Léolo (1992)

Léolo poster

Alliance Films Corporation
Starring:
 Maxime Collin, Éric Cadorette
Directed by: Jean-Claude Lauzon

Cat Out of the Bag Alert!  This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Leo Lauzon (Maxime Collin) insists on being called Léolo and constantly tries to imagine himself outside of his troubled Canadian boyhood.

Kitty Carnage Warning! This film contains one of the most disturbing scenes in all the annals of cat film history. It entails a flashback as Léolo witnesses a boy named Little Godin (Éric Cadorette) betting a gang of boys that if they put five dollars down on the table he will rape a cat. Yes, you read that correctly.

Léolo - Little Godin Éric Cadorette and boys with calico cat

Léolo - calico cat pushed down on table

A poor calico cat is brought in and strapped down on the table in front of Little Godin as the money is bet. What’s even worse is Léolo explains that the cat has been declawed and has no chance to defend herself.

Léolo - Little Godin Éric Cadorette and boys strapping calico cat to table

Léolo - calico cat being tied to table

Léolo - calico cat being tied to table

Now clearly we don’t assume the cat actor was actually raped, but the cat is clearly in distress as she is being handled roughly by the boys and strapped down to the table. Apparently a cat puppet was originally to be used during the rehearsals for this scene but according to information on Wikipedia it was the boy playing the part of Little Godin who insisted a real cat be used. The scene was censored from the movie in Britain because of its implied content (to be honest, there were far more graphics scenes of violence elsewhere in the film).

Léolo - calico cat tied to table

Léolo - calico cat tied to table

Final Mewsings: What is it with boys and cats in movies? Seriously??

Credit to Nick Wale for letting us know about the cat in this film.


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