French with English subtitles
dir. Cedric Klapisch, st. Garance Clavel, Zinedine Soualem, Renee Le Calm, Olivier Py
Commenced March 27th 1997 at: Palace Verona Paddington, Valhalla Glebe

A deceptively simple film based around the ensuing events when a young make-up artist, Chloe, leaves her cat Gri-Gri and goes on holiday, only to return and find Gri-Gri has mysteriously disappeared. A relatively low-profile film concentrating on the eccentricities of otherwise urbane Parisians, Chacun Cherche Son Chat draws on the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, in its decentralised, rhizomatic narrative and denial of stereotypes and polarities. Instead of a conventional causal narrative progression leading to a conclusion, the movie consists instead of episodic glimpses into the lives of a broad spectrum of city-dwellers, and as the director gleefully describes in the production notes, it is not so much a story, but "a search in the full sense of the word. The search for a cat, for a story, a subject, another way to make films." None of which was readily apparent to this ignorant viewer, who presented with dead ends and seemingly meaningless scenes, just accepted them as pleasant French idiosyncrasies. The use of inconsequential, but amusing, scenes are easily interpreted as naturalism, a reflection of life as a delicate thread of coincidence and spontaneity, rather than the structured sequence of milieus found in the conventional Hollywood script paradigm.

This is a cute film that leaves plenty of loose threads, randomly overlaid a few slip knots and bow ties. Set in an inner-city neighbourhood, director Klapisch recruited a mixed cast of locals and professional actors to bring his "street theatre" to life, the resulting melting-pot of characters capturing the diversity of the local community with an emphasis on the solitary nature of existence for Chloe, a lonely heroine seeking companionship in an atomised society. The story takes place in a Paris caught between two worlds, that of the old plaster and peeling wallpaper, and the shiny glass and steel of the new. Young and old, queer and straight, black and white walk its streets, surrounded by construction sites, trendy cafes, working class bars and dilapidated buildings. Thankfully, the light nature of the film prevents this apparent merging of worlds from becoming a didactic sore, and is an example of the delicate sense of subtlety the French are famous for.

Playfully, Klapisch also draws on the imagery of the great American Westerns, with the old women waddling down the streets like bow-legged cowboys, and searching for Gri-Gri in arthritic posses. An open, unjudgmental film, the only moral is that the complexity and unpredictability of modern life precludes the blacks and whites which form the basis of prejudice. Chacun Cherche Son Chat is one of my favourite films, going beyond cuteness to whisper with optimism and humanism about our times, our stories, with a killer soundtrack mixing drum'n'bass, happy hardcore and Parisian hiphop to boot. Garance Clavel, as Chloe, is half the film; her vulnerability and awkward shyness, accentuated by her wistful earnestness and breathless beauty. It may not be the best film ever made, but it's my favourite.

eugs
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