When the Cat Comes (AKA The Cassandra Cat, at least on the Criterion Channel) is sweet and gentle, beautiful, and musical, whimsical and childlike. I don't know much about the cross pollination of American and European cinema expressionism, or the cross influencing of those styles even within European cinema; but this movie reminded me a lot of the musicals of Stanley Donon and Vincent Minnelli - particularly the fantasy and ballettic elements of An American in Paris - and the gentle, yet sometimes barbed, comedy of Jacques Tati, in addition to his own balletic miming. This is quite a wonderful little flick and I'm glad I stumbled across it on Criterion.
Review of When the Cat Comes
