Tonight three local bands play a live soundtrack to The Cassandra Cat, AKA When the Cat Comes, a 1963 Czech film that looks too strange for words. What is it about? Wikipedia says: “It tells the story of a mysterious traveling circus that arrives in a village accompanied by a sunglass-wearing cat named Mokol. When the cat’s glasses are removed, people in the village appear bathed in different colours that reflect their true feelings.”
That doesn’t explain much. But judging by the intoxicating weirdness of this trailer, it might be best not to fully understand what’s going on. Since it’s Czech, the movie’s bound to contain some political allegory that you can either choose to embrace or ignore. And it sounds like the live bands—Typhoon, Tu Fawning, and Brainstorm—will have no trouble improving on the treacly original soundtrack. All in all, this is bound to be incredible. It goes down at Holocene tonight as part of their Fin de Cinema series.
w/DJ Coldyron, DJ Pattern and Shape; Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison, 8:30 pm, $6
It’s actually a fun film, sort of reminiscent of 60s live action Disney films but a little artier. Not really any political subtext but lots of psychedelic colors and the aforementioned cat with sunglasses.
“Not as strange as Svankmajer’s ‘Alice,'” said the white rabbit.
Mood Ring people!
Which color represents Eastern Bloc paranoia?