Blood of the Beasts (1949) Short Film
An early example of ultra-realism, this movie contrasts the quiet, bucolic life in the outskirts of Paris with the harsh, gory conditions inside the nearby slaughterhouses.
Cast and Information
Directed By: Georges Franju
Written By: Georges Franju
Starring: Nicole Ladmiral, Georges Hubert
Genres: Drama, Documentary
AKA: Le sang des bêtes
Country: France
Where to Stream
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Blood of the Beasts belongs to 28 collections
1. Criterion Collection (collaborative: moderated by caffe - 165 stars)
2. Embedded Short Movie (collaborative: moderated by Vandelay1 - 61 stars)
3. Jonathan Rosenbaum's Top 1000 Movies (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 38 stars)
4. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2014 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Jehan - 27 stars)
5. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2017 revision) (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 22 stars)
6. They Shoot Pictures' Recommended Viewing (collaborative: moderated by Cinephile - 19 stars)
7. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2013 revision) (collaborative: moderated by rant1229 - 16 stars)
8. Doubling The Canon (collaborative - 13 stars)
9. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2020 revision) (public: djross - 13 stars)
10. International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 11 stars)
11. Amos Vogel: Film as a Subversive Art (collaborative: moderated by edsu - 8 stars)
12. Paris (collaborative: moderated by td888 - 7 stars)
13. Doubling The Canon (2010 update) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 5 stars)
14. Sight & Sound Greatest Documentaries of all Time (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 5 stars)
15. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2007 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Scottathon - 4 stars)
16. Brief Encounters (collaborative - 3 stars)
17. They Shoot Pictures ex-Top 1,000 (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 3 stars)
18. BFI 100 key Documentary films (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 3 stars)
19. Coheed's Films I Need To See Or Try To Track Down (public: Coheed - 3 stars)
20. The Criterion Channel (public: caffe - 2 stars)
21. Animal killing (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 1 star)
22. Doubling the Canon (2011 update) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 1 star)
23. Doubling the Canon (2012 update) (collaborative: moderated by Cinephile - 1 star)
24. toucé (public: rnest - 1 star)
25. us-tv Kenny 101 Documentaries (public: timxyz)
26. Filmspotting Ratings Project: Week 34 (public: PeaceAnarchy)
27. Amos Vogel Buluşmaları (public: parcaliham)
28. Rough Ratings (public: saudade)
Browse the full list of collections
| Date | User | Rating | |
| Aug 23, 2022 | SHOCKULAR | 10 1st |
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This rating is unfair to the film, but I just hated it. It's fine at what it is, though I don't really get the all time great hype for it, but what it is is so unpleasant that I just hated watching it. I knew what I was getting into going in, so this is mostly my fault. Feel free to ignore this rating.
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| Feb 09, 2022 | sellis | 81 62nd |
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The longest 20 minutes.
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| Jan 31, 2022 |  |
deep_green | 75 75th |
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Quite impressed by the gentleman who can butcher a live animal while smoking a cigarette. But the 40s were a different time.
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| Mar 03, 2017 |  |
Barraoc | 70 64th |
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Pretty gruesome scenes from a slaughter house. This one will stick with me for a while.
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| Aug 03, 2015 |  |
dardan | 70 70th |
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At least the horse and cow died instantly, without much stress, but what the hell are they doing to the other animals?
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| Mar 14, 2015 |  |
backwardsuit | 84 88th |
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Haunting and powerful documentary that brilliantly uses landscapes and interiors to reflect on the relationships between man and his environment. Brutally real yet surreal and dreamlike. Franju shoots slaughterhouses as the soul of a tortured post-war conscience. Ahead of its time.
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| Nov 12, 2014 |  |
lisa- | 5 70th |
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great use of juxtoposition in this painful short. i've seen enough animal slaughter recently to last a lifetime.
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| Mar 22, 2013 | Nepeta | 75 56th |
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A bit hard for me to watch, though the imagery seems to have inspired Eraserhead.
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| Sep 02, 2010 |  |
janus | 85 88th |
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A stunning piece of film from beginning to end. David Lynch talks about this film in the documentary "Lynch" and its imagery is a clear influence on Eraserhead. It wouldn't be inapt to characterize this as animal rights propaganda, but the real focus is class, and the human workers who put their physical and psychological well-being on the line for the benefit of the idle rich.
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| Apr 26, 2010 | owen1218 | 80 79th |
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An old French short on the art of butchery. Perhaps not the most beautiful of the arts, but these men and women do their work admirably. Though I will say the "hacking the calves' heads off" scene was a bit much. There's got to be a better way to do that.
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| Jan 29, 2010 |  |
frankswild | 90 94th |
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It's strange, some parts of this movie would be at home in a David Cronenberg or John Carpenter movie.
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| Oct 20, 2009 |  |
LuizOliveira | 81 66th |
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Fucking violence in animals.
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| Mar 11, 2009 |  |
cinema_hell | 80 62nd |
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Disgusting and cold, but, with a beautiful cinematography, nice camera work, etc...
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| Oct 24, 2008 |  |
cagedwisdom | 50 38th |
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This is quite unsettling. Not necessarily enjoyable, but good.
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| Mar 02, 2008 | theyshoot07 | 54 26th |
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# 917
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| Dec 13, 2007 |  |
PeaceAnarchy | 70 26th |
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It works and it's worth watching but it's quite disturbing, especially watching headless animals twitch. The black and white helps in this regard. In the end I'd recommend it, but I can't see myself watching it again.
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| Dec 20, 2006 |  |
MartinTeller | 74 50th |
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This is obviously disturbing and disgusting. Mercifully brief... any more of this and it would have been not only repetitive but nauseating. Nonetheless, even though it's a nasty business, these guys clearly aren't out to make animals suffer, and even 50 years ago they were pretty humane about it. An interesting (but hard to watch) piece, despite the less-than-subtle narration.
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| Apr 10, 2017 |  |
loc42 | 75 68th |
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Distances itself from the neat and ordered surface of the civilization and reveals the brutal and violent ground on which the former stands. Has an ironic tone as well as it puts the woman's aestheticized voice in opposition to the man's dull voice expaining the killing machine. Right after the Holocaust, Franju underlines that our civilization based on a carnophallogocentric logic, is always a repetition of Holocaust on a daily basis. Dated it may seem, but a brave movie for its time.
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| Average Percentile 65.08% from 234 Ratings |  |