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FESTIVALS
: Cork Film Festival, Ireland - 05
: Foyle Film Festival, Ireland - 05
: Chicago Irish Film Festival, USA - 05
: New York International Independent Film & Video Festival, in NY, USA - 05
[Best Cinematography - Short]
: Belfast Film Festival, Ireland - 06
: Worldfest, Houston, USA - 06 [Gold Remi for Experimental - Short]
: Concorto Film Festival, Italy - 06 [Best Cinematography]
: 'End Of The Pier' Festival, Bognor Regis - 07
: Post Alley Women's Film Festival, Seattle, USA - 07
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Production Company : Make Ireland : www.make.ie
Directed By Franziska-Maria Apprich
Produced By Gawain Morrison
  
SYNOPSIS
The story 'The Cat' centres on an elderly couple who know each other inside out. Their every day life is based on a constantly repeated routine. In the past they have fallen in love, they got married and brought up their children. Now they are alone again with each other. They are still in love but yet love has changed. They do not touch each other anymore and the
romance has faded (as it is expected to do so).
Yet the appearance of a cat in their home brings an unexpected twist. The husband is delighted to welcome the cat. He smiles for the first time during the film when he picks up the cat from the floor and starts to stroke it. The sensitivity with which he is stroking the cat makes his wife realise how much she misses to be held, to be touched. She realises that her husband takes her for granted and that his passive behaviour towards her does not
have to be put up with. For a moment she thinks of leaving this home that she had built up during her life. She wants to be listened to, she wants to laugh and be touched.
During the entire film there is no dialogue which represents the silence between the two characters. At first this silence could be considered as the harmony of a familiar and loving old couple. Yet this illusion is put right soon in the film.
Another aspect of the story is the woman's fear of growing old and unattractive. The cat is a represents a beauty, grace and perfection that men are so fond of. The fact that her husband for the first time in the film takes action by getting the cat milk makes him seem indifferent towards his wife, who is constantly cooking, ironing and doing housework for him. She
asks herself if he would have shown her such consideration, and she can not help thinking that he might not have bothered. This realisation hurts and she has to leave the room.
Her husband on the other hand does not understand her strange behaviour and outrage. For him everything is all right. He does not question life anymore. He is glad about the unexpected appearance of the cat, which is a slight change of every day life that his wife has structured. He does not appreciate her actions anymore, but if she were gone he surely miss her.
The cat could be considered as a metaphor for a younger, prettier and more mysterious women who is intruding in their every day life and taking control of the situation. Its graceful movements and independence makes it very attractive for the husband who is used to a wife that is abandoned and who he takes for granted.
Yet the cat is just a cat, just an animal and the audience should notice this ridiculous jealousy of the wife towards the cat. It is not the cat that she is envies, rather it is the attention her husband pays to the cat, attention which she needs so very much but is denied.
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