The Strange Little Cat

a domestic symphony of constrained chaos, a micro-managed formal exercise in which everything is spontaneous, everything moves, non-sequiturs and rhymes abound. tati, akerman and ozu in a blender, an audiovisual, spatial and conceptual treasure trove; it's the platonic form of CiNéMa, tailor made to be slathered with cinephilic jizz. divine pandering, but pandering nonetheless; even the mother's depression may as well be a JEANNE DIELMAN namedrop. always fascinating, i just wish i FELT it more.

I'm all about weird family gatherings and minutia, but this isn't the best example of how great that stuff could be. There's some good scenes and the composition is generally superb, but the characters are unmemorable, which greatly smothers any potential emotional impact.

Strange is the word.

weird stuff and then yet not so strange. to me the family seems quite happy after all. very german

This an absolute "still life" which gathers people as well as animals and objects and tries to freeze them as images which are worthy just because they exist. In that sense it is a celebration of the little details in life even though it's not considered "happy" and "precious" by some characters like the mother. I would have enjoyed this more if the cliché of "evil and brutal middle class family seeming happy" wasn't repeated and the director had just followed their lives without a subtext.

A clearly somewhat experimental piece which paints an unhurried portrait of life in a particular German family, and occasionally goes off on a tangent to play with sounds or images, which seem to interest the director more than the characters at times. You notice the long static camera shots first, and how they affect your perception of place, people and time. Sadly the film did not keep me engrossed, and will not be remembered for very long.

Formally inventive, the film explores the constrictions of a typical family with something of an absurdist tone sprinkled in throughout. In the midst of performances that largely approach mechanical, it becomes clear that something is terribly wrong in this family. Its members are desperate for connection and yearning for a way out--the flashbacks point us in this direction. Furthermore, the mature use of the camera combines rhythmic alternation btw. portraiture and utter chaos to great effect.

A neat little exercise in sound editing and cinematography, in which chaos is carefully orchestrated on a micro level of a family unit in their little apartment. The film is sure to strike different chords with different people based on their own personal experiences; for myself, I was immediately witness to a story about the little, almost inconsequential things in life that can become obsessive reminders to some about the passing of time. I'm not sure if this will stick with me, but we'll see.

Bold experimentation, and in the end about the mother's oncoming depression, subtly and nonsensically creeping in on a wonderful family life. The daydreams and the delicate poetry that surround this are not the stuff of drama, but rather speak to the non-rational in our psyche.

If2014 & Ne kadar klise bir hikayeden yola ciksa da ve anlattigi seyde yeni cumleler kuramasa da, asina oldugumuz durumlarin titizlikle insaa edilmis imajlari/diyaloglari kendisini bir sekilde zevkle izletiyor.

What the hell is going on?

13. !f - Fitaş: Orjinal görselliği ve başarılı mizansenleriyle Tati'nin özellikle Playtime'ının akla getiriyor. Ama hikaye bağlamında düşünüldüğünde, artık her yönüyle aşina olduğumuz "mutlu gibi görünen orta sınıf ailesi" kavramına bir katkı yaptığını söylemek zor.