Dog Person Dislikes Cat People (#4/15)
"We have Nastassja Kinski in the lead role and Paul Schrader directing. Back in 1981... That's right, Zach! Cat People! About a woman who turns into a leopard when she falls in love... And then eats the person she loves! I thought it was romantic! Real romance right there, Zach! Nastassja was perfect for that role. Casting her made the movie a success. Malcolm McDowell as her brother was also a good call. He's like a panther even without any of that special Hollywood make up!"
Now Playing: Cat People (1982)
Expectations: Not really sure if this is going to be hilarious or arty but it's pretty clear what it's about.
Reality: Nastassja Kinski spends 40% of Cat People totally nude. Not important, but it does tell you how unnecessary this movie is. So does Annette O'Toole at one point just to drive the point home. Supposedly there are really heavy topics like incest and serious abuse at the hands of family members that this movie wants to talk about but they're just... part of it. I just think there needed to be a reason for the movie to have those topics in the first place. It gets even darker if you know anything about Nastassja Kinski's father but I'll leave that alone. I had no idea who Paul Schrader was but I guess he's done really great stuff before. Directed First Reformed and wrote a handful of movies for Scorsese, even. Including Taxi Driver and my personal favorite Scorsese pick, Bringing out the Dead. That was an adapted screenplay as well as Cat People, which was a remake too.
I just wasn't feeling it. John Heard, another Home Alone actor, who played Kevin's dad in that one is now the love interest of Kinski. He's not particularly interested in getting eaten by a cat during pillow talk and basically the movie's about how to fix that. Malcolm McDowell plays a full tilt window licking creep with cat eyes which is really his element now, isn't it? Let me just say... he plays an affectionate brother.
York was right about McDowell of course, but his character wasn't even in the original movie. Which also means that all that heavy shit didn't need to be there, especially if it gets ignored anyway. They could have attempted to make the concept, I don't know, fun? It's pretty out there that York thought this was romantic but as it goes it's just another minute detail to clue you into where Deadly Premonition is going and how you can expect York to react to things.
"We have Nastassja Kinski in the lead role and Paul Schrader directing. Back in 1981... That's right, Zach! Cat People! About a woman who turns into a leopard when she falls in love... And then eats the person she loves! I thought it was romantic! Real romance right there, Zach! Nastassja was perfect for that role. Casting her made the movie a success. Malcolm McDowell as her brother was also a good call. He's like a panther even without any of that special Hollywood make up!"
Now Playing: Cat People (1982)
Expectations: Not really sure if this is going to be hilarious or arty but it's pretty clear what it's about.
Reality: Nastassja Kinski spends 40% of Cat People totally nude. Not important, but it does tell you how unnecessary this movie is. So does Annette O'Toole at one point just to drive the point home. Supposedly there are really heavy topics like incest and serious abuse at the hands of family members that this movie wants to talk about but they're just... part of it. I just think there needed to be a reason for the movie to have those topics in the first place. It gets even darker if you know anything about Nastassja Kinski's father but I'll leave that alone. I had no idea who Paul Schrader was but I guess he's done really great stuff before. Directed First Reformed and wrote a handful of movies for Scorsese, even. Including Taxi Driver and my personal favorite Scorsese pick, Bringing out the Dead. That was an adapted screenplay as well as Cat People, which was a remake too.
I just wasn't feeling it. John Heard, another Home Alone actor, who played Kevin's dad in that one is now the love interest of Kinski. He's not particularly interested in getting eaten by a cat during pillow talk and basically the movie's about how to fix that. Malcolm McDowell plays a full tilt window licking creep with cat eyes which is really his element now, isn't it? Let me just say... he plays an affectionate brother.
York was right about McDowell of course, but his character wasn't even in the original movie. Which also means that all that heavy shit didn't need to be there, especially if it gets ignored anyway. They could have attempted to make the concept, I don't know, fun? It's pretty out there that York thought this was romantic but as it goes it's just another minute detail to clue you into where Deadly Premonition is going and how you can expect York to react to things.
I thought this movie was an 80s gem of good bad movies! I laughed through most of it. I have been doing an unofficial "is it porn" film series and this is getting filed under the definitely porn section, I mean the shot with the most effort was just to capture John heard's butt as he crawled up Ms. Kinski's nude bod after he seductively tied her up! Another indicator is that all the non-nude scenes had comedic dialog, my personal favorite being "I'll hold the ladder... OK" all spoken way to loudly with a smile to be anywhere near normal. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of this film and all its weirdness, although the forceful interspecies coitus and incest was uncomfortable to say the least... Did you notice it was David Bowie serenading us in the background?
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