Sunday, 9 October 2011

Cigarette-burns

More views of - or after - Cambridge Film Festival 2011
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)



9 October

* Contains spoilers *

Perhaps because of some residual squeamishness (despite the director wanting it to be there), the two films in the Festival (Kosmos and Sleeping Beauty) that I recall* depicting a cigarette-burn being given (or made - neither verb sounds quite right, because it is really 'inflicted') did so really very briefly.

Yet, as I was told (a fact intended to shock) in the context of training on child abuse and child protection (and so we are talking about a child's skin, not even an adult's), it takes more than a second for a burn to be made that leaves a lasting visible scar. (I forget how long: 1.3 seconds? 3 seconds? And searching for the term leads one discreetly just to search-results about damage to car upholstery or to carpets...)


*A topos that would not have been out of place in Abegebrannt (Burnout) or Tyrannosaur.

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