Le Sang des Bêtes is Georges Franju's second film, a grotesque 20 minute documentary detailing a normal day in a Parisian slaughterhouse. This has seriously gotta be some of the most repulsive imagery I've EVER seen captured on film - horses, sheep and cows all casually (and in extreme graphic detail) eviscerated, disemboweled and literally turned inside-out by jolly, whistling butchers.
First off we see a gorgeous white stallion brought in and swiftly dispatched via a bolt-pistol to the forehead, then a peg-legged butcher cuts its throat and steaming blood gushes out in waves. As its hooves are being hacked off a narrator nonchalantly explains how they'll probably be used for "women's toiletries". Next up are the cows - no bolt-pistol for them, they just get immediately decapitated then have their limbs sawn off. Even then, the cow's torso still violently convulses. We then see a matronly woman slice open the torso's belly and manually empty its overflowing bowels into the concrete guttering that surrounds the work floor.
Intercut with the slaughterhouse scenes is footage of the surrounding areas - seemingly the slums of Paris - which is narrated by a woman. About mid-way through a suitable quote from the poet Charles Baudelaire appears on screen: ''I shall strike you without anger And without hate, like a butcher''
The final slaughterhouse segment focuses on sheep, this section has some of the most surreal visuals - namely a long line of limbless / headless sheep all convulsing at once, like some kinda spastic chorus line. Wow, this is unforgettable - yet undeniably repellent - cinema indeed! 9/10
First off we see a gorgeous white stallion brought in and swiftly dispatched via a bolt-pistol to the forehead, then a peg-legged butcher cuts its throat and steaming blood gushes out in waves. As its hooves are being hacked off a narrator nonchalantly explains how they'll probably be used for "women's toiletries". Next up are the cows - no bolt-pistol for them, they just get immediately decapitated then have their limbs sawn off. Even then, the cow's torso still violently convulses. We then see a matronly woman slice open the torso's belly and manually empty its overflowing bowels into the concrete guttering that surrounds the work floor.
Intercut with the slaughterhouse scenes is footage of the surrounding areas - seemingly the slums of Paris - which is narrated by a woman. About mid-way through a suitable quote from the poet Charles Baudelaire appears on screen: ''I shall strike you without anger And without hate, like a butcher''
The final slaughterhouse segment focuses on sheep, this section has some of the most surreal visuals - namely a long line of limbless / headless sheep all convulsing at once, like some kinda spastic chorus line. Wow, this is unforgettable - yet undeniably repellent - cinema indeed! 9/10