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.

Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema

Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema. Ingmar Bergman, 1946-1984; various other directors, 1963-2017.
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Edition screened: Criterion 30-Blu-ray set, released 2018. Mostly Swedish language with English subtitle, some English language. Cumulative runtime of films directed by Bergman approximately 4,785 minutes (79 hours, 45 minutes).

Summary: A few films include images of animals dead or being killed. Click on individual titles below for comments as available.

This massive set includes 39 of Bergman’s major films plus several variant versions and shorter works, and a mountain of supplemental material. The Bergman films included are not his complete oeuvre but do constitute a substantial and satisfying collection, and reflect Criterion’s effort to license all that they could. The list below is in chronological order and includes every title in the set by Bergman himself along with the more important supplemental pieces. As such, documentaries about Bergman are grouped with the films and era to which they pertain. Included in the Criterion set but excluded from this list are trailers, contextual introductions, short promotional films, appreciations by other directors, and many historic interviews with legendary cast and crew members. The 30 Blu-ray discs in the set arrange the films into “Festival Screenings” that explore artistic themes rather than in chronological order, with supplemental materials, introductions, and other interpretive material presented alongside the associated films. 

The individual entry for each film (click title below) also enumerates accompanying supplemental material and indicates the film’s appearance in “Festival Screening” format. 

Crisis. 1946, Ingmar Bergman
A Ship to India. 1947, Ingmar Bergman
Port of Call. 1948, Ingmar Bergman
To Joy. 1949, Ingmar Bergman
Thirst. 1949, Ingmar Bergman
Summer Interlude. 1951, Ingmar Bergman
Waiting Women. 1952, Ingmar Bergman
Summer with Monika. 1953, Ingmar Bergman
Sawdust and Tinsel. 1953, Ingmar Bergman
A Lesson in Love. 1954, Ingmar Bergman
Smiles of a Summer Night. 1955, Ingmar Bergman
Dreams. 1955, Ingmar Bergman
Crisis. 1950, Ingmar Bergman
The Seventh Seal. 1957, Ingmar Bergman
Wild Strawberries. 1957, Ingmar Bergman
The Magician. 1958, Ingmar Bergman
Brink of Life. 1958, Ingmar Bergman
The Virgin Spring. 1960, Ingmar Bergman
The Devil’s Eye. 1960, Ingmar Bergman
Through a Glass Darkly. 1961, Ingmar Bergman
Winter Light. 1963, Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie. 1963, Vilgot Sjöman
The Silence. 1963, Ingmar Bergman
All These Women. 1964, Ingmar Bergman
Persona. 1966, Ingmar Bergman
Daniel. (from Stimulantia). 1967, Ingmar Bergman
Shame. 1968, Ingmar Bergman
Hour of the Wolf. 1968, Ingmar Bergman
An Introduction to Ingmar Bergman. 1968, Garth Dietrick
The Passion of Anna. 1969, Ingmar Bergman
The Rite. 1969, Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman interview from Man Alive. 1970
Fårö Document. 1970, Ingmar Bergman
The Touch. 1971, Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman. 1971, Stig Björkman
Cries and Whispers. 1972, Ingmar Bergman
The Magic Flute. 1975, Ingmar Bergman
Tystnad! Tagning! Trollflöjten! 1975, Måns Reuterswärd and Katinka Faragód
The Serpent’s Egg. 1977, Ingmar Bergman
Autumn Sonata. 1978, Ingmar Bergman
The Making of ‘Autumn Sonata’. 1978, Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman at 60 (from The South Bank Show). 1978
Fårö Document 1979. 1979, Ingmar Bergman
From the Life of the Marionettes. 1980, Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman Bids Farewell to Film. 1983, Nils-Peter Sundgren
After the Rehearsal. 1984, Ingmar Bergman
Karin’s Face. 1984, Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman on Life and Work. 1998, Jörn Donner
Saraband. 2003, Ingmar Bergman
A Bergman Tapestry. 2004, director uncertain
Away from Home. 2004, Greg Carson
Bergman Island. 2006, Marie Nyreröd
The Women and Bergman. 2008, Eva Beling
Images from the Playground. 2009, Stig Björkman
Bergman 101. 2009, Peter Cowie
… But Film Is My Mistress. 2010, Stig Björkman
Liv & Ingmar. 2012, Dheeraj Akolkar
On Solace. 2014, :: kogonda
17 Short Stories. 2017, Marie Nyreröd


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