Cat People (1982)

This is an archetype erotic film with the beautiful Nastassja Kinski as the sexually conflicted Irena Gallier, Malcolm McDowell as her brother, Paul Gallier, and John Heard as Oliver Yates, her would-be lover. This is not a remake of the 1942 version; it has the basic premise of a woman in conflict, but the sexuality is not sublimated and there are no shadows to hide the gory effects. In this movie, the panther is real, and the forbidden fruit was created specifically to be eaten raw.

The reversal of the taboo from the 1942 version is a reflection of the year 1982. In 1982, Irena makes love as a woman, then is transformed into a black leopard. To regain her human form, she must kill someone. There is backstory, of course. Paul fills her in on the story (she was adopted and has no idea; she's still a virgin). He has spent his post-pubescence having sex with prostitutes, then killing them to change back to Paul. Paul tells Irena that as fellow cat people, they can have sex with each other without the change taking place - Irena is repulsed, but Paul tells her their parents were brother and sister living as husband and wife. It's either sex with each other or sex and murder. What a difference in movie outlook in forty years.

Kinski burns up the screen with her sexuality, and Heard is no slouch, either. As cat people, Paul and Irena have superhuman strength, making impossible leaps to escape when hunted. Director Paul Schrader makes excellent use of their lithe muscularity and grace in the special effects. And he makes the best use of a window frame I've seen, separating two would-be lovers with a riveting view.

In 1982, psychology is out and sex is in. Unlike the 1942 original, here there is no sublimation. Irena's refusal to mate with Oliver is not based on Old World superstition and morality. Instead we have the foreshadowing of lethal sex, a year after the discovery of GRID.

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Alan Ormsby (writer of this version of Cat People) has not obscured the real issue in the shadows as DeWitt Bodeen did in 1942. Sex (and bodies) are out in the open in 1982. In the 1942 version, Irena's problem was dismissed as superstition, but here the problem is an established fact: If Paul and Irena have sexual intercourse, they will turn into panthers until they kill; the exception is mating (as Paul puts it) with each other - in that event, all is well. Paul has accepted this situation and has turned to prostitutes for his gratification, killing them after the sex. Paul has the only line with any compassion in the entire movie: Don't make the mistake of having sex with someone you love - let me warn you away from _that_ disaster, he tells Irena.

Otherwise the film is devoid of any real human feelings. Oliver loses two friends to death by panther, and he's unfazed by both, curiously dead to their loss. Death is just a way to advance the plot, not a human tragedy to be mourned. Because of the lack of feelings, we feel no chill when Oliver assures Alice he knows what he's doing, although we the audience know he has no clue.

Ormsby is incapable of condensing his plot points into a reasonable time and more nearly clear meanings. Oliver and Irena drive a long way out of town, then row a long way to a secluded house occupied by Oliver's friend, for no apparent reason until near the end when we have the aha! moment and realize the friend was needed for the panther to kill. The opening of the movie is a silent sequence that makes no sense at all and takes way too long. Later, Paul and Irena visit that same set again in a dream sequence, and Paul explains what we were shown - without his voice over, we had no clue. Either the first dream sequence should have made sense or it should have been eliminated and only the second dream sequence shown.

Taken with the erotic themes and views, Kinski, McDowell, and Heard rise enough above the script to make the film worth watching. An interesting thing I noticed is how much alike McDowell and Kinski looked in the film - not like brother and sister, but _alike_. Paul discloses to Irena that their parents were brother and sister, so there's one reason, but the other is more chilling: Paul has sex and kills his partner, and Irena must do the same unless she chooses her brother as her mate. They are _alike_.

There was a great deal of potential in "Cat People" quite apart from the original screenplay, but it is not fully realized. The human component is necessary and missing here. We're left with an erotic thrill but no catharsis over Irena's choice of freedom.