The Private Life of a Cat
The Private Life of a Cat is a 1944 black and white experimental documentary film by Alexander Hammid and Maya Deren. Archive.org summarizes that the film is an "intimate study" of a female cat who gives birth to a litter of kittens and shows their maturation.[1]
Synopsis
The film is entirely silent and shot from the cat's eye-level;[2] "He", an all white short-haired male cat, grooms "She", a fluffier female. After two months they find a spot "for the family", and soon after the mother goes into labor. The film shows graphically the kittens being born without the help of human hands, and then getting nursed and washed by the parent. The kitten's grow, and the parent cats roam freely around their owner's apartment (Hammid and Deren). The kittens learn how to walk and begin to get more active, playing with each other and clawing various furniture. The film then ends by showing the same scene from the beginning where "He" courts "She".
Reputation
Top Documentary Films rates The Private Life of a Cat 7.70/10 stars, saying that it's "very touching", and that it's "[b]eautifully photographed and executed. With subtitles, no dialog, and a refreshing absence of human beings on screen."[3] Dangerous Minds wrote "[t]his beautiful 1944 silent film from husband-and-wife team Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid is quite possibly the only evidence we need that cats are the ultimate well-spring of creativity."[4]
References
- ↑ https://archive.org/details/PrivateL1947
- ↑ Michael Lawrence and Laura McMahon, ed. (2015). Animal Life and the Moving Image. British Film Institute. pp. 48–49.
- ↑ http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/life-of-a-cat/
- ↑ http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/275231/this-is-the-best-experimental-film-about-cats-ever-made/