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 Italian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italian. Show all posts

Violence in a Women’s Prison

Violence in a Women’s Prison (Violenza in un carcere femminile). Bruno Mattei, 1982.

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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 98 minutes.


Summary: Depiction of killing a cockroach.


Details:

1) Around the 35 minute mark, Emmanuelle pushes at some black rats with her feet. The rats aren’t kicked or otherwise hurt.

2) Earlier in the film we see an inmate talking nicely to a cockroach that she keeps in a small cage made of toothpicks. At 1:02:50 the cage is smashed underfoot, presumably with the cockroach inside although we see no bug gore.


Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade

Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade (La via della prostituzione). Joe D’Amato, 1978.

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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle, released 2023. Italian with English dub. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. 1.5/5




Emanuelle and the Porno Nights of the World

Emanuelle and the Porno Nights of the World (Emanuelle e le porno notti nel mondo n. 2). Bruno Mattei (as Jimmy Matheus), 1977.

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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle, released 2023. English dub by/of Laura Gemser. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.


Summary: As part of an alleged New Guinea wedding ceremony, numerous baby and mature domestic pigs are viciously clubbed to death followed by their evisceration and the assailants playing with internal organs, 40:12-41:52. Nightmarishly brutal evidence of why humans are the only unworthy life forms on the planet. Les Blank allegedly commented “Four stars, could have been five with some Schlitz beer cans on the set.” 


Unfortunate hostess Gemser is visibly awkward with her introduction that this film is “the best” of her world tour, as Emanuelle and the Porno Night of the World is made of leftovers from the slightly less abysmal [nothing here and the] Porno Nights of the World. The most entertaining scene in Emanuelle and the PN o/t W is the nightclub skit of Snow White and the Seven Four Horny Dwarves, filmed in Holland, we are told, an assertion Gemser supports by holding an Italian-language copy of Snow White. I also was slightly curious - not entertained because it was horrible and boring - but slightly curious about the futuristic Space Erotica show because it featured a dramatically lit IV drip stand in the center of the stage for no reason. Perhaps Euro-70s’ vision of something robotmorphic from the prop closet of the future.


Similar to [nothing here a/t] Porno Nights of the World, short transitions of Gemser’s beautiful face introducing the next tedium are the stingy smears of enticing wheat paste binding jumbles of crudely hacked construction paper. This time she is behind the wheel of a car endlessly bluescreen cruising the same two blocks of The Vegas Strip, arbitrarily identified as Atlanta, Austria, Copenhagen, whatever. 


Vermiglio

Vermiglio. Maura Delpero, 2025.

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Edition screened: Janus Blu-ray, released 2025. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 119 minutes.


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


Porno Nights of the World

Porno Nights of the World (Notti porno nel mondo). Bruno Mattei and Joe D’Amato, 1977.

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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle, released 2023. English dub by/of Laura Gemser. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.


Summary: A chicken is beheaded and the blood drizzled around as part of a macumba ritual, 1:20:26-1:21:36.


Although the chicken murder is inexcusable, the surrounding Afro-Brazilian ritual is the only vaguely interesting segment in this tiresome film. Per Mondo formula, Porno Nights is a stumbling parade of childishly staged “documents” performed by people who now fifty years later still live in fear of being recognized and publicly mocked. A desirable 8-minute edit of the film could be made by cutting every topical vignette, leaving just the dozen or so transitions of Laura Gemser talking with us in medium close-up while modeling her mid-70s Resort Season wardrobe.


Much better than the feature film is the supplemental documentary produced by Kier-La Janisse, The Naked Eye: Sex and the Mondo Film.


Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals

Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals. Joe D’Amato, 1977.

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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 93 minutes.


Summary: A constrictor drops from a branch and wraps around Laura Gemser, followed at 34:22 by a one-second close-up of the snake being shot.  2/5


Emanuelle Around the World

Emanuelle Around the World (Emanuelle - Perché violenza alle donne?). Joe D’Amato, 1977.

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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 102 minutes.


Summary: Sexual use of animals. 2.5/5


Details:

1) A snake crawls on the groin of a nude bound woman, 1:07:50-1:08:50

2) Depiction of a German Shepherd sexually assaulting the same woman, 1:09:26-1:10:25.


Emanuelle in Bangkok

Emanuelle in Bangkok (Emanuelle nera: Orient reportage). Joe D’Amato, 1976.

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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 94 minutes.


Summary: Spectator blood sports. 2.5/5


Details:

1) A few quick shots in a cockfighting arena around the 29:00 mark. The roosters are squaring off at the beginning of a fight and there is no combat or blood.

2) We see an entire baited fight between a mongoose and a cobra, 39:41-41:03. The animals are confined within a glass aquarium, attack one another, and fight until the cobra’s bloody death.


Emanuelle in America

Emanuelle in America. Joe D’Amato, 1976.

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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 94 minutes.


Summary: A woman manually stimulates a stallion, 22:48-23:50. I’m calling this nonconsensual as the horse was tethered and did not reciprocate.  4/5


The Eight Mountains

The Eight Mountains (Le otto montagne). Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch, 2022.

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Edition screened: Janus/Criterion Blu-ray, released 2023. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 157 minutes.


Summary: A dead goat hanging outside a house is slit open and the internal organs fall out into a bucket with blood all around, 2:02:25-2:02:47.


Black Emanuelle 2

Black Emanuelle 2 (Emanuelle nera N° 2). Bitto Albertini, 1976.

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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 91 minutes.


Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. 0.5/5


Black Emanuelle

Black Emanuelle (Emanuelle nera). Bitto Albertini, 1975.

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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: Long sequence of peaceful photography of African wild animals. No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. 3/5


Included on this BD is Kier-La Janisse’s 20-minute documentary The Reluctant Icon - A Tribute to Laura Gemser, along with several commentaries and interviews.


All the Colors of the Dark

All the Colors of the Dark (Tutti i colori del buio; They’re Coming to Get You!). Sergio Martino, 1972.

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Edition screened: Severin Blu-ray, released 2019. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.


Summary: A priest shoves a knife under a dog’s jaw. This happens off camera but we see blood dripping from the dog’s mouth, 36:03-36:30.


Django, Prepare a Coffin

Django, Prepare a Coffin (Preparati la bara!). Ferdinando Baldi, 1968.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2015. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.


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


In which not-Franco Nero enlists the help of not-Jack Albertson to defeat an uncharacteristically evil not-Steve McQueen. 


Senso

Senso. Luchino Visconti, 1954.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #556, released 2011. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 123 minutes.


Summary: A 30-second scene in a marketplace (1:26:27-1:26:52) includes a line of suspended cow carcasses and butchers with cleavers. This is in the background and the actors appear to be pantomiming. No blood, gore or details. At the end of the scene a man enters with several dead game birds. 1:26:27-1:26:52.


Story of a Love Affair

Story of a Love Affair (Cronaca di un amore). Michelangelo Antonioni, 1950.

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Edition screened: NoShame DVD, released 2005. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.


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


Europe ’51

Europe ’51. Roberto Rossellini, 1952.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #674 included in 3-Blu-ray set #672, 3 Films by Roberto Rossellini Starring Ingrid Bergman released 2013. English language with alternate Italian language version. Runtime approximately 118 minutes.


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


The Third Eye

The Third Eye (Il terzo occhio). Mino Guerrini, 1966.

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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray set Gothic Fantastico: Four Italian Tales of Terror, released 2022. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.


Summary: Taxidermy studio.


Details:

1) The first scene in the taxidermy studio provides an overview of Franco Nero’s projects, mostly birds but also some mammals including a white domestic cat and a deer (10:45-12:29).

2) A return to the taxidermy studio at 15:25 starts abruptly with the violent disemboweling of a dead hawk, followed by unclear but less violent tasks through 19:48. Action in the studio is intercut with scenes of the housekeeper cutting the brake line of the fiancé’s car and the fiancé driving away angrily. Ruh roh!

3) Dead parakeets on the floor of a large bird cage, 38:26-38:30.

4) A very upset parrot is tormented with a broom handle by deranged Frank Nero, 43:40-44:30.