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.
The bodies of small, cooked birds are positioned into bread cups, including the disembodied heads, to make it appear as if the dead birds are in a nest of sorts, as part of the meal. We later watch a man eating the head of the bird. Gruesome to sensitive viewers.
A cow's head is seen in a wheelbarrow.