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Cat People [Remake]
Fascinating!
1982
Director: Paul Schrader
Starring: Natassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell, John Heard
Yes!
THE SETUP:
The original is a moody B&W noirish thriller about a woman who can't kiss a man or she'll turn into a panther and kill him. Her husband gets sexually frustrated and turns to a co-worker, and the cat woman goes all feline on ‘em. In the remake there's the same plot, with the addition of a brother who claims that only he and the sister can have sex -- that's right, incest -- because if she has sex with someone else she'll turn into a panther and then have to kill someone before she turns human again. I watched the remake one night, and the original the following night, but this review focuses more on the remake.
DISCUSSION:
The sudden inclusion of the new character [the brother] and the move into incest--this is quite a jump, no? Not so much. My theory is that director/screenwriter Paul Schrader divided the original husband character into TWO characters, the boyfriend and the brother, one representing his fidelity, one representing his raw lust. Does this lead anywhere? Not really, but it certainly isn't dull.
Personally I liked the remake. It's a MESS, sure, but an interesting mess. A lot of times an interesting mess is better for me than a coherent but unimaginative film. The one word that comes to mind to describe the remake is LURID. The colors, the tone, the story… and I love that. The original is a good watch, with a few notable scenes and a lot more class than the remake. But who needs class, really?
One interesting thing about the remake is that they seem to have made an effort to match the physical looks of the actors from the first film. This is especially noticeable with the mousy, annoying co-worker, who you will INDEED want to see clawed to death just for being such a goody-goody-gumdrops.
There are a few cool special effects in the remake where Malcolm McDowell does some creepy catlike movements, and you're like `How'd they do that?' Then you realize that they have integrated BACKWARDS footage very cleverly in. That's better than just another digital effect in my book any day.
The transformation to and from cat is an incoherent mess in the remake. Apparently the cat grows inside you and bursts out, fine, and then the human presumably bursts out of the cat the same way, okay, but then there's this bizarre thing where the cat melts for no reason, and the human comes back some other way [presumably]… and it just doesn't make sense.
There are a lot of good creepy parts of the remake, like when the prostitute thinks she's alone in the room, and there's this thing sticking out from under the bed. Then the thing moves--it's the TAIL!--and we realize the cat is under the bed. Also when John Heard wakes up and knows someone is in the room, and the shock when he turns on the light. There are also a bunch of confusing things. I don't know why they preserved catwoman’s [forgot her name] drawing the cat obsessionally from the first film, as it doesn't add anything. And, at the very beginning, we see a young catgirl in Africa or wherever morph into Natasha, which in standard movie vocabulary means that she IS that girl grown up, but it turns out she's not. That confused me for a long time.
Ultimately the storyline of the remake falls apart, but I still enjoyed it all the way there (though it IS a bit on the too long side). If you're watching this for thrills, you may be disappointed, but if you're watching for technique and general filmic coolness, there's lots to feast on. You also get the sense that the people involved in making it were on so me serious drugs and having mad sex, so that’s always a plus as well.
SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?
Yes, but you might find it more annoying than anything.
RELATED MOVIES ?
CAT PEOPLE [ORIGINAL] is good, but very tepid by today's standards, more about atmosphere and the strange sexual vibe.
