"A cat is never on the side of power"

Robert Zemeckis, Death Becomes Her (1992)

There is no OMGcatrevolution without Hannah, our co-founder and collaborator. Our last post--our final post--was a heartbroken attempt to grapple with her sudden passing, and we're still heartbroken, still grappling. We still do instant two-steps of pleasure and then immediate sorrow when we see cats in films, from Nocturama to It. And it's not just us: read eminent film scholar Tom Gunning pay tribute in the latest Society for Cinema and Media Studies newsletter, or Ian Bryce Jones' eloquent blog posts and lovely short found-footage video tribute (which deserves its own post here!). There's been an outpouring of grief, love, memorials, and it hasn't even been a month. 

But we're posting this, not to revive the tumblr, but to further honor Hannah. Her beloved partner Jacob came across these on her computer--taken on August 25, they would presumably have been her last post here. The irony of the film isn't lost on us, and it isn't funny, but we think she would have found it funny. We are long-time Zemeckis haters, and she was a professed fan; we're certain she was right and we are wrong, and we wish she were here to explain away the crapulent Forrest Gump. We're sure she--and perhaps only she--could do it, too. 

Bruno Mattei, The Other Hell (1980)

Okay sure, it’s kinda mediocre nunsploitation, but still: Cats Against Catholicism! 

David Fincher, “Bad Girl” video (1993)

Erotica is easily our favorite Madonna album. We shoplifted it at the local grocery store in Wasilla, Alaska, as a confused and horny middle-schooler, and found it endlessly entrancing (though we never managed to get our hands on a personal copy of Sex, unlike the bold friend who grabbed it and ran from Waldenbooks; later he went to juvie for stealing cars and we fell out of touch, but still occasionally wonder what happened to his copy; even then, though, we thought it was too bad about the Vanilla Ice part, was that really necessary?).  

David Lynch, Twin Peaks season 2, episode 7 (1990)

Denise Olusala, Devil's Work Web Series Episode 2 (2016)

Basile Pasch, Vive Langlois! (1968), for the Cinémathèque française.

Michael Mohan, Save the Date (2012). 

Gilles Carle, Red-The Half-Breed (1970)

It’s been a year of unexpected 1970s-ish Canadian cinema here: multiple series at the Anthology Film Archives, including the great 1969 documentary Little Burgundy (featuring some cats, but alas, in 16mm images lost to us here!), and some obscure treasures like Skip Tracer (which you can watch on YouTube, and should). We got really into the weird trilogy that Allan Moyle and Frank Vitale did in the mid-70s, too: the intergenerational queer Cassavetian Montreal Main, the clunky exploitation flick East End Hustle (later distributed by Troma!), and the once-lost, now-YouTubed, spaced-out gem Rubber Gun. 

But the most random member of this ad hoc canon is this, a VHS tape we found at a New Jersey flea market for two bucks (apparently doomed to remain trapped on the format, so far). It’s a meandering, quasi-revenge story, by the idiosyncratic filmmaker Gilles Carle, and two things bear mention:

1. This cat! Dude is cruising down the highway, abruptly stops to pick up a roadside kitten, gives it some milk in a tire rim, takes it to a hotel, and then, that’s it, exit kitten. Why? Who knows, it was the Seventies!