一日一猫  魔法师的猫 卡桑德拉猫 That Cat The Cassandra Cat The Cat Who Wore Sunglasses When the Cat Comes

An early curio of Czechoslovak New Wave movement, Vojtech Jasný’s WHEN THE CAT COMES, aka. THE CASSANDRA CAT is an inventive picture on account of its singular chromatic maneuver and an ambidextrous black light theater performance.

In a Bohemian village, the legend of an sunglasses-sporting black cat 速resurfaces during a black light theater show, when the glasses are taken off, the cat’s eyes reveal the true nature of the human condition through color: “yellow” means “unfaithful”, “purple” “envious”, “grey” “unruly”, and “red” is the color of lovers, like the teacher Robert (Brodský), who is infatuated with Diana (Vásáryová), the luscious assistant of the magician (Werich), an alter ego of the village’s storyteller Oliva (also Werich).

Restored in its mint condition, audience will be palpably bowled over by Jasný’s team’s prestidigitations of rendering specific color on a person, a technique dictated by a simply guideline yet its objectification is nonetheless a delight for sore eyes. However, encumbered by a weak script that feebly tees off on a stifling totalitarian regime (symbolized by Sovák’s hypocritical school principal), WHEN THE CAT COMES is hollower than it appears, out of its idyllic allure and magical showcase, Jasný flounders about what more to be said or discussed other than the simplified colorization (can anyone have more than one color?).

The romance between Robert and Diana has a swooning roundelay feel and Vásáryová is a gorgeous stunner in her crimson one-piece dress, whereas Brodský is an all-too hangdog nonentity that their mismatch involuntarily betrays a self-pleasing masculine fantasy. But Svatopluk Havelka’s accompanying score is a lush orchestral phenomenon, WHEN THE CAT COMES is more a musical fantasy than a straight-faced parable about human nature. Plus the implementation of children as the ultimate symbol of conscience is again, an over-simplified ideal that seems more farcical than its intention in its end result.

That said, Jasný’s film is a testimony of the ceaseless wellspring that generates Czechoslovak New Wave movement, the imaginings, the innovations, the forms of expression, and the pursuit of aestheticizing, which is different from other motion pictures elsewhere in the world at that time. Its mentality may sometimes err on the side of naivety and rigidity, which creates a unique situation where the overflowing creativity clashes with an ideological stasis, a fascinating geopolitical aspect of the movement.

referential entries: Jasný’s ALL MY COMPATRIOTS (1969, 7.9/10); Jaromil Jires’s VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS (1970, 6.9/10); Oldrich Lipský’s DINNER FOR ADELE (1978, 7.9/10).

English Title: When the Cat Comes

Original Title: Az prijde kocour

Year: 1963

Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Family

Country: Czechoslovakia

Language: Czech

Director: Vojtech Jasný

Screenwriters: Vojtech Jasný, Jan Werich, Jirí Brdecka

Music: Svatopluk Havelka

Cinematography: Jaroslav Kucera

Editor: Jan Chaloupek

Cast:

Jan Werich

Vlastimil Brodský

Emília Vásáryová

Jirí Sovák

Vladimír Mensík

Jirina Bohdalová

Karel Effa

Vlasta Chramostová

Alena Kreuzmannová

Stella Zázvorková

Rating: 7.0/10