CAT'S MEOW Review

Hey folks, Harry here at SXSW Film Festival here in Austin, Texas. Oh what a fest so far this year… Watching Cheech Marin and Dennis Hopper go into laughing fits on a panel about ACTING IN INDEPENDENT FILM as Turk Pipkin (of SOPRANO’s fame) described a gig he had once where he was forced to react to a blue painted fellow shooting a twenty foot flame from his buttocks… To the magnificent return of John Phillip Law (of GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD, DANGER DIABOLIK and BARBARELLA fame) in Roman Copolla’s debut film CQ…. To Lloyd Kaufman bestowing upon me an honorary degree of Tromology – diploma and all before the screening of CITIZEN TOXIE – the 4th epic Toxic Avenger film!!! To Peter Bogdanovich’s sublimely wonderful CAT’S MEOW at the glorious Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas.

So far, 3 days in, my absolute favorite film I’ve seen has been CAT’S MEOW… Which might very well be my favorite film I’ve seen in this oh so short year that we are in. It’d be a toss up between this and NIGHT AT THE GOLDEN EAGLE by Adam Rifkin, and two more different movies you could not find.

I have been intimately familiar with the incidents upon newspaper tycoon, William Randolph Hearst’s yacht back in November of 1924. I first read about them in Kenneth Anger’s HOLLYWOOD BABYLON as my jaw fell upon the floor.

Scandals in Hollywood today are so conservative in comparison to the Hollywood of old… Specifically Hollywood of the Silent Era. Seems that for all the lack of sound in the era, the noise they were making off set was near deafening… and sometimes fatal. But given the era, the sound often times was never heard outside the town, the neighborhood… or in this case, the boat.

For those that are not familiar with the incident, I couldn’t imagine spoiling it for you, but I can tell you that the film dishes out a rather illicit tale at the very top of society. William Randolph Hearst was a mountain of a man, played with zeal and heart by Edward Herrmann… Hearst was possibly the most powerful pear to ever prance behind a printing press. When he threw a party, it was legendary, epic even. The costumes, the entertainment and the guests were all sterling.

As the legend goes, this particular party was being thrown in honor of Thomas Ince. Who was Thomas Ince? Well, Ince was the man, who basically invented the Hollywood Studio System. He insisted that scripts be written before the films filmed. He built the first backlot which contained multiple sets so that simultaneous shooting could commence on many different films. Along with D.W. Griffith and the hilarious Mack Sennett he founded TRIANGLE FILMS, one of the most powerful silent companies in existence. Later he would join Adolph Zukor to form Paramount Studios. Well, enough of the history lesson… suffice to say, he was big time. In the film he’s played to perfection by Cary Elwes.

To celebrate the occasion he was joined aboard with Hearst’s mistress Marion Davies – a lovely silent actress at the time. Kirsten Dunst is an absolute vision as Marion in the film. Flirting with her throughout the movie is Eddie Izzard, who is a total genius in the role of Charlie Chaplin. Louella Parsons, the most powerful gossip in history, was also aboard as played to gleeful transcendence by Jennifer Tilly. Then there was Elinor Glyn the famed novelist played by ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS’ Joanna Lumley… wow.

There are other folks aboard, ranging from the Ship’s doctor to Mr Cannonball, a man that can take a cannonball to the gut and walk about like a regular person afterwards. There is early jazz, reefer, booze, sex and proper behavior reserved for the aristocracy of the world.

Now last December, Robert Altman churned out a film that way too many people went ga-ga over called GOSFORD PARK. Personally I’ve seen this film before, but under the title RULES OF THE GAME by Jean Renoir, except that was entertaining, and GOSFORD PARK wasn’t. I felt that film was complete tedium. However, CAT’S MEOW is exactly what I was hoping to get when I heard about GOSFORD PARK.

It is an absolute skewer of the lifestyles and insanity that takes place in the closed quarters of antique celebrity. The performances are not staid and lifeless. The characters not dull to the point of a spoon. These characters and how they are portrayed are sharp enough to cut paper-thin slices of roast beef.

Take Eddie Izzard’s Chaplin. Forget Robert Downey Jr’s pass at the character, in that film Downey has the excretable task of imitation rather than invention. A problem found too common in the act of biography performances. Here… 100% of the time, Izzard is creating new moments of Chaplin, never caught on camera. We don’t have to see him dance with biscuits or roller-skate perilously close to death to see Chaplin…. Instead Eddie creates the character through glances and subtlety. Brilliant. Absolutely captivating. We’ve seen Chaplin flirt on film, here we see him flirt, not for the cameras… but for the object of his desire… and secretly at that. The result is intoxicating. For not a moment do I find the eyeliner Izzard in this film… Here Eddie completely vanishes into the character of Chaplin. Beautifully done. Perfect.

Kirsten Dunst plays Marion as a woman, not a child. She knows what she wants from life, she has two amazing would-be lovers in her world, and the decision she makes… How she comes to that decision is a thing of beauty and maturity. She retains the attraction of youth here, but the poise of age… The result is the most alluring that I have ever seen Kirsten attain.

Then there is Edward Herrmann as Hearst. Too often I’ve seen Hearst portrayed as an inhuman beast of a man. I never really understood him as a regular chap, but here… Here we see the sub-surface insecurity of a giant. Just beneath the surface is a mortal disguised as a god to all that see him. Quiet moments when eyes do not see him, he crumbles down to humanity and Herrmann gives a giant a soul that I’ve never seen before. Sterling work.

Jennifer Tilly creates Louella Parsons as a bubble-headed opportunist that seeks power when the time comes to seize it. Perfectly thoughtless as a guise for accumulation of information to gain that which she desires… Tilly makes Parsons scarier than I could ever conceive. Seemingly harmless… terribly threatening. Again great work here.

The last actor that I will comment on here is the luminescent Joanna Lumley as Elinor Glyn. Lumley must be seen to be believed. She is the grand dame of the ball. In a strange way she reminded me of Margaret Dumont must have been. She gives that same, "Do not bother me," air of pretension, but at the same time… knowing her surroundings and actions, there is a bit of a wizened devil-girl inside. Utterly sublime.

Bogdanovich creates an absolute delight of a film. Filled with music, life and vigor… CAT’S MEOW purrs like the satisfied pussy of a film that it is. I will be watching this again during this festival, and since LION’S GATE has the film, let us hope it gets shown around.

Unfortunately, for most of you… You’ll never see the film in the Paramount Theatre, which seemed to be an extension of the universe upon the screen. Great setting for a great night of film.

Well, it is time to head back to the fest… More later…