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Washington, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

a movie i should see? "when the cat's away"

In 1997 a French film premiered about a lost cat. Well, mostly about a lost cat. No, mostly about how the lost cat symbolized a way of Parisian life that was gentrifying itself out of existence. The film was When the Cat’s Away (Chacun cherche son chat).

Spoiler: the cat is found. But not until after the cat's owner, a shy young woman named Chloe whose life is largely empty of anything vital except her cat, pushes the small envelope she's sealed herself within. (I'm not sure how one comes to such a pass living anywhere in Paris, but what do I know from Paris.) She goes on vacation, leaving her cat in the care of a local-color catlady, and comes home to find the cat gone and the great city hiding Kitty somewhere. Shy girl, big city: it would take a lost cat to get her moving, and that's what happens. But what else does she find and lose? Here's a review of the film, and here is another (with another film discussed - very thought provoking).

I have only spent 4 hours in Paris. Does a cat symbolize it justly? I know Florence somewhat and it's overrun with cats . . . I find myself thinking, would this plot have worked there? Probably not - the cat would never get lost, just head for the Boboli and get free English cat lady meals like all the other ones do. I'm being flip but the Florentines do seem to like cats a lot.

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