A Canterbury Tale. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1944.
😸
Edition screened: Criterion DVD #341, released 2006. English language. Runtime approximately 124 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Cure
Cure. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997.
😿 😿
Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #1155, released 2022. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 111 minutes.
Summary: Murdered monkey.
Details:
1) Animals including a rabbit, monkey, cat, and birds are kept in small cages in an unclean environment, 1:03:54-1:04:17.
2) A monkey is found crucified on the shower fixture, 1:07:31-1:07:36.
Dodes’ka-den
Dodes’ka-den (Dodesukaden). Akira Kurosawa, 1970.
😸
Edition screened: Criterion DVD #465, released 2009. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 140 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Goldstein
Goldstein. Philip Kaufman, 1964.
😸
Edition screened: Facets DVD, released 2006. English language. Runtime approximately 79 minutes.
Summary: A scene around the middle of the film takes place in a meat processing plant but nothing gory or explicit is shown; mostly images of hotdogs coming off the vacuum stuffer and a chase scene in hallways.
Goldstein is an exceptionally good film and an enjoyable viewing experience, reminding me often of Robert Downey Sr.’s best work.
Several scenes on the Facet release are in color, sometimes seemingly shot on color stock and other times obviously colorized. This does not match cataloguing data about the film which indicates that it was shot entirely in b&w. I’m chalking it up to “Facets: The world’s most frustrating releases of the world’s finest films.”
The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher
The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher. Ray Dennis Steckler (as Wolfgang Schmidt), 1980.
😸
Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set The Incredibly Strange Films of Ray Dennis Steckler, released 2022. English language. Runtime approximately 71 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Mikey & Nicky
Mikey & Nicky. Elaine May, 1977.
😸
Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #957, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 105 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
A 1961 Gottlieb Egg Head, can be seen in the bar several times, beginning around the 20 minute mark and following.
Stereo (Cronenberg)
Stereo (Tile 3B of a CAEE Educational Mosaic). David Cronenberg, 1969.
😸
Edition screened: Included with the Criterion Blu-ray Scanners #712, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 63 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
I dug this early Cronenberg film, in which a handful of students on a dreamy International Style campus participate in experiments about extrasensory communication. Pacing and tone of this beautiful black-and-white movie recall La Jetée, while the unapologetically intellectual voice-over sounds like the HAL 9000 reading Tristan Tzara.
Teen Turmoil Triple Feature
Teen Turmoil Triple Feature. Various directors, 1954-1967.
😸
Edition screened: Something Weird DVD, released 2004. English language. Cumulative runtime of the three features approximately 200 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals in any of the three films.
The Something Weird DVD includes:
Bad Girls Do Cry (1954 Sid Melton)
Girl in Trouble (1963 Brandon Chase)
A Good Time with a Bad Girl (1967 Barry Mahon)
We Await
We Await. Charles Pinion, 1996.
😸
Edition screened: Saturn’s Core Blu-ray, released 2022. English language. Runtime approximately 55 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Saturn’s Core BD also includes Pinion’s Red Spirit Lake (1993).
Black Cobra
Black Cobra (Eva nera, Black Cobra Woman). Joe D’Amato, 1976.
😿 😿 😿 😿
Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle, released 2023. English language with original Italian as an option. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.
Summary: Graphic scenes with and about snakes.
Details:
1) A street vendor removes a long snake from a container and skins it alive, then chops and flash cooks it in hot oil, 1:04:46 - 1:06:20. We see every bit of the process in what appears to be real time including serving it to the customers.
2) At 1:08:42 Emanuelle begins feeding snakes kept individually in aquariums by dropping live white rats into the containers. One of the mice panics as it is lowered onto a small constrictor that strangles and swallows it. We see the whole killing and swallowing, 1:09:17 - 1:09:55.
3) Around 1:30, a man is held down and threatened with a live cobra while it is explained how the snake will be used to kill him in a horrific way. We see only the snake and the terrified man.