Stolen Desire (Nusumareta yokujô). Shohei Imamura, 1958.
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Edition screened: Included on Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray/DVD combo #21 Pigs & Battleships, released 2011. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Andrzej Żuławski: Three Films. 1971-1988.
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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)
The Devil (Diabel). Andrzej Żuławski, 1972.
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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 (Tagebuch einer Verlorenen). G.W. Pabst, 1929.
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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.
The Last Laugh (Der letzte Mann). F.W. Murnau, 1924.
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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.
On the Silver Globe (Na srebrnym globie). Andrzej Żuławski, 1988.
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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.
Phantom. F.W. Murnau, 1922.
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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.
Tartuffe (Herr Tartüff). F.W. Murnau, 1925.
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Edition screened: Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #143 included in the Early Murnau: Five Films 1921-1925 box set released 2016. German intertitles with English subtitles, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 63 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Third Part of the Night (Trzecia czesc nocy). Andrzej Żuławski, 1971.
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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 107 minutes.
Summary: Perverted engagements with lice.
Details:
1) Lice are plucked from a Petri dish and clamped into the teeth of a metallic object to hold them in place. Shortly afterwards they’re fed blood. (1:13:54-1:14:04)
2) Protagonist appears to be dissecting lice, 1:24:30-1:24:54.
Le beau Serge. Claude Chabrol, 1958.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #580, released 2011. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Le cousins. Claude Chabrol, 1959.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #581, released 2011. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 109 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Hawks and the Sparrows (Uccellacci e uccellini). Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1966.
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Edition screened: Masters of Cinema DVD #109, released 2003. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.
Summary: A real crow is treated unkindly, then portrayed as incinerated.
Details:
1) A talking crow “follows” Totò and Ninetto around the outskirts of Rome, but the bird clearly is being dragged on a lead that sometimes is visible to the camera. Throughout the film, the bird’s gate is arhythmic and uncomfortable.
2) A hawk dives from the sky and kills a sparrow, 45:50-45:58. Legitimate nature footage.
3) The film concludes with Totò grabbing the crow to eat it. The crow apparently detonates in his hand and we see close ups of an incinerated crow carcass 1:26:51-1:27:13.
The Burmese Harp (Biruma No Tategoto). Kon Ichikawa, 1956.
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Edition screened: Eureka! Masters of Cinema # BD 013, released 2012. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 117 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Viy (De dødes tjern). Konstantin Ershov and Georgiy Kropachyov, 1967.
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Edition screened: Included with Witchhammer (Disc 4) in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. Russian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 76 minutes.
Summary: Striking a pig.
Details: As a young man beds down on a stack of hay at 10:54, he kicks a friendly pig confined in a neighboring stall in the head for no reason. Not hard enough to injure the animal, but reinforcing our multicultural tradition to treat these kind, intelligent animals with pointless brutality.
Nightmare Alley. Edmund Goulding, 1947.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #1078, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 111 minutes.
Summary: Brief verbal references to “the Geek” biting chickens’ heads off, but no depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Criterion Blu-ray includes Todd Robbins’ enjoyable 19-minute presentation about the history of side shows (produced by Jason Altman), as well as several relevant interviews.
An unidentifiable early wooden pinball machine is seen in ‘Lem’s Place’ first at 43:18 and again at 44:18.
Nishi Ginza Station (Nishi Ginza ekimae). Shôhei Imamura, 1958.
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Edition screened: Included on Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #22 The Insect Woman, released 2012. Japanese language with English subtitles.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
The Last Command. Josef von Sternberg, 1928.
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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #530, included in Criterion 3-DVD set #528 3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg, released 2010. Scored and with English intertitles, no dialogue track. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.
Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Harold and Maude. Hal Ashby, 1971.
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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #608, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 91 minutes.
Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.
Various late 60s pinball machines in the arcade around 1:17:00, mostly side views.
Early Hou Hsiao-Hsien: Three Films 1980-1983.
The Flowers of St. Francis (Francesco, giullare di Dio). Roberto Rossellini, 1950.