In a Word: Pulchritude
Buried in Cannes’ most unassuming and roundly ignored sidebar, Acid (an acronym for what translates to “The Association for the Distribution of Independent Cinema”), Ramon Zürcher’s Berlin-preemed debut The Strange Little Cat was among the most assured, original, and moving films to screen on the Croisette’s 2013 batch, a feat all the more remarkable in that the picture was made by a film student. The project is bound to carry some intrigue for anyone aware of the fact that the idea for the film originated from a seminar session conducted by Béla Tarr, yet the story behind that will have to be reserved for the film’s Q&A sessions, as the decidedly un-Tarr-esque film feels nothing like the Hungarian master’s cinema – nor that of pretty much anyone else.
Contained almost entirely in the domain of a cramped German apartment, the film could be...
Buried in Cannes’ most unassuming and roundly ignored sidebar, Acid (an acronym for what translates to “The Association for the Distribution of Independent Cinema”), Ramon Zürcher’s Berlin-preemed debut The Strange Little Cat was among the most assured, original, and moving films to screen on the Croisette’s 2013 batch, a feat all the more remarkable in that the picture was made by a film student. The project is bound to carry some intrigue for anyone aware of the fact that the idea for the film originated from a seminar session conducted by Béla Tarr, yet the story behind that will have to be reserved for the film’s Q&A sessions, as the decidedly un-Tarr-esque film feels nothing like the Hungarian master’s cinema – nor that of pretty much anyone else.
Contained almost entirely in the domain of a cramped German apartment, the film could be...
- 8/1/2014
- by Blake Williams
- IONCINEMA.com
The words "student film" can strike terror in the bravest of hearts, but fear not The Strange Little Cat.
Made by filmmaker Ramon Zürcher while he was still attending the German Film and Television Academy, this odd little wonder captures the delicate textures and shadowy half-secrets of family life, mapping them out in a mosaic of fragmented dialogue and half-poetic, half-prosaic images.
A brother and sister (Luk Pfaff and Anjorka Strechel) have come home to their family's Berlin flat for a visit. Their much younger sister Clara (Mia Kasalo), a self-possessed elf, practices her nascent writing skills by drawing up a shopping list; an uncle (Armin Marewski) shows up to fix the washing machine; their mother (Jenny Schily) busies herself about the kitchen, re...
Made by filmmaker Ramon Zürcher while he was still attending the German Film and Television Academy, this odd little wonder captures the delicate textures and shadowy half-secrets of family life, mapping them out in a mosaic of fragmented dialogue and half-poetic, half-prosaic images.
A brother and sister (Luk Pfaff and Anjorka Strechel) have come home to their family's Berlin flat for a visit. Their much younger sister Clara (Mia Kasalo), a self-possessed elf, practices her nascent writing skills by drawing up a shopping list; an uncle (Armin Marewski) shows up to fix the washing machine; their mother (Jenny Schily) busies herself about the kitchen, re...
- 7/30/2014
- Village Voice
Stars: Jenny Schily, Mia Kasalo, Anjorka Strechel, Luk Pfaff | Written and Directed by Ramon Zürcher
Review by Scott Clark of Cinehouse
Hands down the hardest film to talk about at Toronto’s International Film Festival this year is The Strange Little Cat, a charming study into the quant and often bizarre realities of everyday family life.
Very loosely (almost unthinkably) based on Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Ramon Zurcher’s first feature is an exercise in mastery on many levels. The keen and prying eye he exudes into every facet of the busy household can at points seem mundane and others alien but nearly always utterly riveting. The mechanics of household relations seem to spiral silently into a weird dance as a family convenes for a celebration. As each member pops in and out of the films’ frame we are presented odd short narratives from each in an attempt to reveal...
Review by Scott Clark of Cinehouse
Hands down the hardest film to talk about at Toronto’s International Film Festival this year is The Strange Little Cat, a charming study into the quant and often bizarre realities of everyday family life.
Very loosely (almost unthinkably) based on Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Ramon Zurcher’s first feature is an exercise in mastery on many levels. The keen and prying eye he exudes into every facet of the busy household can at points seem mundane and others alien but nearly always utterly riveting. The mechanics of household relations seem to spiral silently into a weird dance as a family convenes for a celebration. As each member pops in and out of the films’ frame we are presented odd short narratives from each in an attempt to reveal...
- 10/17/2013
- by Guest
- Nerdly
The Strange Little Cat (Das merkwürdige Kätzchen)
Written and directed by Ramon Zürcher
Germany, 2013
A terrific chamber piece that illustrates one crisp fall Saturday afternoon in the life of one family, Ramon Zürcher’s film is a sumptuous journey of visual storytelling that fills its claustrophobic spaces with the animated pace of modern life and its quiet revelatory moments. Loosely inspired by Kafka’s novella Metamorphosis, and with comparisons made to Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman and the raucous hubbub of Thomas Vinterberg’s Festen, The Strange Little Cat is a hypnotic film that places its focus on the comings and goings of a family preparing a dinner for an ailing matriarch.
The film is peppered by family members ducking in and out of frame, almost with the fervor of actors in a stage play, as though busying themselves behind the scenes with the preparations for a final, defining performance.
Written and directed by Ramon Zürcher
Germany, 2013
A terrific chamber piece that illustrates one crisp fall Saturday afternoon in the life of one family, Ramon Zürcher’s film is a sumptuous journey of visual storytelling that fills its claustrophobic spaces with the animated pace of modern life and its quiet revelatory moments. Loosely inspired by Kafka’s novella Metamorphosis, and with comparisons made to Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman and the raucous hubbub of Thomas Vinterberg’s Festen, The Strange Little Cat is a hypnotic film that places its focus on the comings and goings of a family preparing a dinner for an ailing matriarch.
The film is peppered by family members ducking in and out of frame, almost with the fervor of actors in a stage play, as though busying themselves behind the scenes with the preparations for a final, defining performance.
- 9/23/2013
- by Gregory Ashman
- SoundOnSight
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