As films involving cats go, The Cassandra Cat (Až přijde kocour) is up there with the best. Part fairy-tale, part political satire, Vojtěch Jasný’s 1963 fantasy, shot on location in the picturesque village of Telcis, is an offbeat, unclassifiable gem. Unsurprisingly, the post-1968 Czech authorities disapproved, withdrawing it from circulation.
The bond between humans and animals sometimes passeth all understanding. Wildcat is the story of 20-something British Army veteran Harry Turner, American ecologist Samantha Zwicker, and a young ocelot called Keanu, who becomes an almost mythic talisman of Harry’s battle with post-traumatic stress and suicidal urges.
LJ's dream has come true - she has her very own wine bar. Unfortunately for us, it turns into a bit of a nightmare.
Cats is, declares composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, a show that doesn’t really have a story, but was beloved on stage because it’s “the ultimate theatrical experience”.
The excellent booklet essay by Michael Brooke that accompanies this Second Run release of Pavel Juráček’s second, and final feature (it’s presented in a fine 4K restoration) tells us much about the director’s importance for the Czech New Wave, that remarkable period of independ
There is a jaguar in the house. Aged five days, and having been rejected by her mother, Maya has arrived from the wildlife park where she was born for hand-rearing by Giles Clark at his home in Kent. The cub is going to spend her early days with his family, with round-the-clock care from Giles, obsessed as he is with the situation of big cats worldwide.
The Incredible Shrinking Man starts innocently with a young couple bantering on a small boat off the California coast. Before what looks like an atomic mushroom cloud wafts towards the unfortunate Scott Carey, lightly coating him in glittery fallout. Six months later, Carey seems to be getting smaller. Initially it’s little more than an irritation.
It takes a while to get going, and doesn’t altogether evade sentimentality but overall this black comedy is hugely endearing. Rolf Lassgård (complete with bald cap) plays Ove. He's a depressed and resentful 60-year-old widower who can’t see any point in life without his beloved wife, especially since he's been made redundant from his job as an engineer. His suicide attempts are thwarted by poor quality materials and a rag-bag collection of neighbours.
Flashbacks to Ove's childhood and courtship are beautifully done, but it’s the portrait of Swedish small-town life that intrigues. This isn’t the hipster noir of the big cities familiar from TV thrillers, nor the relentlessly chirpy utopia of the IKEA catalogue. Ove lives on a drab housing estate with strict rules – many of which he originated as the residents' association chairman. He’s a classic curmudgeon ticking off dog owners and careless drivers alike, but at the same time he hates the "white shirts" – the officious bureaucrats whom he views as opportunistic bastards only interested in money. Imagine a Swedish live-action version of the Pixar animated feature Up and you'll get the idea (though it's best not to expect balloons). Befriended by a determined new neighbour, pregnant Parvaneh (Bahar Pars) and her husband and children, his attitudes slowly begin to soften.
Based on a hugely popular novel, director Hannes Holm has done a good job fusing social drama and gentle comedy, very much in the vein of My Life as a Dog. There’s a touch of underlying Scandi smugness about how well the country copes with immigrants, but the skirmishes over the relative merits of Saabs or Volvos and a subplot involving a very dishevelled cat win the day (said feline, pictured right). Nominated for two Oscars, A Man Called Ove is set for a remake in America with Tom Hanks in the lead.
This edition comes with a Q&A session from a festival screening in New York, make-up special effects tutorial, and an edited featurette with interviews with the director and the two lead actors. Bahar Pars is particularly good on the dilemmas she faced by effectively becoming the screen representative of Sweden’s large Iranian migrant community.
Overleaf: watch the trailer for A Man Called Ove
Oh clever title: cheetahs, when fully grown at about 18 months, are the fastest mammal on earth, clocking 70 miles per hour in short bursts. For this documentary, we were in the magnificent country of Zimbabwe, in all seasons, following a cheetah family which uncharacteristically lived in forest as well as river plain.
Cats on film. There are plenty of them. Elsewhere on the web you will find loads of listicles featuring top cats, boss pussies, big mogs, killer kitties, whiskers galore and other such. Cats get their biggest billing of all in the wonderful if anthropomorphic world of Walt Disney. It’s rare for a cat to be played by a cat in a film about a cat. Cat people will be purring, therefore, at A Street Cat Named Bob.