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.

Showing posts with label Greek. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greek. Show all posts

The Hot Month of August

The Hot Month of August (O zestos minas Avgoustos). Sokrates Kapsaskis and Doris Wishman (as Louis Silverman), 1966.

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Edition screened: Included in AGFA Blu-ray set The Films of Doris Wishman: The Moonlight Years. English language. Runtime approximately 79 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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Alps

Alps (Alpeis). Yorgos Lanthimos, 2011.

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Edition screened: Kino Lorber Blu-ray, released 2019. Greek language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.


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


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Dogtooth

Dogtooth (Kynodontas). Yorgos Lanthimos, 2011.
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Edition screened: Kino Blu-ray, released 2011. Greek language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.

Summary: Beating of a dog and murder of a cat.

Details:
1) A dog is hit with a rod to agitate him during a guard dog training session, 26:27-26:43.
2) A cat is attacked and murdered with a pair of hedge shears, 43:18-43:30. After some skipable dialogue, we return to the cat’s disemboweled body, 43:54-44:00.  Violent, bloody, and real looking.


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Kinetta

Kinetta. Yorgos Lanthimos, 2005.
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Edition screened: Second Run DVD #90, released 2015. Greek language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 94 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Using very little dialogue, Kinetta delicately expands a complex relationship between three people who reenact recent murders taken place in their desolate Greek resort town. A plain-clothes police officer is a bully in real life and plays the aggressors; a hotel maid with esteem issues play the victims; and a film processing technician is the cameraman who commits the reenactments to video. 

Kinetta sometimes is challenging to follow and requires that you want to watch it, but is a genuine work of art. It is not easy to make a work of art. It is simple to make You’ve Got Mail. 

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Never on Sunday

Never on Sunday (Pote tin Kyriaki). Jules Dassin, 1960.
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Edition screened: MGM DVD released 2005. Greek language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.



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Last Words

Last Words (Letzte Worte). Werner Herzog, 1968.
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Edition screened: Included in BFI The Werner Herzog Collection Blu-ray box set, released 2014. Greek language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 13 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


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A Girl in Black

A Girl in Black (To koritsi me ta mavra). Michael Cacoyannis (Mihalis Kakogiannis), 1956.
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Edition screened: Fox Lorber ‘World Class Cinema’ DVD, released 2000. Greek language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.

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

A Girl in Black is a superb and unique viewing experience.
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