Film Review: The Cat's Meow (2001)

10 days ago

(source: tmdb.org)

In the early 1970s, Peter Bogdanovich rose to great fame as one of the most renowned directors of the New Hollywood movement, only to see his career all but wrecked through a combination of flops and personal tragedies. His attempts to return to Hollywood's top usually failed, but he nevertheless maintained great respect among critics and earned a reputation as one of the prime historians of Hollywood. His excellent knowledge of Hollywood's past contributed to his penultimate live-action film, the 2001 period drama The Cat's Meow.

The film is based on a 1997 play by Steven Perros, itself inspired by real events that are alleged to represent one of the darkest and most embarrassing chapters in the history of silent-era Hollywood. The plot begins in November 1924 and describes how the whole affair began as a rather jolly occasion. William Randolph Hearst, played by Edward Herrmann, a powerful newspaper tycoon, uses the birthday of film director Thomas Ince, played by Carey Elwes, as an opportunity to invite a number of his friends and acquaintances from California's social elite to join him for a cruise on his luxurious yacht, the Oneida. They include writer Elinor Glynn, played by Joanna Lumley, aspiring journalist Louella Parsons, played by Jennifer Tilly, and Charles Chaplin, played by Eddie Izzard, a popular star of silent film comedy. Chaplin is infamous for his womanising, and among all the women at the yacht, he seems most interested in actress Marion Davies, played by Kirsten Dunst, not discouraged by her being Hearst's long-time mistress. During the cruise, the lust, greed, and jealousies among the passengers, combined with plenty of alcohol, marijuana, and jazz music, conspire to end in tragedy.

Hearst, one of the most colourful figures of 20th-century history, is well-known to cinephiles, thanks to his fictional alter ego, being portrayed by Orson Welles in his masterpiece Citizen Kane. The same film also immortalised Davies, whose fictional counterpart, Susan Alexander, was portrayed as a talentless singer owing her career to sponsorship from her rich and powerful lover. Through the decades, most critics and film scholars have begun to appraise Davies in a much more positive way and recognised her as one of the most talented, albeit tragically underused, comediennes of silent-era Hollywood.

Bogdanovich, as a connoisseur of 1920s Hollywood, wanted to pay homage to the era by shooting the film in black-and-white; in the end, he gave up on the idea and instead simply used black and white as a colour for the characters' costumes. He was also attracted to Peros' play not only because he received some first and second-hand accounts about the infamous cruise but also because he saw bits of himself in both the characters of Hearst and Chaplin.

The passenger list of the Oneida contained some of the most famous names of its era, but Bogdanovich, partly because of the relatively low budget, concentrated less on recreating past glamour and more on fascinating characters, being portrayed by a diverse and talented cast. Kirsten Dunst played a very good role, developing a character much more interesting than the airhead "gold digger" the audience sees her as at the beginning of the film. British comedian Eddie Izzard, despite lacking physical resemblance to Chaplin, worked hard to recreate the legendary actor and clearly showed that such an icon didn't possess moral qualities on the same level as his talent. The best impression was given by Edward Herrmann, who played arguably the most complex character – someone who starts as a pathetic, jealous, and paranoid wreck hiding behind the facade of a powerful tycoon and at the end shows as someone quite resourceful and arguably the most capable "player" among everyone who happened to board his yacht.

Bogdanovich also did a solid job behind the camera, although not as good for more perceptive viewers to notice the stage origins of his film. Many viewers may be bothered by the relatively slow tempo, but hardcore cinephiles will appreciate the period details like the music, costumes, and props, as well as the opportunity to see an obscure but fascinating piece of cinema history reconstructed in a very effective way.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)