The Rabbi's Cat (Joann Sfar, 2011)

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davebert
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The Rabbi's Cat (Joann Sfar, 2011)

#1 Post by davebert » Thu Nov 29, 2012 2:02 pm

So, Joann Sfar's follow-up to Gainsbourg opens in New York next week (Dec 7) at the IFC Center, and will start hitting the arthouse circuit in January. Didn't see any thread for it, so I've started one.

I'm deeply biased as the distributor, but what drew me to it (beyond loving Sfar's source graphic novel) are numerous scenes of wild inventiveness, including what I would argue is the best scene in any film this year... a nightmare sequence pondering a newly found sense of mortality.

Trailer
Last edited by davebert on Thu Nov 29, 2012 5:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: The Rabbi's Cat (Joann Sfar, 2011)

#2 Post by zedz » Thu Nov 29, 2012 3:26 pm

I guess I'll never know, since wild horses and cute puppies couldn't drag me to see another film by the 'auteur' of the ghastly Gainsbourg.

(But good luck anyway, davebert!)

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davebert
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Re: The Rabbi's Cat (Joann Sfar, 2011)

#3 Post by davebert » Thu Nov 29, 2012 5:35 pm

Ha, well my lips are officially sealed about Gainsbourg. :-$

Let's just say I wouldn't let that keep you from it.

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zedz
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Re: The Rabbi's Cat (Joann Sfar, 2011)

#4 Post by zedz » Thu Nov 29, 2012 8:23 pm

Well, that's sort of reassuring (I guess!)

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Anhedionisiac
the Displeasure Principle
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Re: The Rabbi's Cat (Joann Sfar, 2011)

#5 Post by Anhedionisiac » Thu Nov 29, 2012 9:07 pm

In Joann Sfar's defense, the kind of artistic sensibility and creative decisions that can make a live-action picture unbearably grating may actually work in an animated medium. I haven't seen Gainsbourg nor The Rabbi's Cat but I have read the original graphic novel and found it quite good so I wouldn't be surprised if it's indeed a fine film.

Zot!
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Re: The Rabbi's Cat (Joann Sfar, 2011)

#6 Post by Zot! » Fri Nov 30, 2012 10:57 am

I disliked Gainsbourg, but it seemed more a generic biopic than anything so egregious. Was it the fantasy elements that upset people? I mostly just found it sad that an outrageous personality would be distilled into such a tedious by-the-numbers TV movie.

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zedz
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Re: The Rabbi's Cat (Joann Sfar, 2011)

#7 Post by zedz » Fri Nov 30, 2012 4:12 pm

There was that (and it really was inept even as a basic biopic, with all the resonance of a theme park ride), but the dressing up with fantastical elements was lame, desperate and pretty much meaningless, serving only to bloat up an already shapeless, slumpy souffle of a film and make everything that much more irritating.

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davebert
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Re: The Rabbi's Cat (Joann Sfar, 2011)

#8 Post by davebert » Tue Dec 04, 2012 5:30 pm

I enjoyed bits of the fantasy elements (it's not every day you get full size, hallucinatory puppets as a storytelling device), but admit to fast-forwarding through some parts.

There's frankly some unevenness in The Rabbi's Cat as well, which I'll freely admit to just because I find the whole thing just sort of works regardless.

And now it has two Annie nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, alongside, uh... Hotel Transylvania!

karmajuice
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Re: The Rabbi's Cat (Joann Sfar, 2011)

#9 Post by karmajuice » Wed Dec 05, 2012 10:52 pm

A friend of mine is an animation buff and a cat buff and he showed me the trailer for this before it ever had English subtitles (so he couldn't understand a word of it). I will undoubtedly end up seeing it. I like what I see, though, and I have no Gainsbourg viewing to condition my expectations unfavorably.

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knives
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Re: The Rabbi's Cat (Joann Sfar, 2011)

#10 Post by knives » Sun Jan 26, 2014 3:18 am

Thread title's a bit inaccurate as it ignores the contribution of Antoine Delesvaux. Anyways I just happened on this while scrolling through a friend's netflix and having nothing else to watch and was simply blown anyway fully. At times the film seems to have a scope too expansive for a feature film while at other times gaining an intimacy that breathes of a short, much like the fantastic She and Her Cat. The subtle 90 minutes thus leaves a perfect balance in a film that at times seems to be playing hard to the spirit of old adventure stories (even to the point where Tintin gets a rather nasty shoutout). That's nothing though compared with the constant and wonderful cultural in jokes, some obvious and some not, which makes this one of the funniest films I've seen of late. Little things like the cousin being Sufi or the main characters being unable to understand the Ashkenazim Hebrew are so right in a way that is almost touching. Beyond the Coens and Kawalerowicz I have never encountered a film so blatantly insular on these points to such a degree I'm almost curious how someone completely unfamiliar would react (though I don't think it is insular to the point where it is difficult to watch as a gentile friend I watched it with followed along easily even though a few of the times I laughed had to be explained).

Though part of any ease for outsiders must be with the animation which is simply some of the best made in my life time. Much like with Secret of the Kells this one seems to be in conversation with the art that it is tied to on an ethnic level though with the bonus that it is playing to both Arab and French art styles. Occasionally this means the film leans too far into an artistic dichotomy with the French being utilized as a symbol of reality while the Semitic art tends to come out more fully in the abstract sequences. Though this becomes very fascinating when the story calls for something that they seem unsure of how to show like the meal with the nomads wherein they manage to combine their influences in a way that truly feels like a fresh take.

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