by Mark Murton

Original title: Das Mädchen und die Spinne

Directed by: Ramon and Silvan Zürcher

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

Synopsis: The second film in a planned Swiss trilogy that began with The Strange Little Cat. Mara (Henriette Confurius) and Lisa (Liliane Amuat) are two young women who have been living together, but emotional complications develop as Lisa moves to a new flat of her own, a decision Mara is clearly struggling with but unable to articulate.

Kitty Cameo: At the new flat various friends, relatives and neighbours come in and out, including Karen (Sabine Timoteo) and her daughter Eleni (Yuna Andres) from the flat below who own a dog and a calico cat. The cat is discussed as playing with Karen’s baby downstairs. Karen runs off when the infant starts crying. Mara jokes that the cat scratched the baby, then when the baby stops crying she adds, “Now the baby’s dead.” Later, as Mara, Lisa and her mother Astrid (Ursina Lardi) leave to collect more belongings from the old flat, Mara looks up towards Karen’s flat where Eleni is looking down over the balcony at her. The calico cat is visible in the background.

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): At the old flat, we learn Lisa’s friend Markus (Ivan Georviev) is in charge of feeding the neighbour’s ginger tabby cat but he can’t find her. We see the cat outside the door of the upstairs flat. The door opens and the occupant, Mrs. Arnold (Margherita Schoch), reaches down to pick the kitty up and take her inside.

Down below, the others discuss the possibility that Mrs. Arnold has the cat (the neighbour saw her with cat food in her bag even though she doesn’t have a cat of her own). Mrs. Arnold appears carrying the cat which she holds for Lisa to pet.

Markus soon comes up and takes the kitty away. It is clear that Mrs. Arnold is distraught at having to give the cat back to him.

Mara and Lisa tell Astrid that the neighbour who owns the tabby always thought the cat was with Mrs. Arnold and claimed she could hear the sound of the kitty crying coming through the ceiling at night. The neighbor asked the caretaker to check in the room but he laughed and called her crazy. Then one day he did look in the flat and found the cat there and returned it to the neighbour. The next day the caretaker saw Mrs. Arnold on the stairs and she tried to smile but he could see she had tears in her eyes. During this tale we see shots of the cat on Mrs. Arnold’s bed washing herself.

The cat is also shown sitting on the bedroom floor. Later Mrs. Arnold is sitting on the bed, picking cat hair from the cat-shaped indentation in the middle of the bedspread, clearly the result of many visits. Mara says she thinks about Mrs. Arnold some nights, sitting alone in her big room thinking of the cat in her big empty room.

Next the cat is sitting on a small chest of drawers in Mara’s flat.

Mara approaches the cat and strokes her. As she leaves, she holds the door for the cat to exit, too.

The cat is seen once more during the final moments as Mara relates a dream bringing together the themes of the film; again she is scratching at Mrs. Arnold’s door before the shot changes to Mrs. Arnold sitting on the bed.

Final Mewsings: Thou shall try not to covet your neighbor’s cat.

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