WHEN THE CAT'S AWAY (PG-13)
Director: Cedric Klapisch
Stars: Garance Clavel, Olivier Py, Renee Le Calm
Running Time: 95 minutes.
Writer/director Cedric Klapisch's third movie is a gentle, off beat romance that captures the colourful atmosphere and
rhythms of Paris like no other recent French film. When The Cat's Away centres around Chloe (Garance Clavel), a naive
and virginal fashion make-up artist who is, by choice, alone and lonely in the middle of romantic, beautiful Paris. She hates her
job and she mistrusts men, and only shares her affections with her beloved cat Gris-Gris. She even shares a studio apartment
with Michel (Olivier Py), a gay artist so that she can feel safe, although she does feel a bit jealous and resentful of his active
sex life and the way he shares his life openly with others. When Chloe goes away, alone, on a holiday to the sea-side, she is
forced to leave her cat with one of her neighbours, Mme Renee (Renee Le Calm), an eccentric old woman who lives in a flat
she shares with several other abandoned creatures. But the cat goes missing, and when Chloe returns from her holiday she sets
out to find it.
This sounds like an incredibly slim premise around which to build a feature film, but the missing moggy is actually only the
catalyst which eventually draws Chloe out of her sheltered existence and thrusts her into the exciting world of her immediate
neighbourhood. Forced out onto the streets of Paris to look for the cat, Chloe interacts with the incredible melting pot that is
her local community, and she is forced to rely on the help of people, neighbours she has previously avoided. As she begins to
soak up the friendly atmosphere, Chloe becomes more involved in the lives of the people around her, and she encounters
people in the cafes and bars she would not otherwise have visited, and begins to share that sense of community. She even
notices the way in which the character of the neighbourhood is dramatically changing through demolition and high rise
construction which is slowly driving people out of the area. And most dramatically of all, Chloe finds love when she meets the
handsome young drummer whose persistent percussion has consistently grated on the nerves of the nearby residents.
Klapisch imbues this shaggy dog story with a very real sense of warmth, a gentle, off beat sense of humour, and a laid back,
deceptive pace that is very French and may not appeal to everyone. Many in the audience may in fact wonder where this film
is taking them - and indeed much of the film was being made up while it was being shot - but for those with the patience to
stick it out, When The Cat's Away does provide an optimistic finale which holds out hope that love and happiness can be
found even in the most unlikeliest of circumstances. Klapisch has a genuine affection for the characters of his film, and he
suffuses the material with a very real sense of Chloe's loneliness and desperation that adds a poignant tone to proceedings.
Klapisch mixes real actors with many non-professional, untrained locals from the actual neighbourhood in which the film was
shot, which provides the natural, spontaneous and unrehearsed feel and makes the characters seem that much more real. Best
of all amongst a wonderful ensemble cast are Le Calm, who is marvellous as the eccentric old lady with an obsessive love of
cats, and Clavel, who disguises her natural beauty beneath a deliberately dowdy and fragile exterior. But as the film grows
and Chloe becomes more confident, so too does Clavel blossom and become more attractive and vital.
Technically, the film is superb, although Klapisch deliberately avoids the glossy surface preferred by most of his
contemporaries. Especially good is Benoit Delhomme's superb cinematography, which catches glimpses of the real Paris and
offers some dazzling and exciting shots of the Parisian skyline.