With graphic though not overly sickening closeups to show fully how cats give birth, "The Private Life of a Cat" is an interesting little documentary outlining the process of feline reproduction. I first found out about it by the fact that the co-director was the genius avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren, although because of the lack of surrealist qualities and the fact it's very straightforward in its story it was more the work of her husband Alexander Hammid. Congrats to both as this documentary, while not always thorough in the entire growth cycle, makes the whole film work as a basic outline. And, while technically just a home movie sort of project, the camerawork is quite good as such and shows remarkable skill.
The film begins with the two cats courting each-other briefly, before the mother goes to a box to give birth to the four kittens. The birth is particularly well shot, with detailed closeups and perfect views of how the process occurs. The father then comes into the room a moment later and inspects their newborns, before we go ahead two weeks and see how the kittens have grown and are learning to play.
What made this film so interesting was the fact that I've never seen a cat actually having birth, and this film depicts it in an admittedly graphic but very beautiful way. As stated above, it's really only an outline of how kittens are born and develop, but it didn't need to be any longer and nowadays we have all the technology we want to be able to capture hours of footage showing the complete thing. Worth seeing for any cat lover.
