Cinematography:
Jan ČuříkComposer:
Wiliam BukovýCast:
Karel Vašíček, Consuela Morávková, Ivan Růžička, Pavel Bártl, Jiří Stivín, Pavel Šilhánek, Jaroslav Zrotal, Stanislav Michler, Eduard Pavlíček (more)Plots(1)
A rented cat, officer Kilián and a young man plagued by a monstrous bureaucratic machinery - all that and much more is presented by this famous mid-length film by Pavel Juráček and Jan Schmidt. (Summer Film School)
Reviews (4)
A Kafka theme in the Czech style and also a title that can be considered a symbol of the Czech New Wave. It is a medium-length film about a cat rental, the futile search for a man named Kilián, and life in a country full of absurdity, uncertainty, and fear. Last but not least, it is also a film about loneliness and a sense of alienation. Josef K. faced a trial, while Herold, the protagonist of the film story, only faced a fine of 30 crowns for not returning a borrowed cat. It's seemingly banal, but tension and nervousness can be felt in the events of the film. After all, in a country where people and institutions disappear and bureaucracy has power over people, losing a cat can have unforeseen consequences. There are also hints of criticism towards the cult of personality and Stalinism. You can perceive the character that needs support as an allegory and as a peculiar comedy (the sign in the cat rental says: "Misuse of borrowed cats is punishable. The consumer acknowledges that they are entitled to use the borrowed cats only for their own needs."). Some parts of the film could have been edited out, but overall, it is an interesting film reflection of the 1950s. Overall impression: 75%.
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With depressing effectiveness, Juráček succeeded in capturing the quiet absurdity of the labyrinth of bureaucracy. Behind its human face lies the apathy of zero comprehension and the feeling of unease stemming from the ever-present fear that the senselessness of the whole system will be revealed. Nevertheless, the cat-rental shop sounds like a great business model (that is, if we forget about the nature of cats).
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It may surprise passers-by to the point of tears, but when the Juráček diaries came out, I didn't start counting down my life from that moment as if from year zero. Shocking, isn't it? Yet unlike other wonders of the Czechoslovak New Wave, this miniature doesn't give me ulcers, it just doesn't appeal to me. Although the cat rental and Pavlína Filipovský's hit at least feature some humor.
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A very incomprehensible and somewhat absurd film in places, which has a rather original script structure that made me get lost in the plot. In short, one of those films I probably wouldn't watch a second time, but definitely worth mentioning.
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