I must say that director André Delvaux’s The Man who had His Hair Cut Short (1966) is an enchanting movie. It announced the arrival of Belgian cinema into the international film forum, and created a surreal style that would become synonymous with that country’s pictures. Like a dream it weaves an odd spell that transfixed me as I watched. Ghislain Cloquet and
Roland Delcour’s black and white cinematography is somehow simultaneously stark and ethereal, lending the film its airy state. Structurally, it is an odd picture, with a lengthy segment that is only justified by later dialogue, but it retains its focus just as it is about to skip off the rails.
Govert (Senne Rouffaer) is a respected teacher at an academy for girls – Mr. Miereveld to his students. The film opens as he contemplates the graduation of his senior class, particularly the gorgeous Fran (Beata Tyszkiewicz), whom he has secretly loved for years. She’ll be leaving his life without ever knowing what she has meant to him. Gorvert prepares for the day’s festivities in his study, hoping that the book he’s ordered for Fran has come in. His wife sends his daughter in to bring him his tea, but he has other things on his mind. Wanting to look his best, he stops at the barber before proceeding to the ceremony. As you might expect, despite not being particularly handsome he takes great pride in his appearance, ordering the strait razor shave and the tightly kempt cut. There’s an element to the haircut scene that could feel like heavy-handedness to some viewers, but that I felt was spot on. Tight close-ups of the meticulous process add an intimacy to the relationship between man and barber, and by association bring the audience closer into the nature of this meticulous man. Once the process is complete he’s off to school, arriving just a moment too late to the ceremony. He sits in his place, hoping as the retirement and service awards are handed out that Fran will glance just once in his direction. The look never comes and he is devastated. He searches for her frantically after the commencement, but misses her time and again, getting only to view her from afar as she sings a song about inevitable endings during a goodbye concert.
Years later, having left the school with a broken heart, Govert finds himself working as a legal clerk. He’s convinced to join a medical officer of the count on a trek to autopsy a body that was found adrift, and may be a missing bank examiner. This is the odd sequence of the film that doesn’t seem to fit, and yet I don’t know that it could be easily cut. While most of the gory details of the procedure are obscured by the wooden casket walls, the audience is forced to suffer along with Govert as his imagination makes the process torturous. Finally, with the evidence inconclusive, the medical investigators call it quits. Deciding to stay in the town for the night, the men all get rooms at a posh hotel. Unnerved by the events of the day, Govert’s mood changes abruptly when he encounters Fran on the hotel stairs. He immediately launches into an explanation of the autopsy before realizing that he has almost spoiled her appetite as she heads for the dining room. Later in his suite he envisions a rendezvous between himself and Fran, but what actually takes place changes his life in a much more profound way by connecting all of the pieces that have come before.
The Man who had His Hair Cut Short isn’t a long film, but it is a deep picture. It manages to fit philosophy and guilt and an odd redemption into its quick pace. It is beautiful aesthetically and poignant thematically without ever even approaching a preachy dynamic. It is simply the story of one man’s ability to fool himself into thinking that a woman could in some way attain perfection. Like so many great tragic films the pain here comes from the obsessions of a character and the illusions that he allows himself to believe. At once both real and dreamlike, The Man who had His Hair Cut Short is a testament to the power of self-deception and the tardiness of self-realization.
Language: Dutch
Runtime: 94 Minutes
Available @ Youtube.com
Grade: 3.5 Hats Off
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