by Ted Davis

Original Title: Le Hussard sur le Toit

Directed by: Jean-Paul Rappeneau

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

Synopsis: Courageous but unseasoned Hussar officer Angelo Pardi (Olivier Martinez), a political exile in the France of 1832, strives to return to his native country of Italy, but his mission is complicated by an ongoing cholera epidemic, murderous Austrian assassins, and, more than anything, his sense of responsibility towards bland and over-proud Countess Pauline de Theus (Juliette Binoche), who must be extricated numerous times from the troubles she provokes.

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): On the run from a crazed mob, Angelo ducks into a deserted mansion — deserted except for a prominent corpse and a friendly brown tabby cat who watches the intruder with interest, and who follows him as he climbs the stairs out onto and across the rooftops.

Clumsy Angelo falls to another rooftop and is momentarily stunned. The newly loyal cat peers down at the man’s sprawled body then joins him moments later.

They have a brief moment of peace together as Angelo strokes the receptive feline and muses that she is a fearless cat of whom his mother would approve. The satisfied cat meows and rests her cheek against Angelo’s foot.

After their short rest, Angelo and cat cross a ladder connecting two buildings.

Following the crossing, Angelo picks up and carries the cat and indulges in more ruminations, wondering whether his animal companion is right to like men (considering the mob violence they’re escaping), and what cats will do without men to care for them.

Later, during a heavy rainstorm, Angelo enters another mansion, seemingly deserted, through a skylight, followed by the cat, who jumps on his head and then to the floor and out of the room.

During the cat’s absence, we are introduced to Pauline, a significantly duller personality, and the movie goes downhill, never to recover. The cat rejoins Angelo while he’s preparing to eat at the dining table with Pauline. She claims the cat broke one of her aunt’s stemware, which seems unlikely since there is no sound of glass breaking after they enter the home and the cat was nowhere near the glasses.

Being smitten with Pauline, Angelo loses what compassion we had for him by chasing his feline friend around the table, roughly catching the poor cat and putting her outside the room with the injunction to wait for him.

That’s the last we see of the beguiling tabby until Angelo looks back to see her seated on the rooftop when he’s hustled out of town with the rest of the crowded commoners. The animal trainer on the film was the prominent Pierre Cadeac.

Final Mewsings: Chivalrous Angelo had much more rapport with the rooftop cat than he did with the irksome Pauline.

Many thanks to Jack for also letting us know about the cat in this film.

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