Torso

Torso (I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale/Carnal Violence). Sergio Martino, 1973.

😸

Edition screened: Blue Underground Blu-ray, released 2011. Includes Italian language version with English subtitles, and alternate English language version. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Torso opens with a college art history lecture exploring the emotional content in Perugino’s work, specifically nuances of his depiction of St. Sebastian. Comments by the professor are insightful, well articulated, and made me want to be in his class. How sharply this contrasts to Hannibal Lecter’s remarkably stupid fly-over of Dante Alighieri and Renaissance images of the hanged Francesco Pazzi in Hannibal (Ridley Scott, 2001).

The earlier of these two films about homicidal killers is comparatively obscure and part of the polarizing giallo genre, thus inviting sneers and phony cringes over its B-movie production values, while Hannibal is a super-slick, star-studded film from a screenplay by David Mamet. The context of Torso’s lecture scene is a plain old college class populated by typical students, whereas Hannibal Lecter pontificates to a group of well-dressed Trustee types who tap the tips of Cross pens against their lips in curious interest to hear wearisome tourist twaddle about their home city.

Today’s Smackdown: Italian drive-in slasher film using insightful aesthetic comments to develop character both directly and ironically for an attentive audience VS huge budget big name production using a cartoon of book-larnin’ to advance plot and plot only for other folks. 

@ BL

You Can’t Do That! The Making of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’

You Can’t Do That! The Making of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’. David Leaf, 1995.

😸

Edition screened: Included in MPI Home Video/Apple The Beatles DVD Collector’s Set, released 2000. English language. Runtime approximately 60 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence toward animals.

@ BL

Sprout Wings and Fly

Sprout Wings and Fly. Les Blank and Cece Conway, 1983.

😸

Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray set #737 Les Blank: Always for Pleasure, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 30 minutes.

A profile of legendary North Carolina fiddler Tommy Jarrell filmed in 1979.

@ BL

Soigne ton gauche

Soigne ton gauche (Watch Your Left). René Clément, 1936.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Tati Shorts disc in Criterion’s 7-Blu-ray set The Complete Jacques Tati, released 2014. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 13 minutes.

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

@ BL

Simon of the Desert

Simon of the Desert (Simón del desierto). Luis Buñuel, 1965.

😸

Edition screened: Criterion DVD #460, released 2009. Spanish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 45 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Watch this monument to high-spirited intellectual smartassism. Actually, watch it twice since it’s only 45 minutes long. Reserve these Mexican Period Buñuel films for times when you are in good spirits, ready to enjoy witty film, and willing to recognize that they are easily understood. That is, do not watch them with someone who needs to say “What kind of drugs were they on?” every five minutes to cover, expose, and celebrate parochialism.

@ BL

Silent Running

Silent Running. Douglas Trumball, 1972.

😸

Edition screened: Eureka! Masters of Cinema Blu-ray #23, released 2011. English language. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence toward animals.

Silent Running is a reminder that high-budget space films of quality were made between 2001 and Star Wars. A trio of androids in the film resemble color-coded recycling bins, but emote and interact with humans as service animals. The good man at the space station (Bruce Dern) tends a vegetable garden and treats the androids kindly, while his three galoot coworkers run go-karts around and act like the Steelers just made it to the play-offs wah-hoo.

Trumball’s Silent Running and von Trier’s Melancholia both have happy but bittersweet ‘endings’: the destruction of an Earth whose time has come. The end comes swiftly in Melancholia and is caused by impact with another planet. Silent Running concludes with confirmation that the spiritual and physical deaths of our world at the hands of capitalism will be torturous and not swift enough. ‘The Dreary Dane’ von Trier, then, has optimistically chosen intervention by a merciful God. In both films a token sampling of humanity dies with at least an affectionate understanding of what has been lost. The rest of us get exactly what we have earned and deserve.

The included 50-minute documentary The Making of Silent Running (Charles L. Barbee, 1972) is enjoyable and explains the workings of the androids.

@ BL

The Shooting

The Shooting. Monte Hellman, 1966.

😿😿

Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #734, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 81 minutes.

Summary: Horse and bird shootings.

Details:

1) A gun is put to the head of a fallen horse at 11:30. We hear the gun shot at 11:36 while the camera is elsewhere. We return to the dead horse at 15:40. Warren Oats strokes it compassionately during dialogue through 16:24; no blood or wound visible.

2) We see a dead bluebird just shot by Millie Perkins, 47:34-47:36.

3) Jack Nicholson lugs around a rabbit he just shot, 1:23:45-1:23:55.

4) A suffering/dying horse, 1:13:23-1:13:35.

The Criterion Blu-ray also includes the companion film Ride in the Whirlwind.

@ BL

Sherlock Holmes (Ritchie)

Sherlock Holmes. Guy Ritchie, 2009.

😿😿

Edition screened: Warner Blu-ray, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 125 minutes.

Summary: Animal experimentation and butchering.

Details:

1) Depiction of a laboratory experiment involving a copper pot of simmering frogs along with a frog dissection, 46:50-47:06.

2) Holmes (Morton Downey, Jr.) holds up a dead rat by its tail then cuts off the tail, 1:19:35-1:19:39. This very brief scene cuts immediately to a pig’s head on ice, the beginning of a long scene in the butchering room.

3) Having completed the runaway mine car level and found all eight hidden coins, we now are in the butchering room, 1:19:39-1:23:12, with the predictable assortment of headless pig bodies hanging from a conveyer chain, the bandsaw where they are sliced in twain, heads on ice, buckets of parts, etc. This presentation is not intentionally gory, but quite boring and seems to go on forever.

4) A 6-second recap of the frog experiment scene begins at 1:51:42.

5) A 6-second quick-cut distillation of a rat & pig experiment/torture laboratory table begins at 1:52:26.

The entertaining CGI depiction of a premature ship launch into the harbor is more than negated by a seemingly endless kabloom scene of crates exploding on the dock, or by the thumb-twiddling tedium of the butchering room scene, in which the near-bandsawing of all three heroes is portrayed with a level of suspense approaching the sawmill finale of a 1970s log-flume ride. Fill in your own bit about getting soaked or being all wet.


@ BL

The School for Postmen

The School for Postmen (L’École des facteurs). Jacques Tati, 1947.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Tati Shorts disc in Criterion’s 7-Blu-ray set The Complete Jacques Tati, released 2014. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 16 minutes.

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

@ BL

The Scent of Green Papaya

The Scent of Green Papaya (Mùi du du xanh). Tran Anh Hung, 1993.

😿😿

Edition screened: Lorber Blu-ray, released 2011. Vietnamese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 104 minutes.

Summary: Torture of insects and reptiles.

Details:

1) At 18:30 the older of the two boys prepares to torture ants by dripping candle wax on them. The actual event occurs at 19:40, with an extreme close-up of the intentional engulfing by wax. They struggle to free themselves before dying. He does it again at 40:50. Another scene implies that he also kills frogs with a slingshot (close-up of frog in idyllic setting, cut to boy with readied slingshot), but the actual event is not depicted.

2) At 25:00 the younger of the two boys menaces gentle young Mui with a chameleon hanged by the neck on a string attached to a stick. The chameleon does not show signs of life.

For the most part, this is a beautiful and meditative film about a young girl’s appreciative, naturally mystic relationship with the world around her. I am somewhat disgusted that her days and my viewing experience are maliciously uglified by the two repulsive boys in the family, the older one menially cruel, the younger one spielbergianly obnoxious through the entire film. I am angered to imagine that viewers of this film will look at one another, shake their heads a bit, smile whimsically, and agree that boys will be boys after all. No, NO. Films will teach boys to be cruel, and will teach the rest of us to be stupidly accepting of that learned behavior so that our own degenerate family members might be similarly excused.

@ BL

Riddick Trilogy

Riddick Trilogy. David Twohy and Peter Chung, 1994-2004.

😸

Edition screened: Universal 2-DVD set, released 2006. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 288 minutes.

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

The Universal DVD set includes three films that came to be known as installments of The Chronicles of Riddick after release of the 2004 film with that title:

Pitch Black (1999)

Dark Fury (2004)

The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)

@ BL

Pornografia

Pornografia. Jan Jakub Kolski, 2003.

😿

Edition screened: MGE DVD, released 2005. Polish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 152 minutes.

Summary: Leech(?) swallowing.

Details: A curious scene occurs 50:15-50:30, in which a group of folks are standing in a pasture near a manure pile. Two teenagers say “eww” and step on, intending to kill, what appears to be a large worm or a leech. An older man, Fryderyk, picks up the 4-inch creature, offers it around to see if anyone else wants it, then swallows it whole and dirty. 

This is the only such inscrutable scene in an otherwise straightforward film set in the French countryside during German occupation. Fryderyk is a bit of a troublemaker, and the stunt in the pasture might indicate his status as a Devil. 

Despite the title, Pornografia is not sexually explicit in any way. The cover of the MGE disk won 2^nd prize in Poland’s 2005 Worst Media Packaging contest.

@ BL

Pitch Black

Pitch Black (The Chronicles of Riddick: Pitch Black). David Twohy, 1999.

😸

Edition screened: Included in Universal Riddick Trilogy 2-DVD set, released 2006. English language. Runtime approximately 118 minutes.

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

@ BL

Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim. Guillermo del Toro, 2013.

😸

Edition screened: Warner Blu-ray, released 2013. English language. Runtime approximately 131 minutes.

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

Noted: the one-second CGI image of several fish flapping on the ocean floor because the water was temporarily displaced. I have it on good authority that the water came right back and the fish were only momentarily inconvenienced.

@ BL

Outlaw-Matsu Comes Home

Outlaw-Matsu Comes Home. Shôhei Imamura, 1973.

😸

Edition screened: Included in the Icarus 4-DVD set A Man Vanishes, released 2012. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 48 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

@ BL

On demande une brute

On demande une brute. Charles Barrois, 1934.

😿😿

Edition screened: Included on Tati Shorts disc in Criterion’s 7-Blu-ray set The Complete Jacques Tati, released 2014. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 25 minutes, but seeming much longer.

Summary: Killing of a goldfish for boring comedic effect.

A tedious scene in a boring film, the fish bowl and the soup tureen both are in the middle of the dining room table. The goldfish is unknowingly ladled out, unknowingly sloshed around and handled, unknowingly tossed in a sardine can, unknowingly thrown back onto a plate (by which time it has died), then unknowingly eaten with accompanying goofy faces. Just hilarious. God, that witty, understated French comedy just slays me.

@ BL

The Office: Series 1 & 2 and the Special

The Office: Complete Series One & Two and the Special. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, 2001-2003.

😸

Edition screened: BBC Home Video 4-DVD set, released 2004. English language. Cumulative runtime approximately 450 minutes.

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

@ BL

My Old Fiddle: A Visit with Tommy Jarrell in the Blue Ridge

My Old Fiddle: A Visit with Tommy Jarrell in the Blue Ridge. Les Blank, 1994.

😸

Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray set #737 Les Blank: Always for Pleasure, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 17 minutes.

Summary: Vintage photographs of hunters with dead game at the beginning of this featurette. Nothing especially gruesome.

More Tommy Jarrell interviews and performances, captured during the 1979 filming of Sprout Wings and Fly.

@ BL

Moscow Zero

Moscow Zero. María Lídon, 2006.

😸

Edition screened: Sony DVD, released 2008. English language. Runtime approximately 82 minutes.

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

@ BL

The Marquise of O

The Marquise of O (Die Marquise von O...). Éric Rohmer, 1976.

😸

Edition screened: Blu-ray included in Potemkine box set Coffret Éric Rohmer, l’intégrale, released 2013. German language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 102 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

@ BL

The Man with the Cigar in His Mouth

The Man with the Cigar in His Mouth (L’uomo dal sigaro in bocca). Mario Sesti, 1997.

😸

Edition screened: Included with Criterion DVD #286 Divorce Italian Style, released 2005. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 39 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

@ BL

Lost in La Mancha

Lost in La Mancha. Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe, 2002.

😸

Edition screened: Docurama DVD, released 2003. English language. Runtime approximately 93 minutes.

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

@ BL

Les Blank: Always for Pleasure

Les Blank: Always for Pleasure. Les Blank, 1967-2006.

😿😿😿😿

Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray set #737, released 2014. Mostly English language with some English subtitles. Cumulative runtime approximately 563 minutes.

Summary: Some titles in this set emphasize brutalization and murder of animals, passed off as good honest folks just havin’ a good time.

The Criterion package features the following works by Les Blank, as well as numerous video essays about the filmmaker and making-of documentaries:

God Respects Us When We Work, But Loves Us When We Dance (1967)

The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins (1968)

The Sun’s Gonna Shine (1968)

Mr. Charlie Your Rollin’ Mill Is Burnin’ Down (1968)

Lightnin’ Les (1968)

Spend It All (1971)

A Well Spent Life (1971)

Dry Wood (1973)

Hot Pepper (1973)

Always for Pleasure (1978)

Lagniappe (2006)

Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980)

Sprout Wings and Fly (1983)

My Old Fiddle: A Visit with Tommy Jarrell in the Blue Ridge (1994)

Julie: Old Time Tales of the Blue Ridge (1991)
In Heaven There Is No Beer? (1984)

Gap-Toothed Women (1987)

Yum, Yum, Yum! A Taste of Cajun and Creole Cooking (1990)

The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists (1994)
The Maestro Rides Again! (2005)

Sworn to the Drum: A Tribute to Francisco Aguabella (1995)

@ BL

Late Spring

Late Spring (Banshun). Yasujirô Ozu, 1949.

😸

Edition screened: BFI Blu-ray, released 2010. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 108 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

The BFI Blu-ray also includes Ozu’s The Only Son (1936).

@ BL

Julie: Old Time Tales of the Blue Ridge

Julie: Old Time Tales of the Blue Ridge. Les Blank, 1991.

😸

Edition screened: Included in Criterion Blu-ray set #737 Les Blank: Always for Pleasure, released 2014. English language. Runtime approximately 12 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence to animals

A charming featurette about Tommy Jarrell’s sister Julie, recorded in 1979 at the same time as Sprout Wings and Fly.

@ BL

John Lennon: Sweet Toronto

John Lennon: Sweet Toronto. D.A. Pennebaker, 1969.

😸

Edition screened: Pioneer DVD, released 1998. English language. Runtime approximately 56 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

@ BL

Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky. Terry Gilliam, 1977.

😿

Edition screened: Sony DVD, released 2001. English language. Runtime approximately 105 minutes.

Summary: Poaching violence.

Details:

1) The film begins with poacher Terry Jones crushing a moth underfoot, 0:19, then removing dead rabbits from a snare, 0:25-0:36.

2) More dead rabbits hanging in the middleground, 1:38-1:40.

@ BL

The Hunt

The Hunt (Jagten). Thomas Vinterberg, 2012.

😿😿

Edition screened: Magnolia Blu-ray, released 2013. Danish language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 115 minutes.

Summary: Predictable formulaic deer and pet killing.

Details:

1) A deer is shot 21:17-21:21.

2) The family dog has been murdered and is shown dead in a trash bag, 1:22:18-1:22:23, then lying dead while being buried, 1:22:54-1:24:00.

If a visitor from another galaxy were required to summarize Western art on Earth with just one style or theme, that visitor probably would have difficulty choosing between the huge group of paintings made from the 14^th through 17^th centuries depicting scenes of Christianity, and the equal quantity of films in which the family pet is murdered as a threatening warning. Same obsessive people, different century. Vinterberg’s skilled judgement as a Dogme filmmaker is tarnished by this downscale Hollywood tactic.

@ BL

Holy Motors

Holy Motors. Leos Carax, 2012.

😸

Edition screened: Artificial Eye Blu-ray, released 2015. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 115 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

@ BL

Hiroshima mon amour

Hiroshima mon amour. Alain Resnais, 1959.

😸

Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #196, released 2015. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

A fabulous film having some aesthetic qualities similar to Last Year at Marienbad, but not intentionally quizzical.

@ BL

The Grifters

The Grifters. Stephen Frears, 1990.

😸

Edition screened: Miramax Collector’s Series DVD, released 2002. English language. Runtime approximately 115 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Williams High Speed pinball machine about ten minutes into the film.

@ BL

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Ana Lily Amirpour, 2014.

😸

Edition screened: Kino Lorber Blu-ray, released 2015. Persian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 101 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Bonus Points! …

A nice house cat is introduced at he beginning of the film, portending his inevitable murder. He not only lives happily until the end of the film, but even has a decent role although he looks at the camera too much.

@ BL

Ghost Rider

Ghost Rider. Mark Steven Johnson, 2007.

😸

Edition screened: Sony DVD, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 114 minutes.

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

1977 Bally Evel Knievel in Johnny's apartment. 

@ BL

Gai dimanche

Gai dimanche (Happy Sunday). Jacques Berr, 1935.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Tati Shorts disc in Criterion’s 7-Blu-ray set The Complete Jacques Tati, released 2014. French language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 33 minutes.

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

@ BL

Forza Bastia

Forza Bastia. Jacques Tati and Sophie Tatischeff, 1978.

😸

Edition screened: Included on Tati Shorts disc in Criterion’s 7-Blu-ray set The Complete Jacques Tati, released 2014. French language. Runtime approximately 28 minutes.

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

By not recycling well-know American cartoons in an attempt at hilarity, this documentary of a soccer game and preparations for said event manages to be only uninteresting rather than painfully boring.

@ BL

Fog and Crimes: Seasons 2 & 3

Fog and Crimes: Seasons 2 & 3 (Nebbie e delitti). Riccardo Donna, 2003-2004.

😸

Edition screened: Arrow DVD sets, released 2015. Italian language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 576 and 380 minutes.

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

@ BL

The Exorcist

The Exorcist. William Friedkin, 1973.

😸

Edition screened: Warner Blu-ray, released 2010. English language. Runtime approximately 122 minutes.

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

@ BL