The Cassandra Cat (When the cat comeslikewise understood under the more direct translation When the Cat Comes), directed by Vojtěch Jasný, is a cult classic in the Czech Republic and is a staple amongst revival provings at Prague arthouses. But in spite of a 2021 4K repair from the Czech National Film Archive, it has yet to get an upgraded home video release.
Until now: thanks to UK supplier Arrow Video, The Cassandra Cat can lastly be enjoyed in all of its high-definition splendor on a brand-new blu-ray. While the brought back variation has yet to formally strike the Czech market, regional suppliers are likewise retailing the UK release.
The Cassandra Cat stars Jan Werich, Emília Vášáryová, and Vlastimil Brodský in the story of a taking a trip circus that shows up in a little Czech town. One of the members of the circus occurs to be a cat that uses sunglasses — and through them, exposes the desires and virtues of the townsfolk.
Part fairy tale and part political satire, The Cassandra Cat won the Jury Prize at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. Five years later on, it was prohibited by the communist program after Soviet tanks rolled into Prague, with censors considering the motion picture a subversive review.
Arrow Video’s brand-new release is the opening night of The Cassandra Cat on high-definition home video. It consists of co-writer Jiří Brdečka’s animated brief Badly Painted Hen along with audio commentary and brochure including an essay about the movie by author Cerise Howard.
The Cassandra Cat ended up being something of a meme just recently, after Chris Person tweeted a story about his movie teacher’s description of the motion picture: “when I was in my country I make movie about cat who wear sunglasses, and shows people true feelings.”
The Cassandra Cat director Vojtěch Jasný left the Czech Republic after the Warsaw Pact Invasion of the nation by Soviet forces in 1968. He discovered a profession mentor throughout Europe and the United States, and completely moved to New York in the 1980s, where he taught at Colombia University, the New York Film Academy, and the School for Visual Arts.
He likewise continued to make unusual movies, if just sporadically. He composed the Canadian cult classic The Peanut Butter Solutionwhich has actually haunted the minds of numerous 80s kids considering that its release in 1985, and directed the comparable The Great Land Of Smallwhich has yet to attain the exact same sort of excitement.
“Jasný is the spiritual father of the Czech New Wave,” Miloš Forman as soon as said about the filmmaker, who went back to the Czech Republic after the Velvet Revolution and died in 2019.
