Film Review
With its familiar urban setting, in an ordinary area of Paris, and naturalistic performances
(helped by the fact that most of the cast are non-professional actors),
Chacun cherche son chat is less
a story about a young woman's quest to find her lost cat and more a portrait about
the morals and attitudes of contemporary society. The trivial story about the missing
cat is really just a pretext for director Cédric Klapisch to examine the psychology
and responses of individuals living in a cloistered metropolitan environment. This
may not sound like a promising recipe for a good film, but Klapisch's flair for
capturing real-life situations on film, in a way that is familiar yet somehow fresh and
invigorating, makes this an entertaining and thought-provoking film.
It is a worthy follow-up to Klapisch's first two features,
Riens du tout (1992)
and
Le Péril jeune (1994).
Garance Clavel's
performance as Chloé is appropriately subdued but the young actress provides an
essential pivot around which the drama (such as it is), and the more colourful characters,
revolve. The richness of Parisian society is reflected in this film to a far greater
extent than many modern French films, including representations from a dizzying diversity
of races, professions, ages and lifestyles. The film's star, if there is one,
has to be the formidable Renée Le Calm, an arthritic septuagenarian who out-does
her younger co-stars in charisma, charm and energy. Hers is a performance that is
not easy to forget - for the simple reason that (like many characters in the film,
being a non-professional actor) she is playing herself.
Klapisch originally
envisaged this film to be a short film running to around 20 minutes, but he extended it
when he discovered the wealth of material he had in the minor characters. Unfortunately,
this is all too noticeable in the final film, and it is the array of minor characters
(most notably the army of elderly women who are galvanised into action to find the lost
cat) which dominate the film, to the extent that the main characters often disappear from
view too often and for too long. Depending on your attitude to contemporary European
cinema, this is either a minor blemish or a major fault. However, it is undoubtedly
true that Klapisch shows great originality and panache in his filming, transforming a
mundane plot into a multi-faceted study of contemporary life, sometimes comic, sometimes
contemplative, yet constantly Klapisch.
© James Travers 2001
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Cédric Klapisch film:
Un air de famille (1996)
Film Synopsis
Chloé is a young make-up assistant living in Paris. She shares
an apartment with a gay friend Michel and her treasured cat Gris-Gris.
Before setting off on her holidays, Chloé takes care to leave her
pet with someone she can trust, an elderly neighbour named Madame Renée,
who adores cats and has had several of her own. When Chloé returns
she is greeted with the terrible news that her cat has gone missing.
Without delay, she embarks on a frantic search for the stray animal, enlisting
as she does so the help of her friends Michel and Djamel, and pretty well
all of the old women in the area. After an anxious period of waiting
comes the terrible news that a cat meeting the description of Chloé's
pet has been found dead in an area of wasteland. To the young woman's
relief it is not Gris-Gris. Djamel then risks his neck trying to reach
a cat on a roof - again another false alarm. With what seems like half
of Paris busy looking for her cat, Chloé embarks on another quest
- to find her ideal soul mate. She has more chance of finding her cat...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.