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.

Le Pont du nord

Le Pont du nord. Jacques Rivette, 1981.
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Edition screened: Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #062, released 2013. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 129 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

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Port of Shadows

Port of Shadows (Le Quai des brumes). Marcel Carné, 1938.
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Edition screened: StudioCanal Blu-ray, released 2012. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
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Poseidon (Petersen)

Poseidon. Wolfgang Petersen, 2006.
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Edition screened: Warner Blu-ray, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.

Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film.


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Potiche

Potiche (Trophy Wife). François Ozon, 2010.
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Edition screened: Studio Canal Blu-ray, released 2011. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 102 minutes.

Summary: Brief kitchen gore porn.

Details: Catherine Deneuve whacks the head off a store-bought plucked fowl carcass, 15:00-15:15. I usually don’t include comparatively typical meat prep as a violent act against animals in this project, but this instance is particularly unnecessary. It isn’t long or gory, but there was no reason to include Deneuve swinging the cleaver with a loud whack and putting the head in the trash. Irrelevant, and conveys a belligerent cuteness on the part of the director. I like much of Ozon’s work but did not care much for Potiche.
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Prey

Prey. Norman J. Warren, 1977.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #209, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.

Summary: Numerous animals killed by a predator.

Details:
1) The bloody heads of three white rabbits are found in the woods, 9:01-9:03.
2) Three chickens are found killed in the coup, 41:12-41:36. One of the bloody chicken carcasses is used as bait for a trap in the woods, 424:08-42:11.
3) A dead fox is brought into the house, 45:34-46:10.
4) A few bloody feathers are all that is left of the caged parrot, 1:14:00-1:14:03.
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Prime Evil

Prime Evil. Roberta Findlay, 1988.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray double feature #193 Prime Evil/Lurkers, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 83 minutes.

Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film.


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Prisoner of Paradise

Prisoner of Paradise. Gail Palmer and Bob Chinn, 1980.
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Edition screened: Included in Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray set #201, 5 Films • 5 Years Vol 1: Golden Age Erotica, released 2018; also released in 2014 as DVD #052. English language. Runtime approximately 78 minutes.

Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film. 0/5❤

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Private Life of a Cat

Private Life of a Cat. Alexander Hammid, 1945.
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Edition screened: Included on Mystic Fire DVD Maya Deren: Experimental Films, released 2002. Silent with several English intertitle cards. Runtime approximately 22 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

A calm and reassuring document of mother and father house cats tending to their kittens and to each other.
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Private Road

Private Road. Barney Platts-Mills, 1971.
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Edition screened: BFI ‘Flipside’ #14, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.

Summary: Hunting violence, comparatively mild.

Details: On his second hunting attempt, Bruce Robinson shoots into a ravine and is excited to have hit something. He pokes around in the bushes and pulls out a dead rabbit at 36:52. General kitchen banter around the dead rabbit through 38:10, followed immediately by a short scene of trying to remove a hook from a fish’s mouth, through 38:34.

The BFI release of Private Road also includes Platts-Mills’s documentary St. Christopher about educating mentally handicapped individuals, and The Last Chapter, a good adaptation of a story by John Fowles.

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The Process

The Process. Stan Brakhage, 1972.
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set #518 By Brakhage: An Anthology, Volumes One and Two, released 2010. Silent. Runtime 8 minutes, 1 second.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

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A Prophet

A Prophet (Un prophète). Jacques Audiard, 2009.
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Edition screened: Sony DVD, released 2010. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 155 minutes.

Summary: Deer hit by a car.

Details: A surprise encounter with a deer on the road, the impact sending the deer flying high into the air before landing on the roadway behind the car. Followed by a brief non-graphic scene of pieces of meat being washed and carried. 1:43:49-1:45:10.
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Psycho Circus Triple Feature

Psycho Circus Triple Feature: 3 Rings of Terror. Bernard McEveety and Freddie Francis, 1967-1872.
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Edition screened: Mill Creek Blu-ray, released 2017. English language. Combined runtime approximately 284 minutes.

Summary: The Creeping Flesh includes (real) scenes of a monkey being tortured. The other two films have no animal violence. See individual titles for details.

The Mill Creek set includes:

Torture Garden (Freddie Francis, 1967) 
The Brotherhood of Satan (Bernard McEveety, 1971)
The Creeping Flesh (Freddie Francis, 1972)


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Psychos in Love

Psychos in Love. Gorman Bechard, 1986.
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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #185, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 76 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

This is one of the better self-aware comedies I have seen. Some of the writing is quite funny, and performances by the three main characters are excellent.

The Vinegar Syndrome release includes a ton of bonus material including excerpts from the stage play of Psychos in Love and four short films by Bechard, all free of animal violence. Click on individual titles for details.

The Only Take (1983, 3 minutes)
Pairs (1982, 1 minute)
Bartholemew, the Strangler (1983, 7 minutes)


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Pulverised Cinema

Pulverised Cinema. Jeff Keen, 1990s.
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Edition screened: Included in BFI Gazwrx: The Films of Jeff Keen Blu-ray/DVD set, released 2009. Silent. Runtime approximately 10 minutes.


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


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Putney Swope

Putney Swope. Robert Downey, Sr., 1969.
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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 33: Up All Night with Robert Downey Sr. 2-DVD set, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.

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