Violence to Animals in Film: March 2014

Heads Up, Ears Down

This blog accurately identifies depictions of violence and cruelty toward animals in films. The purpose is to provide viewers with a reliable guide so that such depictions do not come as unwelcome surprises. Films will be accurately notated, providing a time cue for each incident along with a concise description of the scene and perhaps relevant context surrounding the incident. In order to serve as a useful reference tool, films having no depictions of violence to animals will be included, with an indication that there are no such scenes. This is confirmation that the films have been watched with the stated purpose in mind.

Note that the word depictions figures prominently in the objective. It is a travesty that discussions about cruelty in film usually are derailed by the largely unrelated assertion that no animals really were hurt (true only in some films, dependent upon many factors), and that all this concern is just over a simulation. Not the point, whether true or false. We do not smugly dismiss depictions of five-year-olds being raped because those scenes are only simulations. No, we are appalled that such images are even staged, and we are appropriately horrified that the notion now has been planted into the minds of the weak and cruel.

Depictions of violence or harm to animals are assessed in keeping with our dominant culture, with physical abuse, harmful neglect, and similar mistreatment serving as a base line. This blog does not address extended issues of animal welfare, and as such does not identify scenes of people eating meat or mules pulling plows. The goal is to itemize images that might cause a disturbance in a compassionate household.

These notes provide a heads-up but do not necessarily discourage watching a film because of depicted cruelty. Consuming a piece of art does not make you a supporter of the ideas presented. Your ethical self is created by your public rhetoric and your private actions, not by your willingness to sit through a filmed act of violence.

The Man We Want to Hang

The Man We Want to Hang. Kenneth Anger, 2002.
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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray Magick Lantern Cycle, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 14 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Man We Want to Hang shows paintings by Alistair Crowley.

Scorpio Rising

Scorpio Rising. Kenneth Anger, 1964.

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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray Magick Lantern Cycle, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 28 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

@ BL

Rabbit’s Moon

Rabbit’s Moon (La Lune des Lapins). Kenneth Anger, 1950.

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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray Magick Lantern Cycle, released 2009. English language. Runtime 0f 1970 version approximately 16 minutes; runtime of 1979 version approximately 7 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Anger revisited his unedited 1950 footage in 1970 to create the long version of Rabbit’s Moon, and again in 1979 to make the 7 minute version. The BFI release includes both cuts.

@ BL

Puce Moment

Puce Moment. Kenneth Anger, 1949.

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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray Magick Lantern Cycle, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 6 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Puce Moment is a fragment from the uncompleted feature Puce Woman.

@ BL

Lucifer Rising

Lucifer Rising. Kenneth Anger, 1981.

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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray Magick Lantern Cycle, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 28 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

@ BL

Kustom Kar Kommandos

Kustom Kar Kommandos. Kenneth Anger, 1965.

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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray Magick Lantern Cycle, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 3 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

A fragment from an uncompleted project.

@ BL

Invocation of My Demon Brother

Invocation of My Demon Brother. Kenneth Anger, 1969.

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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray Magick Lantern Cycle, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 11 minutes.

Summary: Images of a murdered cat.

Invocation of my Demon Brother is composed of short pieces of film captured at satanic rituals and similar events in London and San Francisco, along with other footage of war and strife. Several of the satanic sequences include a sacrificed cat.

The individual films in the Magick Lantern Cycle do not rely or build upon one another, but most have similar smooth tonal palettes, music moods, and visual style. In sharp contrast, Invocation utilizes a repetitive and non-melodic synthesizer score synched to short film edits to create a composition that is intentionally spasmodic and disturbing. I do not question if the film realized Anger’s vision, but it was unwelcome in my viewing experience and I would skip it in the future.

Anton la Vey appears in the film, with synthesized score allegedly by Mick Jagger.

@ BL

Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome

Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome. Kenneth Anger, 1954.

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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray Magick Lantern Cycle, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 38 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The cast includes director Curtis Harrington (Night Tide, 1961) as Cesare the Somnambulist.

@ BL

Fireworks

Fireworks. Kenneth Anger, 1947.

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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray Magick Lantern Cycle, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 15 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

This version of Fireworks is identical to the original release except for the addition of the director’s spoken prologue.

@ BL

Eau d’artifice

Eau d’artifice. Kenneth Anger, 1953.

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Edition screened: Included on BFI Blu-ray Magick Lantern Cycle, released 2009. English language. Runtime approximately 13 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Filmed in the garden of the Villa d’Este, Tivoli, with inevitable Vivaldi.

Elles

Elles. Malgorzata Szumowska, 2011.

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Edition screened: Kino Lorber Blu-ray, released 2012. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Edward Scissorhands

Edward Scissorhands. Tim Burton, 1990.

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Edition screened: 20th Century Fox DVD, released 2005. English language. Runtime approximately 105 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

L’eclisse

L’eclisse. Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #278, released 2014. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 125 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Easy Rider

Easy Rider. Dennis Hopper, 1969.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #545, included in America Lost and Found: The BBS Story box set, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.

Summary: Comparatively mild displays of dead animals.

Details:

1) Hunting proceeds including a deer and a group of fowl hung by their legs are visible on exteriors of buildings at the desert commune, 28:00-28:25.

2) A dead lamb is found along a curb in New Orleans, 1:22:29-1:22:32.

Eastern Promises

Eastern Promises. David Cronenberg, 2007.

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Edition screened: Universal/Focus DVD, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 101 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

This tale of Russian gang violence illustrates, among other things, why we don’t see more nude kick-boxing scenes.

The Earrings of Madame de …

The Earrings of Madame de … (Madame de…). Max Ophüls, 1953.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #445, released 2008. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Magick Lantern Cycle

Magick Lantern Cycle. Kenneth Anger, 1947-1981.
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Edition screened: BFI Blu-ray, released 2009. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 168 minutes.

Summary: Invocation of My Demon Brother includes images of a murdered cat.

Anger’s Magick Lantern Cycle compiles:
Fireworks (1947)
Puce Moment (1949)
Rabbit’s Moon (1970 and 1979 versions)
Eau d’artifice (1953)
Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954)
Scorpio Rising (1964)
Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965)
Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969)
Lucifer Rising (1981)

In addition to the nine films of the Cycle (including both versions of Rabbit’s Moon) the BFI release also includes Anger’s exploration of paintings of Aleister Crolwley The Man We Want to Hang (2002, 14 minutes), along with Elio Gelmini’s documentary on the director, Anger Me (2006, 71 minutes).

@ BL

Foreign Correspondent

Foreign Correspondent. Alfred Hitchcock, 1940.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #696, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 120 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

La Femme publique

La Femme publique. Andrzej Żuławski, 1984.

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Edition screened: Mondo Vision Uncut Special Edition DVD, released 2008. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 114 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Die You Zombie Bastards!

Die You Zombie Bastards! Caleb Emerson, 2005.

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Edition screened: Image DVD, released 2005. English language. Runtime approximately 97 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Three Popular Films by Jean-Pierre Gorin

Three Popular Films by Jean-Pierre Gorin. Jean-Pierre Gorin, 1980-1992.

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Edition screened: Criterion Eclipse Series 31, 3-DVD set, released 2012. English language. Collective runtime approximately 250 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

This 31st volume in Criterion’s Eclipse Series includes

Poto and Cabengo (1980)

Routine Pleasures (1986)

My Crasy Life (1992)

Routine Pleasures

Routine Pleasures. Jean-Pierre Gorin, 1986.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 31: Three Popular Films by Jean-Pierre Gorin 3-DVD set, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 79 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

@ BL

Poto and Cabengo

Poto and Cabengo. Jean-Pierre Gorin, 1980.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 31: Three Popular Films by Jean-Pierre Gorin 3-DVD set, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 73 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara

Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara. Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1953-1966.

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Edition screened: Criterion 4-DVD set, released 2007. Czech language with English subtitles. Collective runtime approximately 521 minutes.

Summary: Some titles contain depictions of violence toward animals.

This collection of superb films includes three feature titles and five shorts:

Hokusai (1953 short)

Ikebana (1956 short)

Tokyo 1958 (1958 short)

Pitfall (1962)

Woman in the Dunes (1964)

Ako (1965 short)

The Face of Another (1966)

Teshigahara and Abe (documentary short on the filmmaker and the writer)

Woman in the Dunes

Woman in the Dunes (Suna no onna). Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #394, included in Criterion 4-DVD set #392, Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara, released 2007. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 148 minutes.

Summary: Several brief views of insects pinned to specimen boards, the longest and final such scene at 1:47:15-1:47:23. There is trapping of insects depicted, but no killing.

Tokyo 1958

Tokyo 1958. Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1958.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #392, included in Criterion 4-DVD set #392, Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara, released 2007. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 24 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Eight other filmmakers collaborated with Teshigahara to create this portrait of Tokyo when it was the largest city in the world: Susumu Hani, Yoshiro Kawazu, Kyushiro Kusakabe, Sadamu Maruo, Zenzô Matsuyama, Kanzaburo Mushanokoji, Masahiro Ogi, and Ryuichiro Sakisaka.

Pitfall

Pitfall (Otoshiana). Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1962.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #393, included in Criterion 4-DVD set #392, Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara, released 2007. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.

Summary: Frog torture.

Details:

1) A frog is skinned alive, 23:25-23:48.

2) The frog is seen hanging from a stick over water as bait 34:34-34:37.

3) A lobster takes the frog bait and is hooked, 43:42-43:49.

Ikebana

Ikebana. Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1956.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #392, included in Criterion 4-DVD set #392, Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara, released 2007. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 32 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

This superb documentary introduces the Sogetsu School of Ikebana, where the director's father Sofu Teshigahara is grand master.

Hokusai

Hokusai. Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1953.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #392, included in Criterion 4-DVD set #392, Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara, released 2007. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 23 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

This short film examines the life and work of woodblock print artist Katsushika Hokusai (1740-1849).

The Face of Another

The Face of Another (Tanin no kao). Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1966.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #395, included in Criterion 4-DVD set #392, Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara, released 2007. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 124 minutes.

Summary: Use of an animal carcass.

Details: A man looking out a window at a beach is transformed into the skinned carcass of a large animal, 1:53:05-1:53:10. The scene is shocking because of the sudden visual surprise more than for the image of the carcass.

The disc also includes James Quandt’s entertaining and intelligent 25-minute video essay exploring The Face of Another.

@ BL

Ako

Ako (White Morning). Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1965.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #392, included in Criterion 4-DVD set #392, Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara, released 2007. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 20 minutes.

Ako is Teshigahara’s contribution to the French Canadian omnibus film La fleur de l'âge, ou Les adolescentes.

Ivan the Terrible, Part II

Ivan the Terrible, Part II (Ivan Groznyy. Skaz vtoroy: Boyarskiy zagovor). Sergei Eisenstein, 1958.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #88, included in Criterion box set #86 Eisenstein: The Sound Years, released 2001. Russian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Ivan the Terrible, Part I

Ivan the Terrible, Part I (Ivan Groznyy). Sergei Eisenstein, 1944.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #88, included in Criterion box set #86 Eisenstein: The Sound Years, released 2001. Russian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Eisenstein: The Sound Years

Eisenstein: The Sound Years. Sergei Eisenstein, 1938-1958.

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Edition screened: Criterion 3-DVD set, released 2001. Russian language with English subtitles. Collective runtime approximately 292 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

The box set includes the feature films:

Alexander Nevsky (1938)

Ivan the Terrible, Part I (1945)

Ivan the Terrible, Part II (1958)

Cobra Verde

Cobra Verde. Werner Herzog, 1988.

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Edition screened: Included in BFI The Werner Herzog Collection Blu-ray box set, released 2014. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 111 minutes.

Summary: Depictions of animals in distress.

Details:

1) Klaus Kinsky is in a desert with bleached animal bones and skulls at 2:24, culminating in an extended shot of a cow lying on her side depicted as dying of thirst 4:11-4:26. The cow actually appears to be perfectly healthy and must have been sedated for filming.

2) A small python is kicked aside by Kinsky at 1:24:40. No injury depicted.

Chloe

Chloe. Atom Egoyan, 2009.

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Edition screened: Sony Blu-ray, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Eyes Without a Face

Eyes Without a Face (Les Yeux sans visage). Georges Franju, 1960.

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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #260, released 2004. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Criterion release also contains Franju’s Blood of the Beasts (1949), composed of explicit scenes of animal slaughter.

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