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 Serbo-Croatian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Serbo-Croatian. Show all posts

Strangler vs. Strangler

Strangler vs. Strangler (Davitelj protiv davitelja). Slobodan Šijan, 1984.

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Edition screened: Mondo Macabro Blu-ray, released 2022. Serbo-Croatian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 96 minutes.


Summary: Endangerment of chickens for comedic effect.


Details: A crate of chickens falls out of a small truck during pursuit of the killer. A bicyclist then collides with the crate and falls on top where the chickens are (1:16:03-1:16:09). It does not seem that any of the chickens were hurt, but that’s probably just their good fortune while at the mercy of a director who thinks such things are funny. 


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Devičanska Svirka

Devičanska Svirka (The Maiden’s Tune). Đorđe Kadijević, 1973.

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Edition screened: Included with Leptirica (Disc 3) in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. Serbian with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 59 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.


One short scene includes the sound of overhead birds as we are told about an annual migration. We also see a man shooting into the sky, with no visible target or results.


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Leptirica

Leptirica (The She-Butterfly). Đorđe Kadijević, 1973.

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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. Serbian with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 65 minutes.


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


The Leptirica BD in the box set also includes two other films by Kadijević, Štićenik and Devičanska Svirka, both 1973.


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Štićenik

Štićenik (The Ward). Đorđe Kadijević, 1973.

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Edition screened: Included with Leptirica (Disc 3) in Severin Blu-ray box set All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror, released 2021. Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 45 minutes.


Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.



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Underground (Kusturica)

Underground. Emir Kusturica, 1995.
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Edition screened: Included on BFI Underground Blu-ray/DVD set, released 2016. Serbian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 170 minutes.

Summary: Dead and injured animals.

Details: Mortally wounded animals including a tiger, water fowl, and a mother chimpanzee after a zoo is bombed, 8:18-9:42. Slight return 14:10-14:45.

Underground is the Palme d’Or-winning film-length version of the TV mini-series Once Upon a Time There Was a Country.

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Hole in the Soul

Hole in the Soul (Rupa u dusi). Dušan Makavejev, 1994.
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Edition screened: Included on Criterion DVD #389 WR: Mysteries of the Organism, released 2007. English and Serbo-Croatian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 50 minutes.

Summary: Piglet carcasses being sold at public market (32:06-32:27) is brief and unsensationalistic, but a turn-off in this engaging, enjoyable film.

Hole in the Soul is the sort of film typically made by Chris Marker or Agnès Varda, a witty romp through a regional pocket of politics and culture structured as reminiscing autobiography. 
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Once Upon a Time There Was a Country

Once Upon a Time There Was a Country (Bila jednom jedna zemlja). Emir Kusturica, 1995.
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Edition screened: Included on BFI Underground Blu-ray/DVD set, released 2016. Serbian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 315 minutes.

Summary: Dead and injured animals.

Details:
Episode 1
1)  A zoo is bombed 10:20-12:10, with numerous images of wounded, dying, and dead animals including big cats and water fowl.
2) Cruel handling of a house cat, with an injured tiger in the background, 18:05-18:15.
Episode 4
3)  A cat is held by the neck then kicked, 8:35-8:42.
4) The episode ends with repeated discussion of killing pigs while the animals are held suspended by their back feet.

Once Upon a Time There Was a Country is the long cut of Kusturica’s Underground, and was shown as a 5-hour TV mini-series on Serbian television.
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A Serbian Film

A Serbian Film (Srpski film). Srdjan Spasojevic, 2010.
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Edition screened: Contra DVD, released 2011. Serbian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 104 minutes.


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

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WR: Mysteries of the Organism

WR: Mysteries of the Organism (W.R.–Misterije organizma). Dušan Makavejev, 1971.
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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #389, released 2007. Serbo-Croatian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 85 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Criterion release also contains Dušan’s Hole in the Soul (1994).


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