Leave it to director Paul Schrader to take a 1942 movie about a woman who transforms into a predatory cat when she’s aroused/jealous and make it even weirder. To that basic narrative, Schrader and screenwriter Alan Ormsby add child sacrifice, incest, and John Heard as a “hunky” romantic interest. I can’t say any of it is an improvement. Nastassja Kinski stars as Irena, an orphaned daughter of big-cat trainers who reunites with her brother (Malcolm McDowell) in New Orleans. Like the Irena of 1942’s Cat People, she likes to sketch leopards at the zoo, which is where she meets curator Oliver Yates (Heard). Will her passion for him turn lethal? And what of her brother, who also likes to paw at her? There’s some fascinating stuff going on here—especially in the context of Schrader’s ongoing exploration of sex as a pathway to death, transcendence, or some combination of both—but the storytelling is clumsy and the filmmaking is bolder in conception than execution. (Sketchy visual and makeup effects don’t help.) Heard brings no heat to what is supposed to be, in part, an erotic thriller and McDowell pushes his scenes into the realm of camp. But at least in Kinski you can see why Schrader thought Cat People might work. Her feline eyes are part of it, but it’s the mystery behind them, especially in the second half, that almost redeems the project.
(5/5/2022)
