Die Katze (1971)

Die Katze: Directed by Pierre Granier-Deferre. With Jean Gabin, Simone Signoret, Annie Cordy, Jacques Rispal. In 1971 Courbevoie (France), former typographist Julien Bouin and his wife Clemence, who used to perform in a circus, hardly talk to each other in their small house, which is soon to be demolished. To Clemence’s anger, Julien’s cat Greffier is the only one who gets his attention, let alone love.

“Never had silence been as eloquent as in the first act of u0026quot;The Catu0026quot;. Most of the exchanges consist on severe glares, desperate stares and a few thrown written notes, but thereu0026#39;s a reason why nothing much is said, we donu0026#39;t need words to feel for the characters, nor to understand their opposite needs and motives.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo, the minimalism is less an artistic license from director Pierre Granier-Deferre than the authentic, true-to-life translation of marital boredom, carried by two actors who didnu0026#39;t need dialogues to shine: they had faces, and what faces! With the solid and sensitive presence of veteran actor Jean Gabin and blue-eyed Simone Signoret who, at 49, looked ten years older, the hardest part was over. Indeed, seeing these two living monuments, act, react and sometimes, interact, was a soul-haunting spectacle by itself. Yet, quoting Gabin, star-system was over: even his presence of Signoretu0026#39;s wouldnu0026#39;t have been enough to justify a film if there wasnu0026#39;t some reason-to-be.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd thatu0026#39;s u0026quot;The Catu0026quot;u0026#39;s offering: a powerful statement about marriage or the effect time has on the life of a former typewriter and an acrobat who had a limp from a youth accident. A few bucolic flashbacks (contrasting with the bleak tone of the first act) show a then-youthful couple that made love on the grass after romantic motorcycle rides, to finally surrender, thirty years later, to routine. It seems that whatever gave a spice to their life has turned sour and the house that was once looking onto a charming neighborhood became the sole survivor of urban expansion, and soon-to-be destroyed by ominous bulldozers. The buildingsu0026#39; destruction is a leitmotif of powerful value; it is not the house but the marriagesu0026#39; foundations that are obviously at stakes. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn fact, the whole film is full of metaphorical symbolism, one that never feels forced as it is naturally inserted in the story, starting with the titular animal. The cat is an ordinary alley cat, not ugly but not exceptional either, and as soon as Julien Bouin finds it, itu0026#39;s literally love at first sight: the animal becomes his provider and repository of feelings, much to Lucienneu0026#39;s devastating jealousy. This is a woman abandoned by her husband, they live in the same house, share the same rooms, but they live in separate lives, the cat put the final nail in the coffin of their lost love, that glee in Julienu0026#39;s eyes with the cat on his knees is one sheu0026#39;ll never get, and she canu0026#39;t resign herself.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn fact, she has nothing against the cat, she even likes it but the poor animal reflects the heart nuisance the marriages turned to, and will trigger the chain of events that will lead to the heartbreaking final act. The film is told in flashback and this is the right choice because it leaves most of the powerful moments near the end so that the cat doesnu0026#39;t steal the actorsu0026#39; thunder. It is just a cause but not an end: the core of the film is the tragedy of a relationship that is so fragile that any blow can make it collapse, but as the story moves forward, we feel that the bigger tragedy is that it never does. Maybe divorces or separations have become such common practices that we canu0026#39;t understand why the two never envisioned that option, it is even questioned in the film when Julien goes to his old mistress, a brothel manager, played by Annie Cordy. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd these dialogues with the mistress are integral to the comprehension of Julienu0026#39;s mysterious personality; he has such ugly words about his wife that the mistress doesnu0026#39;t understand why he doesnu0026#39;t leave her. Well, the answer is in the question, Julien canu0026#39;t prevent himself from talking about his wife, sheu0026#39;s the center of his thoughts, as mean as they are, at least, they exist. Marriage seems like a plane in a storm, heu0026#39;s aboard and can do nothing about it. But Lucienne needs love and in one of the filmu0026#39;s emotional outbursts, she says she wants a cat, too, to get her share of tenderness, and then she starts meowing hysterically, this is how desperate it is. Julien puts the final blow by commenting her awful looks when sheu0026#39;s upset.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut does he fool us? All through the film, we suspect that his heart is not devoid of feelings, the passion has just been diluted in the disillusion of time and boredom and he canu0026#39;t find a proper way to express it, maybe he doesnu0026#39;t know it himself. The film doesnu0026#39;t really provide answers, it just shows a reality that couples can relate to, even I whou0026#39;s been married for five years contemplate a same sort of existential block sometimes, and being younger than the couple is scarier because I wonder if the film canu0026#39;t work like a warning. But then again, this is not just about marriage but the effect of times on relationships. Julien and Lucienne, as old as they are, used to have dreams, and werenu0026#39;t just blue-collar workers so that life would be ahead of them after retirement, they had interesting jobs and they had no kids. Future couldnu0026#39;t look gloomier.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThey say marriage is an institution, well the film reminded me of this term coined in u0026quot;The Shawshank Redemptionu0026quot; : being u0026#39;instutionalizedu0026#39;, which means getting used to the very walls that used to scare us, because time has a double effect: it erodes relationships, but also build our resistance to their erosion, the tragedy of u0026quot;The Catu0026quot; is that the effect is different from the husband to the wife, but the greatness of the film lies in the final minutes, and the way it toys with the sicknesses of the two leads, that can be both summarized as u0026#39;heartu0026#39; conditions.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIu0026#39;m not sure Iu0026#39;d feel ready to watch u0026quot;The Catu0026quot; again, but I know there will come a time, if I grow old enough, where Iu0026#39;ll think about it, again.”