Thread: Last Tango in Paris/ Straight Razor Reference

Just watched Last Tango in Paris for the second time. It's an erotic drama made in France in '72. Stars Marlon Brando.

It's got one of the better straight razor scenes in a movie I've seen, he seems to actually be shaving. Sometimes it seems like actors are just scraping the lather away with a blunt blade.

There's also some clever dialogue, the girl speaks poor English and says
"That's a razor's barber."
Marlon corrects her, "it's a barber's razor, or a madmans..."

So I'm curious what's your favorite movie with a straight razor being used?

i think we had a similar thread a while ago, but yeah last tango in paris is quite a good movie. bertolucci is certainly not mainstream though.

my favorite movie featuring straight razor - hmm can you guess - my avatar is a screenshot.

I've always wondered what that avatar is from lol

Originally Posted by gugi

my favorite movie featuring straight razor - hmm can you guess - my avatar is a screenshot.

Let me guess:
Un chien andalou - from Luis Bunuel, right?

yes, that's correct - it's Bunuel himself stropping the razor. I thought it's fitting to have a picture taken in 1929 as avatar.

It's now on my Netflix queue.

I'd be interested in seeing the Brando film.

There are many movies with straight razors, but it's difficult to pick a favorite. I was a big fan of The X-Files television series, and one episode showed the actions of a man who carved the word "sister" into these women's chests with what one of the victims describes as "an ivory handled straight razor." You see him as a young man in flashbacks with it in the 1920s or 1930s (the episode was done in the mid-nineties, so it was possible for him to have been alive at the time), and then as an old bastard later on. I should try to watch that again somehow.

Movies...movies.... Hmmm. I saw a movie not too long ago that had an actor who was obviously shaving, too. I knew who it was at the time, but I've forgotten the movie, and unfortunately, the face has blurred, so I can't recall the actor, either... hmmph. There's a scene in Sommersby where Jodie Foster shaves Richard Gere. She looks like she's doing a pretty decent job, if I remember correctly.

There's also a Clint Eastwood western where he goes into the barbershop to get a shave. The barber is scared out of his mind for some reason I can't recall, and is shaking like crazy as he strops the razor (pretty badly, but better than a lot of attempts I've seen by others) and attempts to shave Clint in a backwards fashion. Let me track down the name of that movie with a minute or two of research: *minute or two elapses*

Aha! High Plains Drifter (1973). I knew that. And what do you know -- here's a clip of the very scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8sNeozweTM