Dissent & Disruption: Alan Clarke at the BBC

Dissent & Disruption: Alan Clarke at the BBC (1969-1989).

😿

Edition screened: BFI Blu-ray box set, released 2016. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 29 hours and 48 minutes.

Summary: With most of the films viewed, only Penda’s Fen includes any animal cruelty. Updates will be provided as possible.

In addition to supplemental materials, feature films by Clarke in this gigantic collection include:

• The Last Train through Harecastle Tunnel (1969) - No violence to animals
• Sovereign’s Company (1970) - No violence to animals
• The Hallelujah Handshake (1970) - No violence to animals
• To Encourage the Others (1972) - No violence to animals
• Under the Age (1972) - No violence to animals
• Horace (1972) - No violence to animals
• The Love Girl and the Innocent (1973) - . . .
• Penda’s Fen (1974) - One very graphic image
• A Follower for Emily (1974) - No violence to animals
• Diane (1975) - No violence to animals
• Funny Farm (1975) - No violence to animals
• Scum (1977) - No violence to animals
• Nina (1978) - . . .
• Danton’s Death (1978) - . . .
• Beloved Enemy (1981) - . . .
• Psy-Warriors (1981) - No violence to animals
• Baal (1982) - No violence to animals
• Stars of the Roller State Disco (1984) - No violence to animals
• Contact (1985) - No violence to animals
• Christine (1987) - No violence to animals
• Road (1987) - No violence to animals
• The Firm: Director’s Cut (1989) - No violence to animals
• The Firm: Broadcast Version (1989) - No violence to animals
• Elephant (1989) - No violence to animals

And Life Goes On

And Life Goes On (Zendegi Va Digar Hich). Abbas Kiarostami, 1992.

😸

Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray#991, included in the box set The Koker Trilogy, released 2019. Persian language. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.

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

Andrzej Żuławski: Three Films

Andrzej Żuławski: Three Films. 1971-1988.

😿😿😿

Edition screened: Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray box set, released 2023. Polish language with English subtitles. Cumulative runtime of three feature films approximately 398 minutes.

Summary: All feature titles in the set include scenes of cruelty to animals. Click individual titles for details.

In addition to documentaries and commentaries by top-shelf cineasts such as Daniel Bird and Michael Brooke, the Eureka! set includes the feature films:

The Third Part of the Night (1971)

The Devil (1972) 

On the Silver Globe (1988)

Baby Love

Baby Love. Alastair Reid, 1968.

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Edition screened: StudioCanal DVD, released 2015. English language. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. A scene in a movie theater includes clips about raising livestock for the meat industry, but we only see and hear about happy animals. 

Blaze Starr Goes Nudist

Blaze Starr Goes Nudist. Doris Wishman, 1962.

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Edition screened: Included on Something Weird 2-DVD set Nude on the Moon/Blaze Starr Goes Nudist, released 2006. Also included in The Films of Doris Wishman: The Daylight Years. English language. Runtime approximately 75 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Something Weird DVD also includes a 10-minute compilation of clips from Blaze Starr dance routines, Wishman’s Nude on the Moon (1960), and Walter Hart’s short Moon Strips (1960).

The Bride Wore Black

The Bride Wore Black (La mariée était en noir). François Truffaut, 1968.

😸

Edition screened: Radiance Blu-ray, released 2023. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 107 minutes.

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

Broken Mirrors

Broken Mirrors (Gebroken spiegels). Marleen Gorris, 1984.

😸

Edition screened: Cult Epics Blu-ray, released 2023. Dutch language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 118 minutes.

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

Buddies

Buddies. Arthur J. Bressan, Jr., 1985.

😸

Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #237, released 2018. English language. Runtime approximately 79 minutes.

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

Capitalism: Child Labor

Capitalism: Child Labor. Ken Jacobs, 2006.

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Edition screened: Included on Keno Lorber Blu-ray Ken Jacobs Collection Vol. 1, released 2021. Sound effects track, no dialogue. Runtime approximately 14 minutes.

Summary: No animals in the film.

Capitalism: Slavery

Capitalism: Slavery. Ken Jacobs, 2007.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Keno Lorber Blu-ray Ken Jacobs Collection Vol. 1, released 2021. No audio track. Runtime approximately 3 minutes.

Summary: No animals in the film.

City of the Living Dead

City of the Living Dead (Paura nella città dei morti viventi). Lucio Fulci, 1980.

😿

Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.

Summary: Maggot abuse. (I know, I know . . .)

Details:

1) A beautiful long-haired grey cat is sitting nicely with his companion human, but then is spooked by overtures of the undead and gives the woman a severe scratch, causing her to howl and toss him into an adjacent chair (16:48-16:50). This two-foot toss is a total nothing for the cat, but worth mentioning because it does not foreshadow the cat’s gruesome murder later in the film! This unexpected lack of cruelty by an Italian director is perhaps the most shocking element in a particularly dumb movie.

2) An ocean of maggots come blasting through a broken window, covering a room and the stupid people who just stand there being sprayed with what must be tens of thousands of live, squirming maggots, 1:02:34-1:04:03. A shot of their maggot-covered shoes on the maggot-covered floor suggest that Yes, maggots inevitably were trod upon in the filming of this fine cinematic work.

The Devil (Żuławski)

The Devil (Diabel). Andrzej Żuławski, 1972.

😿 😿 😿

Edition screened: Included in Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray box set Andrzej Żuławski: Three Films, released 2023. Polish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 125 minutes.

Summary: Mutilation of a horse, and inappropriate handling of a dead dog.

Details:

1) 1:51:10-1:51:19. While riding horseback, the protagonist slits the horse’s neck and the horse proceeds to fall down along with the riders. The horse then runs off with blood down its body. The appearance is very real.

2) 2:03:07-2:03:35. After killing someone, the camera reveals the dead body of a dog, which the murderer then carries for a bit before laying the dog back down on the ground.

Diary of a Lost Girl

Diary of a Lost Girl (Tagebuch einer Verlorenen). G.W. Pabst, 1929.

😸

Edition screened: Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #097, released 2014. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 79 minutes.

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

Drunken Angel

Drunken Angel (Yoidore tenshi). Akira Kurosawa, 1948.

😸

Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray DVD #413, released 2007. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.

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

Freaks

Freaks. Tod Browning, 1932.

😸

Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray set #1194 Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers, released 2023. English language. Runtime approximately 62 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. The circus strong man, ‘Hercules’, grapples with a bull for a few seconds at the beginning of the film but we don’t see the animal mistreated.

The Georgetown Loop

The Georgetown Loop. Ken Jacobs, 1996.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Keno Lorber Blu-ray Ken Jacobs Collection Vol. 1, released 2021. No audio track. Runtime approximately 11 minutes.

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

The Girl and the Geek

The Girl and the Geek (Passion in the Sun). Dale Berry, 1964.

😸

Edition screened: Something Weird DVD, released 2006. English language. Runtime approximately 72 minutes.

Summary: No animals in the film.

The Something Weird DVD-R also includes most of George Gunter’s The Old Man’s Bride (1967).

Homework

Homework (Mashgh-e Shab). Abbas Kiarostami, 1989.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Criterion Blu-ray#990 Where Is the Friend’s House?, included in the box set The Koker Trilogy, released 2019. Persian language. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.

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

A series of interviews with Iranian children expose the stress and physical anguish of completing daily homework assignments in households that expect physical work from children after school. While released in 1989, the interviews must have been shot around 1985 based on political details discussed.

How To Be Loved

How To Be Loved (Jak byc kochana). Wojciech Has, 1963.

😸

Edition screened: Yellow Veil Blu-ray, released 2023. Polish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.

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

I Like to Watch

I Like to Watch. Paul Vatelli, 1982.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #324 with Sorority Sweethearts, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 76 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. 2/5❤

In the Earth

In the Earth. Ben Wheatley, 2021.

😸

Edition screened: Universal Blu-ray, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 107 minutes.

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

Ken Jacobs Collection Vol. 1

Ken Jacobs Collection Vol. 1. Ken Jacobs, 1955-2021.

😿

Edition screened: Kino Lorber Blu-ray, released 2021. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 423 minutes.

Summary: All films are free of animal violence, except for Tom, Tom the Piper’s Son in which a pig is handled roughly in repurposed vintage footage, but not apparently hurt.

Disc 1:
• Orchard Street (1955, 27 minutes)
• The Whirled (1963 w/ 2007 annotations, 20 minutes)
• Little Stabs at Happiness (1963, 15 minutes)
• Blonde Cobra (1963, 34 minutes)
• The Sky Socialist (1964 w/ 2019 annotations, 96 minutes)
• Window (1964, 12 minutes)

Disc 2:
• The Sky Socialist: Environs and Outtakes (1966 w/2019 annotations, 47 minutes)
• Tom, Tom the Piper’s Son (1969, 115 minutes)
• The Georgetown Loop (1996, 11 minutes)
• A Tom, Tom Chaser (2002, 11 minutes)
• Capitalism: Child Labor (2006, 14 minutes)
• Capitalism: Slavery (2006, 3 minutes)
• Movie That Invites Pausing (2021, 20 minutes)

The Koker Trilogy

The Koker Trilogy. Abbas Kiarostami, 1987-1994.

😸

Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray box set, released 2019. Persian language with English subtitles. Cumulative runtime of feature films approximately 281 minutes.

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

In addition to the three very good feature films, the Criterion set includes Kiarostami’s 1989 documentary Homework along with several interview and other supplemental material. 

Where Is the Friend’s House? (1987)

And Life Goes On (1992)

Through the Olive Trees (1994)

The Last Laugh

The Last Laugh (Der letzte Mann). F.W. Murnau, 1924.

😸

Edition screened: Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #144 included in the Early Murnau: Five Films 1921-1925 box set released 2016. German intertitles with English subtitles, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

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

Made in Britain

Made in Britain. Alan Clarke, 1982.

😸

Edition screened: ITV DVD, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 76 minutes.

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

Man Marked for Death, 20 Years Later

Man Marked for Death, 20 Years Later (Cabra Marcado Para Morrer). Eduardo Coutinho, 1984.

😸

Edition screened: Mawu Blu-ray, released 2023. Portuguese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 119 minutes.

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

Moana: With Sound

Moana: With Sound (Moana of the South Seas). Robert J. Flaherty, Frances H. Flaherty, 1926.

😿😿

Edition screened: Kino Blu-ray, released 2015. Originally silent with English intertitles; presented here with later 1975 audio sound effects track. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.

Summary: Capturing and associated rough handling of wild animals in preparation for their slaughter.

Details:

1) A wild boar is caught in a snare, beaten into submission with poles, then hogtied and carried off, 15:46-18:34.

2) A large fish is speared and shown around, 22:12-22:40.

3) A fabulous sea turtle is caught, tumbled into a canoe, brought ashore, then a whole is drilled into his shell so he can be dragged away, 53:40-58:32.

Elsewhere in the film we also see a boy smoke a large crab out of its hiding place with the intertitle comment that it will make good eatin’. By the end of the film we understand that these may not just be “day in the life” incidents, but that the capturing of the animals and everything else in Moana is in preparation for a big wedding celebration. We do not see any of these animals after their capture.

This presentation of Flaherty’s 1926 film is augmented by post-production audio captured by the filmmaker’s daughter who returned to the original South Seas island location in 1975. 

Movie That Invites Pausing

Movie That Invites Pausing. Ken Jacobs, 2021.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Keno Lorber Blu-ray Ken Jacobs Collection Vol. 1, released 2021. No audio track. Runtime approximately 20 minutes.

Summary: No animals in the film.

The Mystic

The Mystic. Tod Browning, 1925.

😸

Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray set #1194 Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers, released 2023. Scored, with English intertitles and sound effects track, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 74 minutes.

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

No Regrets for Our Youth

No Regrets for Our Youth (Waga seishun ni kuinashi). Akira Kurosawa, 1946.

😸

Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 07: Postwar Kurosawa 5-DVD set, released 2007. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. 

The Old Man’s Bride

The Old Man’s Bride. George Gunter, 1967.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Something Weird DVD The Girl and the Geek, released 2006. English language. Runtime approximately 33 minutes.

Summary: No animals in the film.

Although quite long enough, this presentation of Gunter’s short film is incomplete. Rather than ending abruptly after the bride’s dalliance at a neighbor’s shack, the original film concludes with the bride discovering the money hidden at her bridegroom’s house, which is booby-trapped and she goes boom.  

On the Silver Globe

On the Silver Globe (Na srebrnym globie). Andrzej Żuławski, 1988.

😿 😿

Edition screened: Included in Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray box set Andrzej Żuławski: Three Films, released 2023. Polish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 166 minutes.

Summary: Hunting idiocy (normalcy).

Details:

1) 25:38-25:48. One of the travelers spears a fish in the sea, brings it onboard the boat and removes it from the spear, then chucks it outside of the frame.

2) 29:09-29:14. Arrows are shot into trees and birds squawk and fly away/fall to the ground. Because it happens so quickly I’m uncertain if any were hit, but it appears that at least one may have been.

One Wonderful Sunday

One Wonderful Sunday (Subarashiki nichiyobi). Akira Kurosawa, 1947.

😸

Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 07: Postwar Kurosawa 5-DVD set, released 2007. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 109 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. 

Peyton Place

Peyton Place. Mark Robson, 1957.

😿

Edition screened: 20th Century Fox DVD, released 2004. English language. Runtime approximately 156 minutes.

Summary: A live lobster is pulled from a glass holding tank and dropped into a kettle of boiling water, 1:35:00-1:35:10. Although the reality of this torturous practice is horrendous, the depiction is not graphic and is presented as part of a romantic dinner at an outdoor restaurant in Malibu Beach.

Lobster aside, Peyton Place is an unexpectedly decent film from just about any perspective. The script, acting, set design, moralizing themes, and costuming are excellent. Peyton Place also is really ‘seedy’- a word I’ve used less than half a dozen times in my life - in the way the film draws our interest to rape, abortion, and adultery (although none of those words is used in the 1957 production), and the type of small-town gossip that ruins innocent people’s lives.

Phantom

Phantom. F.W. Murnau, 1922.

😸

Edition screened: Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #14a included in the Early Murnau: Five Films 1921-1925 box set released 2016. German intertitles with English subtitles, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 119 minutes.

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

Pulsating Flesh/Super Sex

Pulsating Flesh/Super Sex. Carlos Tobalina, 1986.

😸

Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome DVD #160 Peekarama: Pulsating Flesh/Super Sex, released 2017. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 159 minutes.

Summary: No animals in either feature.

• Pulsating Flesh. Carlos Tobalina as Troy Benny, 1986, approximately 79 minutes.. 2/5❤

• Super Sex. Carlos Tobalina as Troy Benny, 1986, approximately 80 minutes. 2.5/5❤

Rebels of the Neon God

Rebels of the Neon God (Qing shao nian nuo zha). Ming-liang Tsai, 1992.

😿

Edition screened: Big World Blu-ray, released 2022. Mandarin language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.

Summary: Cruel killing of an insect.

Details: The protagonist skewers a cockroach with a compass, brings it to his desk and drives the skewered cockroach onto the desk, 2:27-2:40. We see the cockroach again at 3:03-3:11 as the protagonist flings the dead cockroach outside through the window. A little over a minute later, the cockroach wins some small retribution as another cockroach sticks to the glass pane outside the protagonist’s bedroom window and he tries smacking the glass so that the cockroach falls off on the other side, but winds up putting his hand through the window pane and cutting himself.

Runaway Nightmare

Runaway Nightmare. Mike Cartel, 1982.

😸

Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome DVD #042, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.

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

The scene in the rural bar includes several shots of a 1969 Williams Suspense (41:15), plus quick views of a 1971 Gottlieb Drop-A-Card (44:48), a 1976 Bally Night Rider and a 1977 Bally Bobby Orr Power Play (both 45:04), and a 1971 Gottlieb Roller Coaster (45:32)

Scandal (Kurosawa)

Scandal (Shubun). Akira Kurosawa, 1950.

😸

Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 07: Postwar Kurosawa 5-DVD set, released 2007. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 104 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals. 

Secrets of Sweet Sixteen

Secrets of Sweet Sixteen (Was Schulmädchen verschweigen). Ernst Hofbauer, 1973.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Darkforce Blu-ray Drive-in Double Feature #11 Secrets of Sweet Sixteen / Wacky Taxi, released 2021. English dub. Runtime approximately 80 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. 3/5❤

Shame (Jodrell)

Shame. Steve Jodrell, 1988.

😸

Edition screened: Umbrella Blu-ray, released 2023. English language. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.

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

Showgirls

Showgirls. Paul Verhoeven, 1995.

😸

Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome UHD #6, released 2023. English language. Runtime approximately 131 minutes.

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

Silent Avant-Garde: 21 Experiments with Silent Film & New Music

Silent Avant-Garde: 21 Experiments with Silent Film & New Music. Various directors, 1922-2022.

😸

Edition screened: Kino Lorber Blu-ray, released 2023. Individually scored, no dialogue tracks. Cumulative runtime approximately 188 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals in any of the films. 

Many of these important short films were released previously on Avant-Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920’s and 30’s and other Kino compilations, but there are some wonderful surprises in this volume and the new music is a treat. Included are:

1. The Twenty-Four Dollar Island (Robert Flaherty, 1925, 14 minutes.) New digital restoration. Music by Donald Sosin.

2. Mexican Footage (Sergei Eisenstein, 1930, 5 minutes.) New digital restoration. No music.

3. Anémic Cinéma (Marcel Duchamp, 1926, 7 minutes.) Music by Gustavo Matamoros.

4. Pas de deux (Al Brick, 1924, 4 minutes.) Music by Donald Sosin.

5. “Skyline Dance” montage sequence from Manhattan Cocktail. (Slavko Vorkapich, 1928. Music by John Alden Carpenter.

6. “The Money Machine” montage sequence from The Wolf of Wall Street. (Slavko Vorkapich, 1929). Music by John Alden Carpenter.

7. “Prohibition” montage sequence from Sins of the Fathers.(Slavko Vorkapich, 1928.) Music by John Alden Carpenter.

8. “The Furies” montage sequence from Crime of Passion. (Slavko Vorkapich, 1934.) Music by Ludwig van Beethoven.

9. A Bronx Morning (Jay Leyda, 1931, 14 minutes.) Music by Donald Sosin.

10. Look Park (Ralph Steiner, 1973, 10 minutes). New digital restoration. Music by Jacob Druckman, Jacques Offenbach.

11. The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra (Robert Florey and Slavko Vorkapich, 1927, 14 minutes.) Music by Carlos Dominguez, Alex Lough.

12. Hände [Hands: The Life and Loves of the Gentler Sex] (Miklos Bandy and Stella F. Simon, 1927, 13 minutes.) Music by Marc Blitzstein.

13. Return to Reason (Man Ray, 1923, 2 minutes). New digital restoration. Music by George Antheil, performed by Guy Livingston; Paul Lehrman

14. Manhatta (Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler, 1921, 12 minutes.) Music by Donald Sosin.

15. Ballet Mécanique [Charlot présente le ballet mécanique] (Fernand Léger, 1924 & 1931, 13 minutes.) New digital restoration. Music by George Antheil, Charles Amirkhanian.

16. Hearts of Age (Orson Welles, 1934, 8 minutes.) Music by Donald Sosin.

17. Escape: Synchronomy No. 4 (Mary Ellen Bute and Theodore J. Nemeth, 1938, 4 minutes.) New digital restoration. Music by Johann Sebastian Bach, conducted by Léopold Stokowski.

18. N.Y., N.Y. (Francis Thompson, 1949-1958, 15 minutes.) Music by Gene Forrell.

19. The Eclipse [Rose Hobart] (Joseph Cornell, 1936-1949), 21 minutes). New digital restoration. Music by Rafael Audinot, Alberto de Bru, Cuarteto Caney.

20. Tenga fe (Bruce Posner, 1906, 1922, 2022, 7 minutes.) New digital restoration. Music by Christian Wolff.

21. The Enchanted City (Warren A. Newcombe and Howard Estabrook, 1922), 12 minutes.) New digital restoration. Music by Donald Sosin.