Cat People

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Channeling A Sexual Beast: 80s Style, 2009-01-06
Despite having been young, semi-conscious (I was under five years old) and possessing few actual memories of the nineteen eighties, the decade has a certain personal eroticism for me. The powdery skin, shimmering camerawork, the outrageous kink and camp of the clothing, the archetypical section of dim-minded actresses performing with the joyful vacant-eyed faces of children: these all stir my heart. The film Cat People was a smarter film when compared to too much of the artistic output of the nineteen eighties but it also suffered from the strangeness of the times. First of all, Nastassja Kinski has a sublime beauty that would attract in any decade but was especially characteristic of ideal notions of sexiness for those years. Her eyebrow were that exquisite Madonna-esque thickness, her lips in a permanent state of partial openness with full-on pout, her hair cut to that boyish cute, and her shoulder pads speaking volumes about her feminine authority. Even her cat-like demeanor, connected to the premise of the film, was equivalent to popular depictions of women as sex kittens. In essence, her performances in the film can be interpreted as one of the finest expressions of the nineteen eighties soft-lit, softcore pornographic aesthetic. br / br /Secondly, as a horror film, it managed to offer moments of decent creepiness in the vein of the times. Fear, of course, has been a universal and timeless emotion yet it can be provoked in a manner reflective of the era. The Germans of centuries ago used grim and blood-spattered folk tales to frighten, director Paul Schrader used shadow. Shadows were such a magnificent aspect of the nineteen eighties aesthetic because their perfect in lockstep with the soft-lit light (consider the Vogue video). Schrader employed shadows in an eerie manner that kept the viewer guessing, achieving what few horror directors actual get from their audiences: fearful concern about what was in the dark. Consider two scenes: when Malcolm McDowell lunges from the shadows as the beast and when Nastassja Kinski has a passion moment in that darkened room. Schrader brilliance was to make the shadow both fearful and erotic: the dark has been traditional as fear-provoker and yet can be quite intimate as well. In mixing the two emotions successfully, Schrader made the film a unique creature for the horror genre. br / br /Third, that soundtrack Giorgio Moroder and Bowie crafted must be one of the strangest in the history of film. Starting off on a campy note, the music over the reddish desert of the first scene ought to make a person either laugh or weep but it does get better. Listen to it; it goes with the images on screen like magic.

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Cat People [HD DVD], 2008-11-25
DID NOT WORK WITH FRIENDS VCR BUT OWNER GENEROUSLY GAVE A REFUND FOR MY MISTAKE. THANK YOU

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Bewitching, 2008-11-02
Kinski and Heard are starstruck lovers burdened by the fact that she will turn into a ferocious beast. The set design, the cast, the moody atmospheric score all combine to make a artistic statement. Some of the visuals are cheaply disturbing, when Malcolm changes from man to beast leaving slime everywhere and Kinski naked for no apparent reason. But overall the film captures the feline essence of a femme fatale and a man obsessed.

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How does this compare to the 1998 DVD release of this same film?, 2008-10-24
I love the film and I have the 98 version of it, however I am wondering what the 2002 dvd release includes. Is it different than the 98 version. The 98 dvd release is hard to hear, I have to turn my tv way up when watching it. Does the 2002 release have better sound quality?

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Wild Cat People! , 2008-08-13
This was quite an interesting movie, especially with wildcats and people who become them, which in this case were Nastassja Kinski(Irena) and Malcolm McDowell(Paul) along with the fact that CAT PEOPLE had a lot of violence and nudity, especially since Natassja Kinski did quite a bit of nude scenes with full frontal nudity showing Nastassja Kinski's boobs, coochie, and tushy in the scenes where Irena(Nastasjja Kinski)roams around naked for no apparent reason in the middle of the night eating animals and then when Irena finally becomes devirginized by her boyfriend Oliver(John Heard)in a steamy sex scene just before she transforms into a panther after Irena takes Oliver by surprise by deciding to seduce Oliver all of the sudden when Irena's girlfriend Alice(Annette O'Tootle) tries to warn Oliver that she's part wildcat predator out for blood eating people just like Irena's brother(Paul) is. br / br /Therefore, Irena(Nastajja Kinski) decides to entice Oliver(John Heard) by making love to him all of the sudden in order to divert suspicion about her being part panther after shying away from being touched by Oliver and shying away from intimacy with him so many times earlier in the movie. br / br /Therefore, this horror flick kind of reminded me of DRESSED TO KILL in a way, since DRESSED TO KILL was a violent errotic kind of movie too, since DRESSED TO KILL was a terror film with a lot of killing, sex, and nudity, especially with full frontal nudity like CAT PEOPLE had. br / br /The one thing about this movie "Cat People" that I don't understand is why would Paul(Malcom McDowell) try to get Irena(Nastasjja Kinski) into bed if Irena was Paul's long lost sister and knew that he was Irena's long lost brother all along.