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.

A Christmas Past: Vintage Holiday Films

A Christmas Past: Vintage Holiday Films. Various directors, 1901-1925.

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Edition screened: Kino DVD, released 2000. Scored, no dialogue tracks, and some films with English intertitles. Cumulative runtime approximately 121 minutes.


Summary: A Christmas Accident includes the discovery of a small dog found dead, presumably poisoned, 5:42-6:24. The other films are free of depictions of violence or harm to animals.


An enjoyable group of primitive winter-themed films, as much documentaries of a lost world as Holiday fantasies:


A Holiday Pageant at Home (unknown director, 1901, 5 minutes)

A Winter Straw Ride (Edwin S. Porter, 1906, 7 minutes)

A Trap for Santa (D.W. Griffith, 1909, 16 minutes)

A Christmas Accident (Bannister Merwin, 1912, 15 minutes)

The Adventures of the Wrong Santa Claus (unknown director, 1914, 14 minutes)

Santa Claus vs. Cupid (Will Louis, 1915, 16 minutes)

Santa Claus (unknown director, 1925, 29 minutes)

A Christmas Carol (unknown director, 1910, 10 minutes)

The Night Before Christmas (Henry Selick, 1905, 9 minutes)


Jacques Rozier

Jacques Rozier. Jacques Rozier, 1955-1986.

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Edition screened: Potemkine DVD box set, released 2008. French language with English subtitles. Cumulative runtime approximately 573 minutes.


Summary: Rentrée des classes obsesses over a child finding and harassing a small snake, and Du côté d’Orouët includes flirtatious shenanigans with eels. Nothing horrible.


The five-DVD collection includes six films:


Rentrée des classes (1955) - a waste of film intended to be a nostalgic look back at simpler times, like the worst of early Malle.

Blue Jeans (1958) - an embarrassing celebration of impending date rape, but with good images of Cannes in the late 50s. 

Adieu Philippine (1961) - a truly wonderful film.

Du côté d’Orouët (1969) - a truly wonderful film.

The Castaways of Turtle Island (1976) - odd, but also oddly entertaining.

Maine Océan (1986) - long, trite, self-charmed and boring, like the worst of late Malle.


Knife of Ice

Knife of Ice (Il coltello di ghiaccio). Umberto Lenzi, 1972.

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Edition screened: Wham! DVD, released 2009. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.


Summary: Complete bullfight.


The film opens with the bull released explosively into the arena. The title sequence then is superimposed over the whole spectacle. We see the entire “fight”, the disgusting kill, and the dead bull dragged away by a rope afterwards, up through 2:18.


Lake Michigan Monster

Lake Michigan Monster. Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, 2018.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 78 minutes.


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


I found Lake Michigan Monster to be quite entertaining although it might not hold up to a second viewing. The Arrow Blu-ray also includes the innovative animation short L.I.P.S. (2016, 23 minutes), also starring Tews.


The Lighthouse

The Lighthouse. Robert Eggers, 2019.

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Edition screened: Lionsgate Blu-ray, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 109 minutes.


Summary: Murder of a seagull.


Details: A seagull attacks Robert Pattinson, who grabs the bird by the legs or head and beats it to death against a cement cistern, 40:22-40:46. The scene is brutal and seems to go on for a long time, four weeks perhaps or maybe just one day.


 

L.I.P.S.

L.I.P.S. Mike Cheslik, 2016.

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Edition screened: Included on Arrow Blu-ray Lake Michigan Monster, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 23 minutes.


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


The Lake Michigan Monster BD includes this entertaining animation short about an agent in the League of Interplanetary Process Servers, identified as “the first season”, and also a 9-minute episode identified as the ‘pilot episode”.


Lisa and the Devil (The House of Exorcism)

Lisa and the Devil (Lisa e il diavolo). Mario Bava, 1973.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2014. Original English language, with original Italian dub as an option. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.


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


The Arrow BD also includes The House of Exorcism, a version of Lisa and the Devil recut to capitalize on the success of The Exorcist.


 

Little Tony

Little Tony (Kleine Teun). Alex van Warmerdam, 1998.

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Edition screened: Image DVD, released 2005. Dutch language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.


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


The white goat on the cover is an observer of character interaction in this domestic drama, and is not endangered by the prominent axe. 

The Look of Silence

The Look of Silence. Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014.

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Edition screened: Dogwoof Blu-ray, released 2015. English and Indonesian with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


Maine Océan

Maine Océan. Jacques Rozier, 1986.

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Edition screened: Included in Potemkine DVD box set Jacques Rozier, released 2008. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 131 minutes.


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




Mako: The Jaws of Death

Mako: The Jaws of Death. William Grefé, 1976.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray box set He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.


Summary: Shark killing.


Details:

1) The film opens with a group of clods reef fishing for sharks. We see underwater footage of a shark hooked and partially reeled in before the line is cut. Not graphic, no blood, and over at 2:15.

2) Dead hammerhead shark hanging for a photo shoot, 53:14, and remaining in the background through conversation until 55:30.

3) Immediately after, a scene of men shooting sharks and hauling them aboard their ship, with dead sharks hanging on board. 55:40-1:00:00.

4) Piles of dead sharks in a research laboratory, 1:07:04-1:07:24.


Released a year after Jaws, the point in Mako is that sharks are not insane killing machines and we should stay out of their waters and leave them alone. Our protagonist is a vigilant advocate on the sharks’ behalf and will do anything to stop those who hunt them.


Bonus features on this disc include a 15-minute condensation of Mako released on Super-8 for home viewing.


¡Mi burro!

¡Mi burro! (Mi burro: esos huesos). Zach Passero, 2011.

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Edition screened: Included on Arrow Blu-ray The Woman, released 2020. Spanish language with English subtitle. Runtime approximately 7 minutes.


Summary: An animated short about a socially malignant animal, but with no particular depictions of violence or harm to him or to other animals.


 

The Naked Zoo

The Naked Zoo. William Grefé, 1970.

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Edition screened: In Arrow Blu-ray box set He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection, released 2020. English language. Runtime of Director’s cut approximately 92 minutes; “Barry Mahon” cut is approximately 87 minutes.


Summary: No animals or references to animals in either version of the film.


The disk includes an alternate cut of The Naked Zoo despite director Grefé’s disgust with that version. The so-called “Barry Mahon” cut includes a dopey topless scene that is as unnecessary as it is uninteresting, but also features Canned Heat performing “One Kind Favor” in its entirety, live in the protagonist’s small house! This party scene in the Director’s Cut just has records playing and some goofy conga drum slapping. The Canned Heat number, right around the 57 minute mark in the Barry Mahon cut, is very good, especially Blind Owl’s charisma and restrained guitar playing.


Even the Director’s Cut of The Naked Zoo is better than the other films in this set. The “Barry Mahon” version rearranges shots slightly without hurting the story, adds the excellent Canned Heat performance, and still trims 5 minutes off the runtime by omitting some pointless scenes. I’d say Barry Mahon is the man. 


A 1961 Gottlieb Flying Circus is seen several times in the writer’s house, usually blurry and indistinct but finally clear at 56:14 in the Director’s cut.

 

The Psychedelic Priest

The Psychedelic Priest (Electric Shades of Grey). William Grefé and Terry Merrill (as Stewart Merrill), 1971.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray box set He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 81 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

 

Rentrée des classes

Rentrée des classes. Jacques Rozier, 1955.

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Edition screened: Included in Potemkine DVD box set Jacques Rozier, released 2008. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 20 minutes.


Summary: A snake is handled carelessly by children throughout the last half of the film, but is not intentionally mistreated and ultimately is set free.


 

Slap Shot

Slap Shot. George Roy Hill, 1977.

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Edition screened: Universal 25th Anniversary DVD, released 2005. English language. Runtime approximately 123 minutes.


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


A 1969 Williams Gridiron and a rare Bally Single Coin at 14:45. Then a 1971 Gottlieb 4 Square and a bingo machine, 41:00

Stage Struck

Stage Struck. Allan Dwan, 1925.

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Edition screened: Kino Lorber Blu-ray, released 2018. English intertitles, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 84 minutes.


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

 

Sting of Death

Sting of Death. William Grefé, 1966.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray box set He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 80 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Sugar Cookies

Sugar Cookies. Theodore Gershuny, 1973.

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Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #043, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.


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


The first ten minutes of Sugar Cookies are stilted and odd. Turns out, there’s a reason for that and yes it does look like a wig. I recommend smiling and nodding through this short sequence and allowing an entertaining film which is not a Vertigo remake to unwind.


Mary Woronov’s performance and stage presence shoved me over the hump of not understanding why she is loved even in the not-sarcastic world.


Some interior sets in Sugar Cookies are a treat, specifically those filmed in a gorgeous beaux arts house sparsely furnished with biomorphic Eero Aarnio and Raymond Loewy furniture. Oh, how we envy the homes of sophisticated people in movies. Typically, the more suave the occupants, the less furniture on the floors and stuff on the walls, but how well-chosen each of those things is. Oh. My. God. That is how I am going to redecorate. But when you do move into an empty house, Job Number One is to haul out all the inherited crap you and your parents have been dragging around for 50 or 100 years, and spread it around the house like mulch or blown foam insulation.

Tommy

Tommy. Ken Russell, 1975.

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Edition screened: Columbia TriStar DVD, released 2001. English language. Runtime approximately 111 minutes.


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


During the big pinball competition Elton John plays a 1965 Gottlieb Buckaroo, and is beaten by Roger Daltrey playing a 1965 Gottlieb Kings & Queens. A closing scene takes place in a pinball machine junkyard, with many other cabinets identifiable to various degrees, seemingly all Gottliebs.

Two-Lane Blacktop

Two-Lane Blacktop. Monte Hellman, 1971.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #414, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.


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


1959 Bally Sea Island in the diner, beginning around 1:09:00.

 

Waking Life

Waking Life. Richard Linklater, 2002.

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Edition screened: 20th Century Fox DVD, released 2002. English language. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.


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


An original design 1972 Bally Fireball gets a lot of attention around the chapter start at 1:25:00. 


Whiskey Mountain

Whiskey Mountain. William Grefé, 1977.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray box set He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


Learned from watching this set of films is that Grefé has no particular aesthetic. A style does emerge, more the inevitable consequence of repeating processes than a vision or intention, but there is no aesthetic determiner beyond the signature underwear dance shoehorned into the script when possible. Rather, Grefé simplifies and converts whatever is popular at the moment within the limits of his resources. Whiskey Mountain collects some horrifying aspects of Deliverance and combines them with the despair of Straw Dogs. Trail bike riding through Moronland rather than white water rafting through Moronland is the big distinction. If you’re going to galivant around with your smug citified ways, then you best do that trespassing at home.

The Woman (McKee)

The Woman. Lucky McKee, 2011.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.


Summary: Implication of stabbed wolf.


Details:

1) Uncertain dream-word insinuation of The Woman attacking and killing a wolf, 2:24-2:36. Snarling > howling > whimpering; all offscreen.

2) The woman thrusts a knife into a stream, extracts a fish, and takes a chomp from it, 12:09-12:13.


The Arrow release of The Woman also includes the short animated feature ¡Mi burro! (2011).

Zatoichi’s Revenge

Zatoichi’s Revenge (Zatōichi nidan-giri). Akira Inoue, 1965.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray box set #679 Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman, released 2013. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 83 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.


The tenth film in the Zatoichi series.





Death Curse of Tartu

Death Curse of Tartu. William Grefé, 1966.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray box set He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.


Summary: Snake abuse.


Details:

1) A very large constrictor is loosely draped in a small tree, about nine feet above the man below. Then cut to the man, as we see the enormous snake obviously thrown at him at 18:56, the snake hitting the man in an awkward fashion resembling neither a drop nor an attack in any way. The man “wrestles” the obviously tame snake through 19:58, rolling around on it with his full weight, maneuvering its head as though he is fending off a bite, and strangling the snake, pushing his thumbs deep into its throat. The poor snake glides off after being released/vanquished. 


2) An average-sized snake is picked up nonchalantly at 20:06 and dropped into a clear polyethylene bag, the typed used for fish at a pet store. The man then knots the end closed with little air in the bag, like he was taught to do with the fish at the pet store (20:17). He walks around his morbid petting zoo setup talking with someone for a while and just puts the bag down at some point.


3) After adding to Orgy of the Dead’s evidence that average-looking girls dancing around in their underwear is not very appealing, one of these girls decides to go for a swim in what appears to be a lake of Chocolate SlimFast. We see the fin of an approaching shark at 44:00, with subsequent thrashing and foamy froth to suggest that she is being attacked. A man on shore is shown shooting into the lake at 45:45, apparently ending the apparent attack.


4) An alligator lumbers along followed by disjointed shooting, shark attack style, at 1:13:50.


This is a terrible movie, and a spoiler here has about as much effect as it would on a Chevy Citation. Interlaced with the animal abuse and underwear dancing are several scenes of  death-defying archaeological adventure, including spooky cobwebs that might get on your face, large stones that must be walked around, treacherous loose gravel, and a decomposing corpse. Turns out, all this mystery is the Death Curse of a Native American and the animal attacks were him. He finally comes back to life in his true form and is wrestled/strangled to defeat just like the snake.


Cop au vin

Cop au vin (Chicken with Vinegar /Poulet au vinaigre). Claude Chabrol, 1985.

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Edition screened: Included in Cohen Blu-ray set The Inspector Lavardin Collection, released 2014. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Castaways of Turtle Island

The Castaways of Turtle Island (Les naufragés de l'île de la Tortue). Jacques Rozier, 1976.

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Edition screened: Included in Potemkine DVD box set Jacques Rozier, released 2008. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 140 minutes.


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

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. George Roy Hill, 1969.

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Edition: 20th Century Fox 40th Anniversary Special Edition Blu-ray, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.


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


Blue Jeans

Blue Jeans. Jacques Rozier, 1958.

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Edition screened: Included in Potemkine DVD box set Jacques Rozier, released 2008. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 22 minutes.


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


At 19:00, long shot of a pinball machine through a dirty window, followed by a closeup of the 1954 Gottlieb Flag-Ship


The Black Snail

The Black Snail (L'escargot noir: Les dossiers secrets de l'inspecteur Lavardin). Claude Chabrol, 1988.

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Edition screened: Included in Cohen Blu-ray set The Inspector Lavardin Collection, released 2014. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.


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


Beyond the Door

Beyond the Door (Chi sei?). Ovidio Assonitis (as O. Hellman) and Robert Barrett, 1974.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2020. Original English overdub of the most unbelievable nature, demonstrating just how unbelievable nature can be. Runtime approximately 108 minutes.


Summary: Predictable yet daring fish tank smashing.


Details:

A woman hurls a heavy glass ashtray at a large aquarium which obligingly smashes in slow motion at 23:07. We see one large fish stranded on a sturdy aquarium plant and a few others spilling out from the shattered opening, through 23:37. A brazen directorial flourish omits the traditional close-up of a gasping fish dying on a medium-pile tan acrylic carpet, cutting instead to that ashtray-throwin’ aquarium-smashin’ wife confessing to her husband . . . but then surprises us with a return to that same barely-flapping fish stranded on the plant, 24:42-24:48.


Last night I had a fever dream in which I was forced to pick the most memorable scene from Beyond the Door. I awoke in a sweaty panic and still am trying to decide:


1) A woman pregnant with Satan’s baby is nonetheless tormented and tortured by that ol’ deceiver, as The Bearer of Light is prone to do. While descending municipal stone stairs in downtown San Francisco, she looks down to see that Lucifer has resorted to the old slip on a banana peel gag. She stops, picks up the mostly brown splayed-out peel from the dirty steps, and tooth-scrapes out the little bit of banana at the terminal end. 


2) The children’s room is decorated in appropriate mid-70s movie style, with cute bedding, shelves of dolls and stuffed animals, a wicker rocking chair, and a poster of Henry Kissinger standing shirtless with his back to us and looking over his shoulder, his pants down and a red-white-and-blue bull’s eye centered on his anus.


I kid you not.

Band of Outsiders

Band of Outsiders (Bande à part). Jean-Luc Godard, 1964.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #174, released 2013. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.


Summary: Images of a traveling zoo, but no particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.


1962 Gottlieb Sunset in a cafe scene starting about 1:09:00. 


The Criterion BD also includes Varda’s Les fiancés du Mac Donald ou.


Alien Covenant

Alien Covenant. Ridley Scott, 2017.

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Edition screened: 2oth Century Fox Blu-ray, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 122 minutes.


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


The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

The Complete Films of Agnès Varda. Agnès Varda 1955-2020.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray box set, released 2020. Mostly French with English subtitles. Runtime of feature films approximately 26 hours.


Summary: Varda is a compassionate filmmaker. See notes for a few titles that contain documents or realistic inclusions of animal death.


The Criterion retrospective includes fifteen Blu-ray discs that present Varda’s catalogue and associated supplements in a recommended viewing order. The first disc establishes the mood and introduces the artist in a commemorative way. Each of the ensuing discs focuses on a major film or an aspect of Varda’s life, arranged more-or-less chronologically.


The following list includes all major and short works by Varda herself and most of the supplementary material. Omitted are some short interviews, trailers, and appreciations.


Disc 1: Agnès Forever


Disc 2: Early Varda


Disc 3: Around Paris


Disc 4: Rue Daguerre


Disc 5: Married Life


Disc 6: In California


Disc 7: Her Body, Herself


Disc 8: No Shelter


Disc 9: Jane B.



Disc 10: Jacques Demy

  • Jacquot de Nantes (1991, Varda) 1:58
  • The Young Girls Turn 25 (1993, Varda) 1:06
  • The World of Jacques Demy (1995, Varda) 1:31
  • Agnès Tells the Sad and Happy Adventure Behind the Film ‘Jacquot de Nantes’ (2008, Varda) 0:17
  • Souvenirs and Evocations (2008, Varda) 0:07


Disc 11: Simon Cinéma


Disc 12: La Glaneuse


Disc 13: Visual Artist

  • Faces Places (2017, Varda and JR) 1:33
  • Salut les Cubains (1964, Varda) 0:29
  • Ulysse (1982, Varda) 0:22
  • Ydessa, the Bears and etc (2004, Varda) 0:44
  • Chance Is the Best Assistant: Agnès Varda and JR on ‘Faces Places’ (2018, Edwin Samuelson) 0:47
  • The Beach Cabin (2017, Varda) 0:04
  • A Visit with Matthieu Chedid (2017, Varda) 0:04
  • One Minute for One Image (1983, Varda) 0:27


Disc 14: Here and There

  • Agnès de ci de là Varda (2011, Varda) 3:55  - The 5-part TV series tracking Agnès for a year to meet friends, artists and filmmakers.


Disc 15: Beaches