by Mark Murton
Original Title: Det regnar på vår kärlek
Directed by: Ingmar Bergman
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: Maggi (Barbro Kollbergas) and David (Birger Malmsten) meet after she misses her train, and the down on their luck pair spend the night together. The next day, broke and caught in a storm, the young lovers break into a summer cottage. They are discovered by the owner, Håkansson (Ludde Gentzel), who offers to rent it to them, but actually has an ulterior motive.
Faux Cat: After they have broken into the cottage Maggi urges David to look around for some food. Hoping to find something to eat, David forces open a cupboard but all it contains is some books and what appears to be a small taxidermized tabby cat.
David reaches for the cat just as they are interrupted by the arrival of a man, Håkansson, who questions them before revealing he is the owner of the property.
Initially hostile, Håkansson ends up offering to rent them the cottage and they readily agree. Oddly enough he cradles the stuffed cat as if it were alive.
Cat Cattle Call: Later in the film David goes to Håkansson’s apartment and is greeted at the door by the man holding a live bicolor tabby cat in his arms.
David is invited in and spies another tabby cat on a high shelf as he passes through the foyer into the apartment.
Moving further into the apartment David sees it is overrun with cats.
“They’re not dangerous,” Håkansson assures him, just as two of the kitties snarl viciously and take swipes at each other.
A tuxedo cat on top of a cupboard hisses menacingly.
They move to the desk where David is to sign some papers and find it occupied by yet another tabby cat.
David sits at the desk and prepares to sign. He doesn’t seem to notice as a black cat looks at him and blinks inscrutably.
At the end of the film it appears that Håkansson is stroking the taxidermized cat once again as he moved away in the distance.
Final Mewsings: Properties with real cats are much more desirable than ones with stuffed cats.
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