"The rabbi's cat" might be a somewhat misleading title, in the sense that the cat is devoted, to the point of idolatry, not to the rabbi but to the rabbi's teenage daughter. She is clearly the glorious sun of his small life. When the cat suddenly gains the power of speech, an interesting religious question arises : could/should an animal, however eloquent and intelligent, become a Jew ? Or is Judaism meant only for human beings ?
As you may have guessed from the first paragraph, the movie explores themes like religion (especially, but not only, Judaism), identity and belonging. It is set mainly in an early twentieth-century Algeria, vibrant with colour, where representatives of the three monotheist religions meet and mingle - sometimes in an amicable way, sometimes not. The sun-drenched setting pulses with life and credibility, which leads me to suppose that author/creator Joann Sfar must be deeply familiar with that country. The various characters are beautifully individual or eccentric, such as a middle-aged man who walks around in the company of... a tame lion. (Unsurprisingly, nobody questions HIS right to walk, stand or sit wherever he wants.) And as to the cat of the title : it is the spitting image of a friend's cat I once knew. A skinny, ghost-like thing with huge eyes and ears, it spent most of its time reclining on a pile of cushions, pretty much like the Cleopatra of romantic legend.
So there's quite a lot to like about this movie : its originality, its beauty, its wit, its freshness. On the minus side, the screenplay wanders and meanders. The movie seems to be based not on one graphic novel but on several graphic novels from the same "Cat" series ; it might have been stronger, narratively, if it had concentrated on telling a single short but coherent story.
At one point the intrigue moves ever deeper into the heart of Africa. This allows for a short but lethal "Tintin" parody.
In "The rabbi's cat" Joann Sfar seems to suggest that tolerance is the true crown and achievement of the religiously advanced mind, whatever that religion might be. In case you, dear reader, are one of these people who firmly believe that religions, by their very nature, cause conflict and war : now you know whom to send your next 200-page refutation to...
As you may have guessed from the first paragraph, the movie explores themes like religion (especially, but not only, Judaism), identity and belonging. It is set mainly in an early twentieth-century Algeria, vibrant with colour, where representatives of the three monotheist religions meet and mingle - sometimes in an amicable way, sometimes not. The sun-drenched setting pulses with life and credibility, which leads me to suppose that author/creator Joann Sfar must be deeply familiar with that country. The various characters are beautifully individual or eccentric, such as a middle-aged man who walks around in the company of... a tame lion. (Unsurprisingly, nobody questions HIS right to walk, stand or sit wherever he wants.) And as to the cat of the title : it is the spitting image of a friend's cat I once knew. A skinny, ghost-like thing with huge eyes and ears, it spent most of its time reclining on a pile of cushions, pretty much like the Cleopatra of romantic legend.
So there's quite a lot to like about this movie : its originality, its beauty, its wit, its freshness. On the minus side, the screenplay wanders and meanders. The movie seems to be based not on one graphic novel but on several graphic novels from the same "Cat" series ; it might have been stronger, narratively, if it had concentrated on telling a single short but coherent story.
At one point the intrigue moves ever deeper into the heart of Africa. This allows for a short but lethal "Tintin" parody.
In "The rabbi's cat" Joann Sfar seems to suggest that tolerance is the true crown and achievement of the religiously advanced mind, whatever that religion might be. In case you, dear reader, are one of these people who firmly believe that religions, by their very nature, cause conflict and war : now you know whom to send your next 200-page refutation to...