It is mentioned that the main character's husband and son were shot to death in the repression of the revolutionary Paris Commune; later, a woodcut image of a shooting in that conflict is seen.
The film contains several realistic sequences of food preparation involving animal parts. A woman plucks a dead quail. Bloodied animal parts (chicken heads and feet, cuts of meat, a calf's head) are seen on a table. The actual killing of the various animals is not shown on screen.
A cow's head is seen in a wheelbarrow.