Az prijde kocour

I watched this movie because I love cats and name of the movie attracted me much. First of all for 63' this is very creative movie it is so incredible and beyond. It is also weird and really crazy. I don't wanna say about story it is kind of meaningless for me, it is a little fantastic a little romantic. Really confusing feelings. It is also like experimental movie. Cinematography is perfect and artistic! Almost every scene was so wonderful. I loved this movie much. Thanx God nothing happened to cat at the final. I had some doubts that. When I think that these children are almost 70 years old now, it is also unbelievable.

Final words :watchable, creative, timeless, crazy, colorful, innocent.. These are really suitable for this movie.

In a small town, Jan Werich is an amiable storyteller who tells the children about a fabulous cat who wear sunglasses. When his eyes are uncovered, anyone he looks at has their nature revealed by the color they turn. Up shows the cat, and raises havoc among the adults, particularly Jirí Sovák, the smarmy bureaucrat who understands everything, once it's dead.

It's one of those wobbly fantasies of the 1960s like THE SEVEN FACES OF DOCTOR LAO who attempt to exalt the honesty of children -- not that I saw much of that as a child. There are lots of special effects which nowadays look like director Vojtech Jasný and his staff got their hand on an optical printer for the first time. At the time, I'm sure this movie was pretty much state-of-the-art for Eastern Europe. It hasn't aged particularly well, but there's little doubt it will still appeal to children in its insistence that they and truth matter.

The Cassandra Cat was one of the cutest films of the Eastern Bloc Cinema; the film was created in 1963, five years before Prague Spring erupted, It tells the story of a Strange Cat that arrived in a Small town, and that Cat made many people crazy, I know that this movie was funniest. I love it, and the Actor who plays Diana. Her name was Emília Vasaryová she so beautiful, and I know that this movie was the best and I loved it; good performance and many characters are Charming; I know that many people didn't watch this movie, but I recommended it to watch because this film was beautiful and cute.

I first found this film on YouTube, a few months ago, by chance... Glad I did!

Have enjoyed many foreign films in past - mainly Japanese and Russian, and a few from other countries. This was the first film from Czechoslovakia I have ever watched (with English subtitles, of course). Except for the language, the people in this town could be from any small town... even from mid-1950's or early 1960's America. The everyday cares, joys & troubles, were much the same as most men, women and children have, the whole world over. But... When the Cat Comes... watch out! The cat has your (and mine) number.... A very beautiful and touching story - and the clever use of color, music, sound effects, was all quite well done. I just wished they could have screened this in school, when I was a 'wee lad'. Maybe it's high time they show good movies in the schools again! (In 1st grade, my teacher showed 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' with James Mason, in the class. I never forgot that!)

This film is from 1963, but it is a story as timely as ever. If only this cat would visit the halls of all the political leaders (in Wash. D.C., and elsewhere), things might get 'back on track'?! To bring world peace & understanding, maybe we should start by watching each other's films.... each other's STORIES. Films such as this deserve a wider audience, and I hope Criterion will add this to their list of foreign titles on DVD and Blu-ray... I would buy it again from them, gladly!

What a curious movie this is. Ostensibly a family film - silly, ham-handed, and fantastical - there are small moments or ideas here and there (particularly interactions between men and women) that are more adult in nature. We get classic themes for such fare, including but definitely not limited to (a) expression and individuality set against notions of strict, regimented order and conformity, and (b) the underhanded ways people's true selves are revealed - themes that are somehow both amplified and somewhat twisted into a different shape in light of additional context. After all, 'Az prijde kocour' is also a bit of a time capsule - made in a country that no longer exists, and under the auspices of Soviet governance, with these origins apparent in small clues like passing dismissal of "formalism," or discussion or intimation of what does or does not meet the standards of approved work, art, or Truth, and still more subtly in the mayor's remarks about Tabby, or Oliva's favored pastime that so slyly echoes less innocent observation. Meanwhile, there's a bombastic theatricality to the presentation that makes one ponder how, were this a Hollywood production, it would almost certainly be a musical, or at least kin to live-action Disney features of the same period. And still all this is to say nothing of what may be the greatest curiosity, which is to say a decidedly unbothered sense of plot - its disparate threads, its development. I do quite enjoy this, but given the curious flavors here, I'm not entirely sure who I would even recommend it to!

This much is certain: 'Az prijde kocour' is wonderfully imaginative, charming in its somewhat gauche playfulness. Archetypal story ideas are teased out into curious directions with the addition of one very special cat and one very special set of spectacles, and the whimsy extends to the details of most every character and scene as written and executed. My commendations to filmmaker Vojtech Jasny and co-writers Jiri Brdecka and Jan Werich, for they have whipped up a splendid fancy that at once or in turns blends fantasy, children's stories, more adult conceptions of humor, romance, art-house conceits, and some overtones of the sociopolitical atmosphere in 1960s Czechoslovakia. If that's not an odd mixture, I don't know what is. Yet it works unexpectedly well, resulting in a viewing experience that's both peculiar and highly entertaining in its own offbeat way. And even at that, for everything that this is and represents, it's also impressively smart and well made. The best of the effects are pointedly inventive, while the worst are no more terrible than being on par with those of this picture's contemporaries. The production design and art direction are all around excellent, as are all other contributions of those behind the scenes including editing and cinematography, and the cast likewise embody their characters with gratifyingly spirited performances. Again, this really is quite well done.

One should note a content warning for themes of animal cruelty that are central to the plot, and especially prevalent in some scene writing and dialogue. I would argue, too, that the felines appearing in the film receive treatment at some points that, while not abjectly awful, does not comport with modern standards of how animals should be handled or cared for. This isn't to say that the feature couldn't be made in 2022, but some scenes would surely look a little different than they do here. Still, this is part and parcel of the story at hand, and film-making typical of the era - and rest assured that in accordance with such fare, all is well in the end. Ultimately this is a little bit of a strange ride, with a swirl of ideas and tones that one wouldn't expect to fit together. For all that, though, it's unmistakably fun, and worth exploring not just on its own merits but also as a tiny peek behind the "curtain," if you will, at Czechoslovakia in the 60s. It's worth mentioning, as a bonus for fans of Werner Herzog, that both this and his 1979 picture 'Woyzeck' were filmed in the same Czech town. At length, whether one is an especial fan of cats, or international cinema, or just looking for something a tad out of the ordinary but light, 'Az prijde kocour' is a weird but refreshing title, a fine way to spend 100 minutes if you have the opportunity.