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.

Cover Girl Models

Cover Girl Models. Cirio H. Santiago, 1975.

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Edition screened: Included in Shout! Factory Lethal Ladies Collection Vol. 2 DVD set, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 73 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Roger Corman’s Cult Classics Triple Feature ‘Lethal Ladies’ Collection Vol. 2 also includes:

The Arena (1974 Steve Carver)

Fly Me  (1973 Cirio H. Santiago and Jonathan Demme)

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.

Fly Me

Fly Me. Cirio H. Santiago and Jonathan Demme, 1973.

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Edition screened: Included in Shout! Factory Lethal Ladies Collection Vol. 2 DVD set, released 2012. English language. Runtime approximately 72 minutes.

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

The Roger Corman’s Cult Classics Triple Feature ‘Lethal Ladies’ Collection Vol. 2 also includes:

Cover Girl Models (1975 Cirio H. Santiago)

The Arena (1974 Steve Carver)

Mondo Freudo

Mondo Freudo. Lee Frost, 1966.

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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray Mondo Freudo/Mondo Bizarro, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 76 minutes.

Summary: Staged religious ceremony with dead animals.

Details:

1) As part of an obviously phony satanic ritual, an already-dead chicken is suspended by the feet, stabbed, and we see blood drip (54:48 - 55:03). The chicken is tossed to the floor and occasionally visible in the background through 55:45.

2) Same scene, a fake-looking pig’s head on a table with blood on the face, 56:42 - 56:46, and again 59:11 - 59:18.

Mondo Bizarro

Mondo Bizarro. Lee Frost, 1966.

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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray Mondo Freudo/Mondo Bizarro, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 80 minutes.

Summary: Animals murdered in a staged religious ceremony.

Details:

1) As part of a staged vodou ritual, a live chicken is beheaded and its blood drained into a a cup, followed by a small boa constrictor similarly beheaded and its blood drained into the same cup. This all happens at a distance and the image is dark and grainy, 11:00 - 12:20. 

Moana: With Sound

Moana: With Sound (Moana of the South Seas). Robert J. Flaherty, Frances H. Flaherty, 1926.

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Edition screened: Kino Blu-ray, released 2015. Originally silent with English intertitles; presented here with later 1975 audio sound effects track. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.

Summary: Capturing and associated rough handling of wild animals in preparation for their slaughter.

Details:

1) A wild boar is caught in a snare, beaten into submission with poles, then hogtied and carried off, 15:46-18:34.

2) A large fish is speared and shown around, 22:12-22:40.

3) A fabulous sea turtle is caught, tumbled into a canoe, brought ashore, then a whole is drilled into his shell so he can be dragged away, 53:40-58:32.

Elsewhere in the film we also see a boy smoke a large crab out of its hiding place with the intertitle comment that it will make good eatin’. By the end of the film we understand that these may not just be “day in the life” incidents, but that the capturing of the animals and everything else in Moana is in preparation for a big wedding celebration. We do not see any of these animals after their capture.

This presentation of Flaherty’s 1926 film is augmented by post-production audio captured by the filmmaker’s daughter who returned to the original South Seas island location in 1975. 

Colette

Colette. Yannick Bellon, 1950.

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Edition screened: Included on Icarus DVD Remembrance of Things to Come, released 2008. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 26 minutes.

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

The Kyoto Connection: Journey to Japan

The Kyoto Connection: Journey to Japan (Poruno no joô: Nippon sex ryokô). Sadao Nakajima, 1973.

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Edition screened: Cheezy Movies DVD, released 2020. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 72 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. 1/5❤

A disappointing transfer of a disappointing film. 

Princesse Tam-Tam

Princesse Tam-Tam. Edmond T. Gréville, 1935.

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Edition screened: Included with Zou-Zou on Kino Lorber Blu-ray, released 2022. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 77 minutes.

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

This double feature of early Josephine Baker films made in France also includes the 1928 short Fireman of the Folies-Bergère (8 minutes, director unknown); a decent multipart documentary about Baker’s career and accomplishments; and two 1-minute excerpts spotlighting the famous dancer.

America as Seen by a Frenchman

America as Seen by a Frenchman. François Reichenbach, 1960.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2020. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

Summary: The cruel and trashy spectacle of a high-diving horse, 44:22-45:12. There is no indication of physical injury to the horse. This time.

Mystery Train

Mystery Train. Jim Jarmusch, 1989.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #521, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 140 minutes.

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

Death Has Blue Eyes

Death Has Blue Eyes (To koritsi vomva/The Para Psychics). Nico Mastorakis, 1976.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2021. English dub. Runtime approximately 80 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

One Pair of Eyes: Alan Garner

One Pair of Eyes: Alan Garner. Lawrence Moore, 1972.

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Edition screened: Included on BFI DVD Red Shift, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 40 minutes.

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

An adventurous portrait of Red Shift’s author in which Garner sensibly assembles time, communication, energy, and impermanence so that these concepts make more sense collectively than they muster independently. Garner’s sensitive articulation of morality, art, and humanity can be life-changing.

Spirit of Cheshire

Spirit of Cheshire. Kevin Marshland, 1980.

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Edition screened: Included on BFI DVD Red Shift, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 20 minutes.

Summary: No animals in the film.

A group of historic Rolls-Royce automobiles lead an enjoyable tour around historic Cheshire. 

The Trip to Greece

The Trip to Greece. Michael Winterbottom, 2020.

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Edition screened: IFC Blu-ray, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 103 minutes.

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

Phantom India

Phantom India. Louis Malle, 1969.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 32: The Documentaries of Louis Malle DVD set, released 2007. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 363 minutes.

Summary: Natural resolution of a cow carcass; minor fishing action.

• Episode 1: The Impossible Camera (52 minutes)
  Vultures circle and gather, then we see a dead cow at 18:21. The cow’s carcass is picked at by vultures and wild dogs through 23:39.
  
• Episode 2: Things Seen in Madras (51 minutes
  
• Episode 3: The Indians and the Sacred (52 minutes)
  
• Episode 4: Dream and Reality (51 minutes)
  Fishermen with their haul, 31:50-32:50. Baskets of small dead fish and shrimp, no butchering or death throes.
  
• Episode 5: A Look at Castes (52 minutes)
  
• Episode 6: On the Fringes of Indian Society (51 minutes)
  
• Episode 7: Bombay (52 minutes)

Calcutta

Calcutta. Louis Malle, 1969.

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Edition screened: Included in Criterion Eclipse Series 32: The Documentaries of Louis Malle DVD set, released 2007. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 99 minutes.

Summary: Dead rat.

Details: A dead rat lies among refuse, 1:34:38-1 34:41.

Killing Eve: Seasons 1-4

Killing Eve: Seasons 1-4. Various directors, 2018-2022.

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Edition screened: Individual BBC DVD sets, released 2018-2022. English language. Runtimes approximately, Season 1: 338 minutes; Season 2: 360 minutes; Season 3: 336 minutes; Season 4: 332minutes.

Summary: Several scenes of animals that have been killed by humans.

Details:

1) Season 1, Episode 2: A photograph of a hanged dog is shown as part of a psychological examination, 12:43-13:03.

2) Season 4, Episode 1: Villanelle sits on the edge of a bathtub holding a cat. The cat becomes startled and leaps or is thrown upward presumably hitting his head on the ceiling. Cut to a brief shot of the dead cat floating in the bathtub with blood, 17:20. Later, a plastic bag is dropped on the floor with the dead cat’s legs protruding 22:27-22:29.

Midsommar

Midsommar. Ari Aster, 2019.

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Edition screened: Lionsgate Blu-ray, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 147 minutes.

Summary: Ritual use of a bear’s body.

Details: Several non-violent images early in the film let us know that a bear ultimately will be sacrificed. As Midsommar reaches its dramatic conclusion at 2:16:25, we see the already-dead bear laid out respectfully on a table with his chest cut open. There is no particular blood or gore, just an overhead shot of the room which includes the opened bear. An elder then instructs children about removing organs without making a mess. We see a few seconds of intestines being handled at 2:16:30, then through 2:17:10 we return to the overhead shot of the room, this time with the bear’s carcass cleaned and respectful-looking. 

This is not like one of those gory cow slaughter scenes that the Italian Realists loved, and certainly nothing like the typical idiot-hillbilly-cleaning-a-deer scene. The bear obviously is fake, there really is no blood or mess, and the tone is calm and constructive.  It you are inclined to see Midsommar anyway, this scene is not a reason to avoid it.