Shell. Scott Graham, 2012.
😿😿😿
Edition screened: Verve Blu-ray, released 2013. Scots English with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.
Summary: Real suffering of a deer.
Details:
1) At 16:55 begins a close view of a deer that has been hit by a car. The deer and its agony obviously are real.
2) Pete slits the deer’s throat, 17:40-17:56.
3) Butchering of the deer, 21:50-25:00
4) Remnant feet from the butchering, 1:04:12-1:04:19.
Shell is an excellent, subtle, intelligent film. Please watch it, skipping the deer killing and butchering if you prefer, but do watch the scene in the car (18:00-21:50) between those events. A smart friend pointed out to me that “Shell would not have been possible without The Turin Horse,” a perfect statement of the relationship between those films. Shell is not a remake of the Béla Tarr masterpiece, but it uses the same relationships and challenges to tell a slightly different story. The Turin Horse might show us the ease with which the world ends. Shell might show us the difficulty with which the world changes slightly.