The Case of the Grinning Cat (Chats Perches) (2006)
Average Rating: 7.7/10
Reviews Counted: 16
Fresh: 16 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 7.8/10
Critic Reviews: 8
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 617
Movie Info
Filmmaker Chris Marker combines two of his long-time passions, felines and Leftist politics, in this documentary essay film. Veteran filmmaker Marker is a devoted cat lover, with a number of tabbies of his own, so when the city of Paris repeatedly fell victim to a graffiti artist spray-painting grinning kitties all over town, Marker became curious and began to investigate. The cat graffiti started to appear not long after the September 11 attacks in New York City, which provoked new anxieties
Jul 21, 2006 Limited
Dec 2, 2008
First Run/Icarus
Cast
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All Critics (16) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (16) | Rotten (0) | DVD (1)
[Director] Marker may be windy, but he also enjoys the wisdom that comes with age. His masterful command of the camera shows that he can lecture and entertain at the same time.
Top CriticThe Case of the Grinning Cat is further evidence of Chris Marker's exhilarating wit. His hour-long cinema essay offers a snapshot of France that's been realized in Marker's daydreamy developer fluid.
Demonstrates that this cinematic provocateur [director Chris Marker] has lost little of his gift for social observation.
In The Case of the Grinning Cat, the filmmaker Chris Marker fluidly moves over and under Paris, capturing images of fugitive beauty and pathos.
Leave it to Chris Marker, the 85-year-old French documentarian and cineaste hero, to take an unexceptional event and turn it into an exceptional film.
Approaching 85, cine-essayist Chris Marker remains as lively, engaged, and provocative as ever -- and no less fond of indirection.
A playful 58-minute documentary.
Feels like Marker's attempt to implicitly reconcile his own advanced age...one is bound to see history repeat itself in full, ignorant swing, if one lives long enough.
Organic and overflowing with ideas... Marker's even-handedness and playful spirit show that innocent art and activist politics are two sides of the same culture... this whimsical winner cannot be pigeonholed.
vivé le chat!
The Case Of The Grinning Cat is a sequel of sorts to Marker's epic three-hour 1977 documentary on the decline of the left, A Grin Without A Cat -- though this new work is both shorter and more playful.
Marker brings a light, puckish touch.
Modestly eschewing declarative organization, Marker's interest in and presentation of information is strictly pointillist.
A bright, intelligent soufflé of a film that is both engaged and engaging, and which, like the best French confections, continually rises.
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Movie: ID: 326299293 Title: The Case of the Grinning Cat (Chats Perches) Release Date: 2006-07-21 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 6 Status: 1
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Foreign Titles
- The Case of the Grinning Cat (DE)
- Chats perchés (FR)
If you are into political protest, you might really like The Case of the Grinning Cat. I am not, and this must have intimate links with my increasing boredom and listlessness while viewing the footage. I was in Paris for part of the period documented, and the anti-war protest I attended may well have been one of those featured here. But the attempt to connect the (fictional) graffiti cats appearing all over Paris to some overarching historical symbolism didn't move me at all.
The Case of the Grinning Cat is undeniably a different movie. The same things that I dislike about it would probably make it a unique pleasure to someone with different tastes.