Death Curse of Tartu

Death Curse of Tartu. William Grefé, 1966.

😿😿

Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray box set He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.

Summary: Snake abuse.

Details:

1) A very large constrictor is loosely draped in a small tree, about nine feet above the man below. Then cut to the man, as we see the enormous snake obviously thrown at him at 18:56, the snake hitting the man in an awkward fashion resembling neither a drop nor an attack in any way. The man “wrestles” the obviously tame snake through 19:58, rolling around on it with his full weight, maneuvering its head as though he is fending off a bite, and strangling the snake, pushing his thumbs deep into its throat. The poor snake glides off after being released/vanquished. 

2) An average-sized snake is picked up nonchalantly at 20:06 and dropped into a clear polyethylene bag, the typed used for fish at a pet store. The man then knots the end closed with little air in the bag, like he was taught to do with the fish at the pet store (20:17). He walks around his morbid petting zoo setup talking with someone for a while and just puts the bag down at some point.

3) After adding to Orgy of the Dead’s evidence that average-looking girls dancing around in their underwear is not very appealing, one of these girls decides to go for a swim in what appears to be a lake of Chocolate SlimFast. We see the fin of an approaching shark at 44:00, with subsequent thrashing and foamy froth to suggest that she is being attacked. A man on shore is shown shooting into the lake at 45:45, apparently ending the apparent attack.

4) An alligator lumbers along followed by disjointed shooting, shark attack style, at 1:13:50.

This is a terrible movie, and a spoiler here has about as much effect as it would on a Chevy Citation. Interlaced with the animal abuse and underwear dancing are several scenes of  death-defying archaeological adventure, including spooky cobwebs that might get on your face, large stones that must be walked around, treacherous loose gravel, and a decomposing corpse. Turns out, all this mystery is the Death Curse of a Native American and the animal attacks were him. He finally comes back to life in his true form and is wrestled/strangled to defeat just like the snake.

Cop au vin

Cop au vin (Chicken with Vinegar /Poulet au vinaigre). Claude Chabrol, 1985.

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Edition screened: Included in Cohen Blu-ray set The Inspector Lavardin Collection, released 2014. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The Castaways of Turtle Island

The Castaways of Turtle Island (Les naufragés de l'île de la Tortue). Jacques Rozier, 1976.

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Edition screened: Included in Potemkine DVD box set Jacques Rozier, released 2008. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 140 minutes.

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

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. George Roy Hill, 1969.

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Edition: 20th Century Fox 40th Anniversary Special Edition Blu-ray, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 110 minutes.

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

Blue Jeans

Blue Jeans. Jacques Rozier, 1958.

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Edition screened: Included in Potemkine DVD box set Jacques Rozier, released 2008. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 22 minutes.

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

At 19:00, long shot of a pinball machine through a dirty window, followed by a closeup of the 1954 Gottlieb Flag-Ship. 

The Black Snail

The Black Snail (L'escargot noir: Les dossiers secrets de l'inspecteur Lavardin). Claude Chabrol, 1988.

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Edition screened: Included in Cohen Blu-ray set The Inspector Lavardin Collection, released 2014. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 89 minutes.

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

Beyond the Door

Beyond the Door (Chi sei?). Ovidio Assonitis (as O. Hellman) and Robert Barrett, 1974.

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Edition screened: Arrow Blu-ray, released 2020. Original English overdub of the most unbelievable nature, demonstrating just how unbelievable nature can be. Runtime approximately 108 minutes.

Summary: Predictable yet daring fish tank smashing.

Details:

A woman hurls a heavy glass ashtray at a large aquarium which obligingly smashes in slow motion at 23:07. We see one large fish stranded on a sturdy aquarium plant and a few others spilling out from the shattered opening, through 23:37. A brazen directorial flourish omits the traditional close-up of a gasping fish dying on a medium-pile tan acrylic carpet, cutting instead to that ashtray-throwin’ aquarium-smashin’ wife confessing to her husband . . . but then surprises us with a return to that same barely-flapping fish stranded on the plant, 24:42-24:48.

Last night I had a fever dream in which I was forced to pick the most memorable scene from Beyond the Door. I awoke in a sweaty panic and still am trying to decide:

1) A woman pregnant with Satan’s baby is nonetheless tormented and tortured by that ol’ deceiver, as The Bearer of Light is prone to do. While descending municipal stone stairs in downtown San Francisco, she looks down to see that Lucifer has resorted to the old slip on a banana peel gag. She stops, picks up the mostly brown splayed-out peel from the dirty steps, and tooth-scrapes out the little bit of banana at the terminal end. 

2) The children’s room is decorated in appropriate mid-70s movie style, with cute bedding, shelves of dolls and stuffed animals, a wicker rocking chair, and a poster of Henry Kissinger standing shirtless with his back to us and looking over his shoulder, his pants down and a red-white-and-blue bull’s eye centered on his anus.

I kid you not.

Band of Outsiders

Band of Outsiders (Bande à part). Jean-Luc Godard, 1964.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #174, released 2013. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.

Summary: Images of a traveling zoo, but no particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

1962 Gottlieb Sunset in a cafe scene starting about 1:09:00. 

The Criterion BD also includes Varda’s Les fiancés du Mac Donald ou.

Alien Covenant

Alien Covenant. Ridley Scott, 2017.

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Edition screened: 2oth Century Fox Blu-ray, released 2017. English language. Runtime approximately 122 minutes.

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

The Complete Films of Agnès Varda

The Complete Films of Agnès Varda. Agnès Varda 1955-2020.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray box set, released 2020. Mostly French with English subtitles. Runtime of feature films approximately 26 hours.

Summary: Varda is a compassionate filmmaker. See notes for a few titles that contain documents or realistic inclusions of animal death.

The Criterion retrospective includes fifteen Blu-ray discs that present Varda’s catalogue and associated supplements in a recommended viewing order. The first disc establishes the mood and introduces the artist in a commemorative way. Each of the ensuing discs focuses on a major film or an aspect of Varda’s life, arranged more-or-less chronologically.

The following list includes all major and short works by Varda herself and most of the supplementary material. Omitted are some short interviews, trailers, and appreciations.

Disc 1: Agnès Forever

• Varda by Agnès (2019, Varda and Didier Rouget) 1:59
• Les 3 boutons (2015, Varda) 0:11
• The Art of Family Life (2020, family interviews) 0:17
• Telluride Film Festival panel with Mathieu Demy, Martin Scorsese, and others.  0:39
• Agnès Varda’s Credit Sequences (2020, Alex Vuillaume-Tylski) 0:08
• Sensing Bodies (2019, video essay) 0:02
• A Chat with Nini (2019, Varda) 0:01

Disc 2: Early Varda

• La Pointe-Courte (1955, Varda) 1:21
• Ô saisons ô chateaux (1958, Varda) 0:21
• Du côté de la côte (1958, Varda) 0:27
• Mathieu Amalric and Agnès Varda discussion. 0:09
• Agnès Varda on “La Pointe-Courte” (2007) 0:16

Disc 3: Around Paris

• Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962, Varda) 1:29
• Les fiancés du pont MacDonald ou (1962, Varda) 0:05
• L’opéra-mouffe (1958, Varda) 0:17
• Les dites cariatides (1984, Varda) 0:12
• Les dites cariatides bis (2005, Varda) 0:02
• T'as de beaux escaliers, tu sais... (1986, Varda) 0:03
• Cléo from 5 to 7: Remembrances (2005, Varda) 0:36
• Cléo's Real Path Through Paris (2005, Pierre-William Glenn) 0:09
• The Music of Michel Legrand (2006, Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos) 0:10

Disc 4: Rue Daguerre

• Daguerréotypes (1975, Varda) 1:18
• Le lion volatil (2003, Varda) 0:11
• Rue Daguerre in 2005 (2005, Varda) 0:21
• Bread, Painting, and Accordion (2005, Varda) 0:08
• Daguerreotypes: Photographic Objects (2005, Varda) 0:06
• The Music Festival (2005, Varda) 0:03

Disc 5: Married Life

• Le bonheur (1965, Varda) 1:20
• Les créatures (1966, Varda) 1:34
• Elsa la Rose (1966, Varda) 0:20

• Démons et merveilles du cinéma: excerpt: “Agnès et Bonheur” (1964, Jean-Claude Bergeret), 0:05

• Jean-Claude Drouot Returns to Fontenay-aux-Roses (2005, Varda) 0:08
• The Two Women of ‘Le bonheur’ (2005, Varda) 0:06
• Happiness? The People of Fontenay Respond (2006, Varda) 0:06
• Thoughts on ‘Le bonheur’ (2006, Varda) 0:15
• Agnès talks about ‘Le bonheur’ (1998, Varda) 0:03
• Bonheur: Proper Name or Concept? (2006, Varda) 0:02

Disc 6: In California

• Uncle Yanco (1967, Varda) 0:19
• Black Panthers (1968, Varda) 0:20
• Mur murs (1980, Varda) 1:22
• Lions Love (...and lies) (1969, Varda) 1:52
• Documenteur (1981, Varda) 1:06
• Viva Varda! (1970, Varda) 0:09
• Two Street Artists: Jérôme Mesnager & Miss.Tic (2012, Varda) 0:06

Disc 7: Her Body, Herself

• One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (1977, Varda) 2:01
• The Pleasure of Love in Iran (1977, Varda) 0:06
• Réponse de femmes (1975, Varda) 0:08
• Nausicaa (1970, Varda) 1:38
• Women Are Naturally Creative (1977, Katja Raganelli) 0:47

Disc 8: No Shelter

• Vagabond (1985, Varda) 1:45
• 7rm., kitch., bath., ... for sale (1985, Varda) 0:28
• Vagabond: Remembrances (2003, Varda) 0:41
• Music and Dolly Shots (2003, Varda) 0:12
• The Story of an Old Lady (1985, Varda) 0:04
• Plotting in ‘Vagabond’   David Bordwell examines the way Vagabond utilizes three different narrative strategies. 0:15

Disc 9: Jane B.

• Jane B. for Agnès V. (1988, Varda) 1:38
• Kung-Fu Master! (1988, Varda) 1:20
• Agnès V. by Jane B. (2020) 0:16

Disc 10: Jacques Demy

• Jacquot de Nantes (1991, Varda) 1:58
• The Young Girls Turn 25 (1993, Varda) 1:06
• The World of Jacques Demy (1995, Varda) 1:31
• Agnès Tells the Sad and Happy Adventure Behind the Film ‘Jacquot de Nantes’ (2008, Varda) 0:17
• Souvenirs and Evocations (2008, Varda) 0:07

Disc 11: Simon Cinéma

• One Hundred and One Nights (1995, Varda) 1:44
• A Fun Moment with Michel Piccoli (2004, Varda) 0:09
• Set Visits: One Hundred and One Nights (2004, Varda) 0:11
• Hands and Objects: On Agnès Varda’s Shorts (2007, Varda) 0:20
• Unfinished Varda. Footage from two unfinished projects, La Melangite (1960) and Christmas Carole (1966), plus two 1971 commercials  0:11 total).

Disc 12: La Glaneuse

• The Gleaners and I (2000, Varda) 1:22
• The Gleaners and I: Two Years Later (2002, Varda) 1:03
• Tribute to Zgougou (2002, Varda) 0:02
• The Gleaners Museum (2002, Varda) 0:24

Disc 13: Visual Artist

• Faces Places (2017, Varda and JR) 1:33
• Salut les Cubains (1964, Varda) 0:29
• Ulysse (1982, Varda) 0:22
• Ydessa, the Bears and etc (2004, Varda) 0:44
• Chance Is the Best Assistant: Agnès Varda and JR on ‘Faces Places’ (2018, Edwin Samuelson) 0:47
• The Beach Cabin (2017, Varda) 0:04
• A Visit with Matthieu Chedid (2017, Varda) 0:04
• One Minute for One Image (1983, Varda) 0:27

Disc 14: Here and There

• Agnès de ci de là Varda (2011, Varda) 3:55  - The 5-part TV series tracking Agnès for a year to meet friends, artists and filmmakers.

Disc 15: Beaches

• The Beaches of Agnès (2008, Varda) 1:52
• Some Widows of Noirmoutier (2006, Varda) 1:12
• Installations (2020, Varda) 1:07
• On Trapeze Artists and Acrobatics (2008, Varda) 0:10
• Daguerre-Beach (2008, Varda) 0:10
• In Her Own Image: Kelley Conway on Agnès (2020, Varda) 0:15

Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?

Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? Curtis Harrington, 1972.

😿

Edition screened: Included in MGM ‘Midnight Movies Double Feature’ DVD with What’s the Matter with Helen?, released 2002. English language. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.

Summary: Yuletide culinary murder.

Details:

1) Fast cut to a plucked goose or turkey being beheaded on a kitchen chopping block (11:26), right after someone says “You shouldn’t frighten the little ones.” On screen, but not emphasized, with dialogue through 12:30.

2) Dead piglet in the back of grocery delivery truck, 1:28:21-1:28:39.

Swallow

Swallow. Carlo Mirabella-Davis, 2019.

😿

Edition screened: Shout! Factory Blu-ray, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 95 minutes.

Summary: Lamb slaughter and butchering.

Details: After an opening overview of the newly-weds idyllic sprawl, we see a lamb slaughtered (throat slit, skinning, gory head) 2:06-2:13, just before chops are served at a dinner party.

Swallow is a low-key horror movie about a young wife with Pica eating disorder. More specifically, it is about the failure of her husband and family to provide the support and help she needs. While much of the film is juvenile from a cinéaste perspective, I was interested and educated by this docufiction exposure to a genuine mental illness.

The opening lamb slaughter is easily skipped, a decision that if made by the writer, would have elevated the sophistication of the whole film. It’s pretty obvious that our doe-eyed wife is an innocent at risk, and that her privileged life is far removed from the realities of meat production, and that Swallow should not begin like Persona.

Red River

Red River. Howard Hawks, 1948.

😿😿😿

Edition screened: “Theatrical Version” on Criterion Blu-ray #709, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 127 minutes.

Summary: Patriotic cow mutilation.

Details:

1) John Wayne gives a young’un an important lesson in citizenship as he brands a cow with a hot steel rod, 15:17-15:28. This is very real, with the cow trussed up, lying on her side, obviously in pain, and understandably angry that she is the only one not being paid here.

2) More cow humiliation and bound torture, 18:28-18:45.  (These two cows are trussed up, lying on their sides and panting during the intervening time while The Duke takes a moment to shoot a Mexican.)

3) The ground is littered with dead cows and horses after some attack during a cattle drive, 52:55-58:15.

4) A cow is found dead with an arrow through the neck, 1:24:03 - 1:24:24.

This is not one of those old westerns that makes you reconsider and reflect more generously on the genre.

N.U.

N.U. Michelangelo Antonioni, 1948.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Criterion Blu-ray Red Desert #522, released 2010. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 12 minutes.

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

A poetically scripted documentary about the street sweepers (Nettezza urbana, hence the title N.U.) working in post-war Rome.

The Man from Elysian Fields

The Man from Elysian Fields. George Hickenlooper, 2001.

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Edition screened: Columbia TriStar DVD, released 2003. English language. Runtime approximately 106 minutes.

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

Killing Birds: Raptors

Killing Birds: Raptors (Zombie 5: Killing Birds). Claudio Lattanzi (as Claude Milliken) and Joe D’Amato, 1987.

😿

Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #333, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 92 minutes.

Summary: Vague depiction of a bird being killed.

Details: A large hawk-like bird is stabbed - more stabbed at - with a hunting knife, 6:00-6:06. Indistinct, no blood.

Despite the title, this one indistinct scene is the only killing of or by birds. The zombies get just slightly more attention. 

Gente del Po

Gente del Po. Michelangelo Antonioni, 1943.

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Edition screened: Included on Criterion Blu-ray Red Desert #522, released 2010. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 11 minutes.

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

A scenic documentary about bargemen of the Po River and the people who live on the banks. 

Factory Girl

Factory Girl. George Hickenlooper, 2006.

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Edition screened: MGM DVD, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 100 minutes.

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

The Blues Brothers

 The Blues Brothers. John Landis, 1980.

😸

Edition screened: Universal DVD, released 2005. English language. Runtime approximately 148 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

A row of three pinball machines in Bob’s Country Bunker: a 1971 Gottlieb 4 Square, a 1973 Bally Monte Carlo and a 1976 Williams Blue Chip.

The Ramen Girl

The Ramen Girl. Robert Allan Ackerman, 2008.

😿

Edition screened: Image DVD, released 2008. English language with subtitled Japanese when appropriate. Runtime approximately 102 minutes.

Summary: The indispensable pig’s head in the kitchen.

Details: Brittany Murphy removes the lid from a pot at 33:34 to find a clean pig head inside. Over in less than two seconds, and no gore or effects beyond the fact of the matter.

Pandemonium

Pandemonium. Alfred Sole, 1982.

😸

Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #329, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 81 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Pandemonium includes some surprisingly funny gags and humorous references, succeeding better than most films of this sort. 

Le Million

Le Million. René Clair, 1931.

😸

Edition screened: Criterion DVD #072, released 2000. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 81 minutes.

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

I fell asleep the million times.

Memorial Valley Massacre

Memorial Valley Massacre (Memorial Day). Robert C. Hughes, 1989.

😿😿😿

Edition screened: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray #332, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.

Summary: Dead dog, brutal killing of snakes.

Details:

1) A dead German shepherd is pulled up from a well and dumped on the ground, seen 3:13-3:26 and again 4:24-4:34 with dialogue between.

2) A standoff between a man and a Doberman pinscher resolves off screen as we hear the dog’s death whine, 10:10-10:12

3) A picnic table is seen covered with snakes at 15:02. Beginning at 15:07 and continuing through 15:25, the snakes are beaten with a shovel, sprayed with a fire extinguisher, then beaten with the shovel again. This all appears to be very real.

4) 😸The young rabbit caught in a snare at 21:30 is turned loose unharmed, and the mouse seen soon thereafter is treated kindly.

Memorial Valley Massacre has the common and simple structure of first introducing an array of unlikable characters and then killing them off, this time at a campground. One could simply skip the first 16 minutes of the film which contains all the animal violence, and miss only the meet-and-greet of loathsome characters. 

If a viewer took such an approach, I would point out that these opening minutes also expose the soon-to-be-dispatched as undeserving of their visit to any beautiful wooded area. They throw beer cans everywhere, destroy small trees unnecessarily, and care exclusively about their cars and crap. The mangling of saplings, 8:09-8:26, is upsetting in a way similar to animal abuse.

These details are important because the plot and logic of the film quickly expose that only characters who are cruel to the natural world are killed.

MVM is an odd movie. We are happy to see the unlikeable people dispatched in this film as in most slasher-type films, and I certainly have seen quite my share of “revenge of nature” plots. But with the obvious exception of the horrific snake killing, MVM left me with a genuine Feel Good contentedness, a fictionalized confirmation - a hope, perhaps - that such people do get what they deserve. Perhaps because of my personal ethical stance and the disheartening politics of the summer of 2020, I rather enjoyed this positive revenge story and did not hate the movie nearly as much as most viewers are eager to state.