Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11180 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-08-11
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 112 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Paul Schrader, the director of American Gigolo, brought a similar kind of sexual chic to this explicit horror movie. A remake of the beautiful, haunting 1942 Cat People, this version takes off from the same idea: that a woman (Nastassja Kinski), a member of a race of feline humans, will revert to her animalistic self when she has sex. Arriving to meet her brother (Malcolm McDowell) in New Orleans, she finds herself disturbed by his sexual presence. A zoo curator (John Heard) becomes fascinated by her, but he will discover that her kittenish ways are just the tip of the claw. Schrader dresses the story up in a stylish, glossy production, keyed on Kinski's green-eyed, thick-lipped beauty; it's hard to think of another actress in 1982 who could so immediately suggest a cat walking on two legs. Luckily Kinski had a European attitude toward her body, because this film has plenty of poster-art nudity. There's also lots of gore and some wacky flashbacks to the ancient tribe of cat people, who hold rituals in an orange desert while Giorgio Moroder's music plays. Cat People doesn't really make all this come together, but it's always interesting to look at, and the dreadful mood lingers. --Robert Horton

Special Features
English
Region 2

Synopsis
After Irena (Nastassia Kinski), a young woman with a mysterious past, is reunited with her brother Paul (Malcom MacDowell), a series of bizarre events is set into motion. When Irena discovers that her sexuality is intimately linked with that of her brother's--as well as with a strange human-feline metamorphosis they secretly share--the moment is both frightening and alluring. A remake of the 1942 supernatural horror film of the same name, Paul Schrader's version of Cat People is more graphic, more eroticised, and more detailed in content. Shot in New Orleans, an eerie stillness permeates the film, coupled with naturally delivered dialogue that moves the story along. Ruby Dee provides extra mysterious insinuations as Female, the sibling's live-in servant in their French-style mansion, and John Heard is perfectly cast as Oliver, the animal biologist and love interest of Irena.

Customer Reviews

Terrible film, great DVD
I'm not opposed to the idea of remakes, although this film shows just why it's a better idea to remake bad films with unfulfilled potential than great ones that far exceeded theirs. Even ignoring comparisons with Val Lewton's classic, it's rare for a film to misfire on quite as many levels as this early Bruckheimer movie - and it's much more of a Bruckheimer movie than a Schrader one - but sadly, like all Bruckheimer movies, this promises much but then resolutely fails to deliver (after all, Bruckheimer is the guy who made a car chase movie and then forgot to include any car chases until the last reel). The sexual fantasies may be Schrader's, but the style is all Bruckheimer's - glossy visuals, marketable soundtrack, good-looking cast given little to work with, meandering script and a dogged refusal to make good on the hype.

However, even ignoring the fact that the producer is more interested in the marketing than the movies themselves, taken on its own merits, `Cat People' just doesn't work. For a film about a race of incestuous cat people, it's astonishingly boring. Nothing much happens in the most uninteresting way possible for 90 minutes until Kinski's character undergoes a sudden complete moral u-turn and the filmmakers try to wrap everything up in a hurry so they can get home before the pubs shut. As a film about sexuality, it has no insight. As a sex film, it has no sex or eroticism. As a thriller, it doesn't thrill. As a horror film, it has no atmosphere or menace. Worst of all, it's just so astonishingly dull. And don't expect much in the way of special effects or gore - most of what was shot hit the cutting room floor (and don't go looking for them on the DVD - no deleted scenes there).

The DVD itself is a good package - a new 25-minute interview with Schrader and a worrying one from 1982 where he's barely coherent and obviously under the influence; interview with make-up FX man Tom Burman; Robert Wise on Val Lewton; stills montage; trailer; and an audio commentary by Schrader. Absolutely none of which makes this film any better, but at least gives you some insight into how Schrader's admitted personal problems helped send it off the rails. Only a poor stereo mix lets the side down.

It's very 80s...
Paul Schrader's remake of Jacques Tourneur's brilliant forties gothic-noir can never match the aura of the original- its look drifts between the High Art aesthetic of Bertolucci and the High Concept look of Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer. The Moroder soundtrack grounds this film in the 80s, though I've always been partial to the Bowie/Moroder track Putting Out the Fire.

Perhaps Cat People can be seen as the beginnings of Schrader's wilderness years- it is nowhere close to the screenplays of Taxi Driver/Raging Bull or to Schrader's initial films: Blue Collar, Hardcore, American Gigolo. In fact, following American Gigolo, Schrader would offer infrequent classics- Mishima:A Life in Four Chapters (1985), Light Sleeper (1991) & Affliction (1998). Cat People probably has more with the cocaine inflected creative redundancy noted in Peter Biskind's book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls...

It looks very iconic, then again, so did that Peter Murphy/Maxell advert- it shares a look with Tony Scott's superior The Hunger (also 1982)- when films began to have the panache of adverts (call it high art, high concept, cinema du gaze...) Nastassja Kinski has a suitable boyish look, though this reduces the obvious aura of her beauty apparent in Tess, Paris Texas & Faraway So Close! The sex elements, suitably hinted at in the Hays-bound original, are magnified here- tying in with Schrader's frequent sexual themes- incest is a factor, & one that drifts toward the silly. Apart from Kinski, the cast is rather cheap & dull- Malcolm McDowell now a bit of a caricature compared to those great performances in If, A Clockwork Orange & O Lucky Man! (still, Blue Thunder would be worse...)

Cat People is a twist in the sexual-horror film, it's certainly far from terrible- if you want an erotic exercise in panache, it probably does the business. Think Betty Blue with feline-metamorphosis and added incest- it also predicts the OTT film Trouble Every Day. The DVD extras are non-existent- perhaps it would have been more fun to put the Bowie/Moroder video on, or the original 1942 film to compare? Cat People is OK, Schrader has never made a truly terrible film (though Exorcist IV might be it...)- but this is far from such great films as Affliction, Blue Collar, Light Sleeper & Mishima.

Kinski With A Bit Of Bite
Cat People is the story of a girl's reunion with her brother and the subsequent revelation that she is of a long line of were-leopards. Parallel to this scenario comes a spate of bloody big-cat murders across town and the frequent appearance and disappearance of a mysterious black leopard from the local zoo, where Kinski's character is working, and the equally coincidental appearances and disappearances of her brother.

Much about Cat People (except for Nastassia Kinski) can be viewed with mixed opinion and feelings. The effects range between crummy and excellent for their day (plus the animal handling is notably superb), the acting is of variable quality, and the storyline flickers between gorily intriguing and silly. The background legend/explanation narrated at the end is particularly daft and ultimately unnecessary.

There is something about the Cat People film however that is very engrossing, and whilst Kinski might be part of that, it does have an atmosphere about it that holds it above water and keeps it from floundering as a piece of average horror. It's also helped along by the theme music, suitably dark pieces of electronic ambience with the main theme including vocals from Bowie.

It's a film that has definitely grown on me since the first time I saw it, and I suspect that this would be the case with others who originally weren't quite sure which way to rate it.