudden change in the theme of the film happens when he cuts himself, but
completely disregards the blood and looks like he is not bothered by it at all.
There is a strong contrast between a white, perfectly cleaned sink, white shaving
cream and blood. It makes us feel like a scene with a faultless balance between a
character, music and the setting was brutally interrupted.

8. • He continues shaving with no hesitation and looks rather emotionless and
robot-like. So now close-ups are included for the audience to face the situation,
to feel the contrast and the difference between them and the character who looks
hypnotized and continues shaving without being disturbed with blood and the
cuts.
• Music does not feel romantic anymore and sound is contrapuntal.
• In the end it feels like it was some kind of performance, or a character had a
statement to make and now when he is done, he just calmly puts down a razor.

9. • There is a fade-out to red which contrasts with the beginning of a short film
when there was a fade out to white. As a result, there was a slow and graduate
change from the perfectly clean, white, undisturbed and uncomfortable
bathroom to enjoyable music and a character who immediately made that
bathroom feel more alive to a crazy, emotionless and robot-like man whose half
of a face is covered in blood, but he seems completely unbothered by it.

10. AN INTERPRETATION OF ‘THE BIG SHAVE’
• Some film critics of that time have noticed that self – harming actions of a
young man in this short film actually coincide with the self – destructive
involvement of USA in the Vietnam war. This metaphor also explain film’s
alternative title ‘Viet ’67’