Film - THE CASSANDRA CAT

Off the Wall Films presents

THE CASSANDRA CAT 

aka When the Cat Comes (Az prijde kocour)

Vojtech Jasný, Czechoslovakia, 1963, 105m, PG, sub-titles

NB - Doors at 5:30pm for a 6:30pm start. The programme will end around 9:15pm. Pre-screening supper, available to pre-order only, served in the Waterside 5:30 - 6:15pm. To order supper simply buy a meal ticket as listed above (nb - supper bookings will close at 12:00 midnight on the Saturday before the screening).

In this playfully surreal comedic satire, the moral failings of a small Czech town are colourfully exposed by a psychic, sunglasses-wearing cat who arrives with a travelling show, accompanied by a magician and the alluring all-in-red Diana. The performers reveal unpalatable truths by magically colour-coding miscreants. Liars turn purple, thieves grey, cheats yellow but those capable of true love, like Robert the schoolteacher, turn a Diana shade of red. The shamed townsfolk, led by the school headmaster and his apparatchik, determine to kill the cat, but are thwarted by Robert – now smitten with Diana - and his class of wildly-creative kids. The fanciful events are related by Oliva, the town sage, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the magician.

One of the harbingers of the 1960s explosion of cinematic creativity known as the ‘Czech New Wave’, the film is a delightful riot of visual ideas defying the expression-stifling diktat of ‘Soviet Realism’, which had relaxed its grip somewhat in the decade since Stalin’s death. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1963, it also won plaudits for its amazing cinematography and beguiling music. Nonetheless, Jasný was called in for interrogation by the secret police and the film was banned following the 1968 suppression of the Prague Spring uprising, only to re-emerge restored and triumphant at Cannes in 2021.

"...a marvellous fantasy-cum-social satire in which the titular magic feline reveals all the hypocrisies hidden beneath a small town’s placid surface." - 48Hills

"It was an early jewel of the Czech New Wave, as well as a herald for the kind of freewheeling, rule-breaking cinema that was just beginning to make the Sixties swing." - 48Hills

"Vojtech Jasný's sumptuous, surreal satire is one of the most lavish and uninhibited films of the entire Czechoslovak New Wave." - DVDBeaver

"Part modern fairy tale, part colourful political metaphor, The Cassandra Cat (also known as When the Cat Comes) is a unique, glorious comic drama. Banned after the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the film was regarded as an unacceptable and subversive critique of Communist society." - DVDBeaver

"Jasný always keeps the tone light to the point of levitating. A treat." - DVDBeaver

Voluntary donations - Off the Wall Films is a not-for-profit enterprise. All donations - very gratefully received - will go towards improving the OtWF programme and the presentation of films at WSC.

Carers' tickets - we offer complimentary tickets to carers of people with disabilities. If you would like to attend the screening along with the person in your care please message  [email protected]  with your request for a ticket. Please note - you are eligible for this offer only if you are accompanied by a paying person with disabilities.