Felidae (film)

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Movie
Original title Felidae
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1994
length 82 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Michael Schaack
script Martin Kluger ,
Akif Pirinçci
production Hanno Huth
music Anne Dudley
camera Werner Loss
cut Klaus Basler
synchronization

Felidae is a German cartoon from 1994 directed by Michael Schaack . The film is based on the novel of the same name by Akif Pirinçci from 1989.

content

The intelligent and cynical cat Francis moves with his master, the failed writer Gustav Löbel, into a dilapidated, gloomy house. This consists of three floors, the top of which gives off a mysterious chemical-like odor. On his first exploration tour he discovers a conspecific who was killed by a targeted bite on the neck. Francis also meets Bluebeard, a mutilated, one-eyed Maine Coon tomcat who often curses and becomes Francis' closest ally.

Soon the next corpse is found and Francis discovers that on the top floor of his new home a cat sect, led by a big white cat named Joker, is throwing itself into an electric machine and worships a certain Claudandus. When they notice Francis, they chase him over the roofs of the city. He managed to escape into a skylight and met a blind cat named Felicitas, who gave him some important information about the Claudandus sect. Bluebeard finds Francis and then leads him to Pascal, an old tomcat who has learned how to use computers and who meticulously lists the deaths in the district, because cats have been murdered in this area for a long time. The next victim is Felicitas. In his sleep, Francis is haunted by a nightmare in which the famous father and genetic researcher Gregor Johann Mendel leaves him puzzled.

Francis later learns that there was once an experimental laboratory on the top floor of his new house, where research was carried out on fibrin glue, a tissue glue that was supposed to close wounds in no time. The test animals were cats, mostly strays. However, the experiments failed each time and the animals bled miserably to death or were immediately put to sleep. The only hangover in which the remedy works is the stray that the laboratory technicians run into, who is then baptized “Claudandus”, which in Latin roughly means “one who must or should be closed”. However, Professor Julius Preterius kept operating on it until the animal could no longer stand it and killed the scientist, who had meanwhile gone mad. Claudandus went down in legend as a martyr whom the mysterious cat sect worships. The laboratory was closed, the other test animals escaped.

Little by little, Francis realizes that this martyr must still be in his immediate neighborhood. He finds out that it is Pascal. Francis visits him and learns the reason for his brutal approach: Pascal had killed Preterius, was taken in by his assistant Ziebold and learned Mendel's genetic rules of inheritance. With this he saw the great possibility of creating a breed of cats that would correspond to the wild ancestors of the domestic cat and, because of its hatred of humanity, should exterminate it once and for all. The murdered cats, including now Joker, were only worthless obstacles for Pascal, who wanted to mate with the females of the ruling race he had chosen. Pascal knows that he will soon die of colon cancer and sees in Francis an excellent successor to these new and powerful Felidae. But Pascal does not want to follow him and instead decides to destroy him. The computer with the list of the dead falls to the ground and starts a fire. During the fight, in which Francis is also seriously injured, he slits Pascal's stomach and leaves his corpse in the burning house. In the end he can save himself and Bluebeard, who was badly injured by Pascal, at the last second.

Production and publication

The film was produced under the direction of Michael Schaack based on a script by Martin Kluger. The production cost about 15 million marks .

The film was released in German cinemas on November 3, 1994. It was also released on VHS and later DVD. In 1996, it was broadcast on pay TV at Premiere, and from 1999 the film was broadcast several times for free. In 1994 a soundtrack CD with 16 tracks was released. The title song Felidae was sung by Boy George and written by him with John Themis .

The film was also shown in theaters in Switzerland and Spain. Felidae has also been translated into English and is published in Spanish by Buena Vista Entertainment .

synchronization

role German speaker
Francis Ulrich Tukur
Bluebeard Mario Adorf
Isaiah Helge Schneider
Pascal / Claudandus Klaus Maria Brandauer
Felicitas Mona Seefried
Archie Uwe Ochsenknecht
joker Ulrich Wildgruber
Gustav Manfred Steffen
Preterius Gerhard Garbers
Kong Wolfgang Hess
Nhozemphtekh Michaela Amler
Mendel Christian Schneller
Hermann and Hermann Tobias Lelle ,
Frank Röth

Soundtrack

Felidae
Soundtrack by Anne Dudley

Publication
(s)

1994

admission

1994

Label (s) PolyGram

Format (s)

CD

Title (number)

16

running time

45 min 44 s

chronology
Kavanagh QC Felidae Again and again on Saturdays

The film music by Anne Dudley appeared with the title song by Boy George in 1994 at PolyGram .

Track list

# title running time
1 Felidae (Title Song) 4:48
2 Main Theme From Felidae 2:15
3 Bluebeard - And Archie! 1:33
4th Kong And His Cronies 2:17
5 Celebrating The Black Mass 6:04
6th Felicitas 1:57
7th Pascal - The Enigma 1:45
8th Mendel's Waltz 2:45
9 Blood Sport 2:26
10 A Gruesome Encounter 4:11
11 Catacombs Of Doom 1:05
12 The Egyptian Dream 1:26
13 Seductive Nhozemphtekh 1:36
14th In The Snow 1:21
15th The Riddle Falls Into Place 5:11
16 I Am Claudandus 5:04

Differences to the novel

The film has a number of differences to Akif Pirinçci's novel , which often have to do with the structure of a film. Since the viewer cannot read Francis 'thoughts, whereas the reader can often, Bluebeard has to appear more frequently in the film so that the viewer (as in this case Bluebeard) can participate in Francis' thoughts through his explanations.

In the novel In the movie
Francis reads the book on ancient Felidae alone. Francis and Bluebeard read the book together.
Francis is informed about the machinations of Prof. Preterius through a diary. Francis accidentally starts up a TV and a video diary tells him about the lab.
Bluebeard is a secondary person. Bluebeard appears far more often, so that the viewer is informed of Francis' thoughts through his stories.
Francis sees Felicitas' "can opener". Felicitas' master does not appear, Francis and Felicitas are alone.
Francis visits Isaiah the guardian of the dead alone Francis and Bluebeard visit Isaiah together.
Francis slits Claudandus's throat. Francis slits Claudandus's stomach.

criticism

“In spite of all efforts to achieve seriousness, atmosphere and ambitious design, the film seems tense, so that the naturalism sought in the figure drawing is never achieved. Too violent and drastic in many scenes. "

- Lexicon of international film

“In spite of all the visual power, one has to say that 'Felidae' only partially fulfills its claim of differentiated character drawing. Only Francis appears appealingly individualized in his slightly blasé manner. In general, a longer running time would suit the ambitious concerns of the film. The abstruse sunshine ending seems almost superimposed and completely breaks with the aesthetic and emotional line of the film - that should have been saved. "

- movie starts

“By German standards, 'Felidae' […] is an exciting and successful experiment, as the attempt was made to create something of their own apart from Walt Disney and its monopoly on these likes. Visually, 'Felidae' can almost completely keep up with this in direct comparison, the imaginative and wicked story also makes up for a lot. [...] A great job was done, especially with the staging of the many different cat characters. They are lovingly staged and thus become the glamorous and multi-layered focus of an exciting story. With 'Felidae' comes a creative cartoon crime thriller from Germany that doesn't need to hide from international competition. A film that has become a classic in this country and that genre fans should know. "

- Moviesection

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Anne Dudley - Felidae on musik-Sammler.de
  2. ↑ Felidae. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ^ Criticism by the Filmstarts.de editorial team
  4. ↑ Felidae - review and information about the film

Web links