Cat People (1982)

Title: Cat People (1982)

Director: Paul Schrader

Cast: Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell, John Heard, Annette O Toole

Review: 

Paul Schrader is the mastermind writer behind many great films, for example, he is a frequent collaborator with Martin Scorsese for whom he wrote some of the distinguished directors most recognized films like Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull (1980). Schrader even wrote some of Scorsese’s less popular films like The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and Bringing Out the Dead (1999), both excellent films in my book. In fact, if you haven’t seen Bringing Out the Dead, do yourself a favor! He also wrote one of Quentin Tarantino’s favorite films ever, Rolling Thunder (1977), a film about a soldier who returns home from war, only to find out he doesn’t like what he finds, home just isn’t the same. Schrader even wrote one of my favorite films ever, Peter Weir’s The Mosquito Coast (1986), the film in which Harrison Ford hates America so much, he decides to create his own society, apart from the rest of the world.  In essence, Mr. Schrader is an excellent writer; I love most of the films he has written. More interesting still, is the fact that Schrader evolved into a film director, a step that little writers take with success. How does he fare as a director? Well, let’s see how he did with his remake of Jacques Tourneur’s classic horror film Cat People (1942). 

The thing with this remake is that it divides its audience, some people seem to really love this movie (I fall into this category) while others seem to criticize it because of its large quotient of sex and violence, but here’s what I have to say about it, accusing this film of being too violent or sexual is like accusing a heavy metal band of being too loud. Sex and violence go hand in hand with this film, you can’t blame Paul Schrader for wanting to explore the films erotic, sensual nature in a more graphic manner than Tourneur’s film, after all, Tourneur’s film was made in 1942, Schrader’s was made in the 80’s, a decade in which sex and violence dominated the silver screen. So to all those naysayers that criticize this movie because it’s sexual, please, grow up! This film was marketed for adults, it is clearly rated “R”, hell, the films tagline (prominently plastered on the poster) read “An Erotic fantasy about the animal in all of us” So, if that tagline isn’t enough to let you know what kind of a film you’ll be watching, then you shouldn’t be watching this movie.  I hate it when people try to be such puritans! Sex is a part of life, what’s the deal with trying to hide it?

This divided audience reaction actually kind of exemplifies what Cat People is all about, sexual awakening, sexual repression and uncontrolled passions. Cat People is about Irena, a young woman who is trying to hide her sexual side out of fear. She is a virgin, but according to her, she’s waiting for just the right guy to take her to paradise. “When it happens, it will be magical” she says. In reality, she refrains from having sex because she belongs to a race of beings called The Cat People. You see, once upon a time, cats dominated earth, and the few humans that existed gave their women in sacrifice to the cats. But Instead of killing the women, the cats mated with them and so, a race of cat people was born. These cat people look just like regular humans, but when they have sex with regular humans, they turn into black panthers. In order to turn back into humans, they have to kill whoever they just had sex with. So sex is always a messy thing with these people. Unless, they have sex with their own brothers and sisters, then everything is okay and they don’t turn into panthers. So we’re talking about an incestuous race here, which is probably the real reason this film stroke up a controversy.

But again, it’s not like the film is advocating incest, far from it. In the film, Irena meets up with her long lost brother, Paul, whom she has not seen since they were children. Paul has the hots for his own sister because he wants to satisfy his sexual desires without having to kill anybody. Unfortunately, Irena doesn’t want to be with her brother, because it’s her freaking brother! “I am not like you” she tells him, to which he replies “That is the lie that will kill your lover”, so yeah; it’s a film that explores many aspects of human sexuality, including the taboo subject of incest. But that’s not all it explores. Irena falls for a Zoo Keeper named Oliver Yates. She loves him, but knows she might have to kill him if they end up together. Does she sleep with him or not? Will she risk turning into a panther and killing him? The symbolisms for sexual awakening are there, and it all fits perfectly with the symbolisms of predatory panthers and their prey.

And what better actress to explore sexuality with then the ultra sexy Nastassja Kinski? Hell, you take the ‘s’ away from Kinsky and you left with ‘Kinky’! So it all works out. Nastassja had no problems with nudity, she really goes all out here, and yeah, let me just say that this film has tons of nudity in it, Annette O’Toole even shows us some skin. I was having this internal battle, who is hotter? Kinski or O’Toole?  Those of you who have seen the movie, please strike back and let me know what you think! So yeah, lots of skin on this one, which was a common thing back in the 80’s, watching Cat People reminded me just how sexually repressed modern American cinema has become. What’s with this obsession of denying our sexual natures? A healthy sexual life is normal; its part of what makes us human. Yeah we can keep it under control, but not repress it. It goes against human nature to do so, because let’s be honest here: We Are Sexual People! Which is the reason why I celebrate films like Cat People! These are films that explore the more passionate, sexual side of life that “is in all of us”. Irena is tempted by good natured sexual attraction to Oliver and the perverted side, represented by her brother Paul. Which side shall she choose?

Another great aspect of this film is the films color palette, which augments the films wild passions, lots of oranges and reds permeate the screen, there’s lots of visual intensity. Aesthetically speaking, the film is a delight to watch: this thanks in no small part to the group of artists that Schrader chose to surround himself with in order to make this film look the way it does. Sometimes it feels as if the film escapes to some sort of surreal fantasy land filled with black panthers. There’s this one scene that I loved where Irena walks naked through the forest, connecting with nature, feeling very much alive. She can see and hear and feel everything that much more acutely, awesome scene. Cat People started off in the right foot when the first thing I heard was David Bowie’s “Putting Out the Fire”, one of my favorite Bowie songs. I had no idea the song was featured so predominantly throughout the whole film! The tune is sultry, just like the film. Malcolm McDowell turns in an intense performance as Paul, Irena’s incest thirsty brother. He plays his role with ferocity, acting like a hungry animal, even his attire is wild! Malcolm McDowell incurs in some nudity himself, but he’s no stranger to that sort of thing, after all, this is the guy who played Caligula (1979).

I can’t compare this film to Jacques Tourneur’s original film because I’ve never seen that version of Cat People, so my review analyzed the film strictly from watching only Schrader’s version, but from what I gather, they are not all that similar. In fact, Schrader himself says he regrets having called it Cat People; that a smarter move would have been to use an alternate title that would distance it from Tourneur’s classic. Apparently, Schrader’s film has very little in common with Tourneur’s film, save for the classic pool scene in which Irena hunts down Alice. Another thing that separates this one from Tourneur's film is the effects work, nothing here is hidden in shadows, or suggested, we see the transformations, the film has some gory fun with that, in this sense it's similar to films like An American Werewolf in London (1981), where we see these graphic transformations take place, though I will say that the transformations in Cat People are not as good as the ones seen in films like An American Werewolf in London or The Howling (1981). This film came to us from a wave of Universal remakes that came during the 80’s in which Universal Studios attempted to give an update to all their old monsters. So what we have here ladies and gentlemen is a very erotic film that explores human sexuality, looks fantastic and has two beautiful maidens as its stars, what’s not to like? So in answer to my initial question, Schrader succeeds as a director as well as a writer. I only wish he’d written this one himself, instead this one was written by Alan Ormsby, the guy behind Porky’s II (1983) and Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things (1973). I guess Schrader wanted to concentrate fully on the direction, because of this, the films script suffers a bit. It doesn’t have the strength that many of Schrader’s other works have, it’s really the only reason I don’t give it a perfect score, otherwise, Cat People is highly recommended!

Rating:  4 out of 5  

    

After Hours (1985)

Title: After Hours (1985)

Director: Martin Scorcese

Cast: Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom, Linda Fiorentino, Teri Garr, Catherine O’Hara, John Heard, Dick Miller, Bronson Pinchot, Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong

Review:

Every once in a while a director will take a project that could have otherwise turned out to be bland or formulaic and elevates it, makes it better then it has any right to be. I think this was the case with After Hours. You kind of get the feeling that had this comedy been under the command of a lesser director, it simply would not have been as good as it is. Had legendary American filmmaker Martin Scorcese not been behind the camera, it could have ended as just another romantic comedy, lost in the shuffle and forgotten in time. But in the hands of Scorcese, this dark comedy is a superior form of comedy film in my book and I might add, criminally underrated.

After Hours tells the story of Paul Hackett, a New York City computer programmer who’s fed up with his life. He’s got a boring job, doing the same thing over and over again; when he goes back home, it’s to watch the same boring channels on television and judging by Hackett’s one tone face, there’s nothing unique or interesting on it;  he surfs through the channels with a blank stare on his face. So after a while he decides to  go out and venture to the outside world, searching for human contact, searching for something other then the numbing loneliness he lives in. The streets he ventures to are the perilous streets of the big apple, circa mid-eighties, which means dark, dangerous and manic. He stops at a coffee shop to read his favorite novel and stumbles upon a beautiful girl whom he apparently has a couple of things in common with. They exchange phone numbers and part ways, but Paul's loneliness gets the better of him and so he ends up calling her up on that very same night! They meet again at her apartment and Paul seems to think he’s going to be getting lucky, for what is wrong with casual sex? A random night of passion? Absolutely nothing! Unfortunately for Hackett, Marcy ends up being a true wacko! He sees the signs and decides to abort mission, but as Hackett will soon find out, going back home is not going to be an easy task.  

Many things make After Hours a good film, not just the fact that Scorcese directed it, though that is the big bonus in my book. Actually a lot of good things came together to make this as special a film; for example, the cast is amazing! The film is mostly centered on Griffin Dunne’s character Paul Hackett, he plays the every man. A blue collar worker type that’s fed up, he wants human contact, he wants something more then just his own self to talk to at night. Unfortunately, the universe seems to be conspiring against him on this night, this is one of those movies where everything goes wrong for the main character. He runs out of money, gets mixed up in all sorts of trouble and meets the craziest people! True blue New York people who live jaded lives in a jaded city. To you or I these characters that Hackett meets through out the course of the evening might seem nuts, or too crazy for real life, but to a New Yorker, this film is merely an exaggeration of every day New York life. Every character is brought to life by a gifted actor. Terry Gar for example, whom I always remember as Inga from Mel Brook’s Young Frankenstein (1974), is hilarious on this one as a waitress who’s a lonely desperate woman, looking for the right man to snatch up and devour! Catherine O’Hara plays this psychotic woman who has her own Mister Softee Ice Cream truck, her character is hilariously jaded out of her mind.  I mean we even get freaking Cheech and Chong on this film! The cast is very well rounded out, it makes watching the film a pleasure.

But of course, the big draw here for me is that Scorcese directed the film. What I’ve always loved about Scorcese is how very New York he is. He is enamored with the city, same as Woody Allen is, can’t say I blame ‘em, the place can be rather magical, vibrant, alive. It is a beautiful city and a dark city; it can be the stuff of dreams or nightmares depending which corner you turn on. New York City's ambiguity is what  shines through so well in After Hours. You can meet a beautiful girl in a coffee shop in the middle of the night, but said girl can turn out to be a total head case. It’s these little details that the film has that make it such a New York film, the crazy taxi driver, the cold crazy people, the dark haunting city streets, the bums, the punks, the night clubs, the gay bars, the unexpectedly friendly people, the film effectively captures the dark beauty that was New York of the 80’s, I loved that about it, so my hats down to Scorcese for capturing New York City life so well, it’s something he’s gotten very good at through out his career. I mean, this is the director who made New York, New York (1977), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980) and Mean Streets (1973) all of which take place in the big apple. Scorcese is without a doubt a director that displays his love for the city that never sleeps; he’s the most ‘New York’ director of all. The fact that the entire film was shot in New York City streets and entirely at night is what gives After Hours its unique look.

But aside from that, the film has these amazing camera shots, which is really what let’s us know there’s a master filmmaker behind the cameras, it’s little details, like when we follow these keys that someone throws from a building, or when Hackett’s twenty dollar bill flies out the taxi cabs window and the camera follows it. My favorite shot is the one with which the film ends, the camera simply sweeps through an office building filled with desks and computers and telephones…loved that. This is the camera work and direction that brings After Hours up for me, it elevates the film. So as you can see my friends, many things make this one special. After Hours is without a doubt an extremely underrated Scorcese film! Same as with Scorcese’s Bringing Out the Dead (1999), this is a film from Scorcese’s repertoire that many seems to be missing out on, but should definitely be seeing. Scorcese made After Hours in order to regain his love for filmmaking, you see, before making After Hours Scorcese had been trying to get The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) going, but had an incredibly hard time making it happen, until finally he let it go. He ended up making it anyways a few years later, but at the time, he was incredibly frustrated at the fact that apparently The Last Temptation of Christ was not going to happen. So he went on and made After Hours, to regain his love for making movies. His love and passion for the medium shows through in the film, this is a master storyteller giving it his best to make us laugh and achieving it, in a very artful stylish way. This is a wonderfully dark comedy.

Highly recommend it if you want to see one of these films that’s very paranoid, and fast, the film moves at a frenetic pace. It’s the kind of film that takes places during the small hours of the night, in these seedy places that are open when most of humanity is sound asleep. It’s a film that shows us that the freaks most certainly come out at night. Which is probably why Hackett is always shown running from someone, which was a nice motif I picked up while watching the film; that image of Hackett just running,  running from the freaks, from the crazies, from scary life. Paul Hackett is a character that just wants to ‘get home’ which reminds me that in some ways, this is a dark version of the Wizard of Oz, with it’s main character trying to get away from all the craziness and back to the comfort and warmth of home. By the way, the films connection to The Wizard of Oz is alluded to at one point in the film. But aside from wanting to get home, Hackett just wants to live, which I think is an awesome message in the film. He wants more out of life, can’t say I blame him for going after it even if it means going through hell.

Rating: 5 out of 5