Cat People (1982)
Directed by Paul Schrader
After years of separation, Irena Gallier and her minister brother, Paul, reunite in New Orleans. When zoologists capture a wild panther, Irena is drawn to the cat – and zoo curator Oliver to her. Soon, Paul will have to reveal the family secret: that when sexually aroused, they revert into predatory jungle cats.
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9 films that influenced Cat People
What critics say influenced Cat People
CAT PEOPLE, original screen play by DeWitt Bodeen; directed by Jack Tourneur; produced by Val Lewton for RKO Radio Pictures.
So let's jump right into the first, most famous, and by most accounts best of the lot, 1942's Cat People , written by first-time screenwriter DeWitt Bodeen, and directed by Jacques Tourneur.
Having established dark possibilities, "Cat People" gives us daylight scenes and chirpy supporting characters who don't realize they're skirting danger.
The ending of the film is quite different than the ending of the original 1942 version of "Cat People."
Cat People is based on a 1942 horror film, but it is distinguished by substance and subtlety, not shock value.
Jacques Tourneur's immortal 1942 original version of Cat People is a wonderful exercise in the macabre.
Coppola picked up the stylized color palettes for The Godfather movies, where the sepia became an idealized past contrasted with the chilly present of Michael’s corruption, and brought Storaro over to shoot Apocalypse Now, while Paul Schrader reached out to production designer Ferdinando Scarfiotti to be his “visual consultant” on American Gigolo and Cat People, films with defining, carefully painted color palettes.
In one scene, Schrader talks about how he copied a shot of a cage from one of his favorite films, Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Conformist."
Yet another featurette on the DVD is an interview with veteran director Robert Wise (directed "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and edited "Citizen Kane") who also worked on a sequel to "Cat People" in the mid-1940s.
As the screenwriter of Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation Of Christ, Schrader is one of cinema’s preeminent poets of sin, guilt, and redemption, an uncompromising figure with a pronounced indifference (or even outright hostility) toward commercial concerns.
After the screenplays for Taxi Driver and Raging Bull and his brilliant early work which includes Blue Collar, Hardcore and American Gigolo , Cat People was a misstep and he would not direct another decent film until Affliction in 1997.
Schrader came off as snobbish when he had no right to be, and he lacks the cinematic rigor of Ferrara or his Taxi Driver director Martin Scorsese.
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Schrader himself says he was concentrating on visuals in this movie, which was made right after his 1980 film, "American Gigolo."
In Cat People as in his previous two movies, Hardcore and American Gigolo, director Paul Schrader explores the intricate textures of desire and the interplay between eros and animality.
The remarkable thing about their two collaborations is that 1980’s American Gigolo and 1982’s Cat People—the latter of which has just been released on Blu-ray via Shout!
After the screenplays for Taxi Driver and Raging Bull and his brilliant early work which includes Blue Collar, Hardcore and American Gigolo , Cat People was a misstep and he would not direct another decent film until Affliction in 1997.
Throughout most of his career, Schrader never shied away from exploring the often polarizing themes of raw sexuality and power- particularly, Taxi Driver, Hardcore and American Gigolo, all which he penned before helming Cat People.
After an impressive, down and dirty debut with the 1978 Detroit factory film Blue Collar (helped enormously by the lived-in performances of Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, and Yaphet Kotto), Paul Schrader took a turn for the worse with his pseudo-artistic wankings American Gigolo and Cat People .
As the screenwriter of Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation Of Christ, Schrader is one of cinema’s preeminent poets of sin, guilt, and redemption, an uncompromising figure with a pronounced indifference (or even outright hostility) toward commercial concerns.
After the screenplays for Taxi Driver and Raging Bull and his brilliant early work which includes Blue Collar, Hardcore and American Gigolo , Cat People was a misstep and he would not direct another decent film until Affliction in 1997.
Additionally, the New Orleans setting is sultry and evocative, while the transformative creature effects rival those found in 1980's "An American Werewolf in London" and 1981's "The Howling."
After the screenplays for Taxi Driver and Raging Bull and his brilliant early work which includes Blue Collar, Hardcore and American Gigolo , Cat People was a misstep and he would not direct another decent film until Affliction in 1997.
After an impressive, down and dirty debut with the 1978 Detroit factory film Blue Collar (helped enormously by the lived-in performances of Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, and Yaphet Kotto), Paul Schrader took a turn for the worse with his pseudo-artistic wankings American Gigolo and Cat People .
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In Cat People as in his previous two movies, Hardcore and American Gigolo, director Paul Schrader explores the intricate textures of desire and the interplay between eros and animality.
After the screenplays for Taxi Driver and Raging Bull and his brilliant early work which includes Blue Collar, Hardcore and American Gigolo , Cat People was a misstep and he would not direct another decent film until Affliction in 1997.