Les 9 vies de Tomas Katz

This is a film that has been improvised, and you can tell from some of the rather sketchy scenes. Some of the acting comes into its own from this freedom to improvise, and I especially noted the acting of the young Joshua Morrall, who acts the football captain. He really shone through on the screen, and I'm sure that he will blossom into a fine actor. Some of the elder, more accomplished actors seemed a little uncomfortable with the weight of improvising, but all of the characters come out with a lot of depth, and the film comes together very nicely because of it. Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised by this films turnout. I highly recommend it.

Ben Hopkins in The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz presents a Kafkaesque take on London on the verge of apocalypse. Ian McNeice is a million miles from Bert in Doc Martin, reveling in the role of the blind police inspector trying, through psychic means, to make sense of it all. His enjoyment of the role is infectious. There are some genuinely funny set-ups here, carried off by a cast not afraid to go for high camp. The comedy works most of the time, but when deeper meanings are the target the film is a little hit-and-miss. Shot ultra-low budget, it looks like a very slick student movie, but has enough laughs and surprises to overcome its aesthetic limitations. The films big achievement is to present London in a fresh, and vaguely frightening, way. More of interest to aspiring lo-budget filmmakers than a general audience.

As the movie started, I have expected somehow good picture, an intriguing mix of art and expressionism. And I've got all of that, but in the very bad way. The movie starts very promising (accelerated crowd in London with techno soundtrack + first blust of Tomas) but that's where ends everything nice and reign of absurd starts. And it made me starting to hate the movie, and left me confused and angry. I'm not a huge fan of art movies but I could watch anything while it has a logical story to follow. And, the most important, while it is tasteful. This movie isn't! It has a short story of the end of the world with many unconnected and unnecessary scenes which spoil the whole movie. I am a huge fan of Monty Pyton. It isn't very logical but it is very tasteful. This movie is mainly a BAD TASTE.

During my cinematic explorations I've seen a lot of of far out movies, but The Nine Lives of Thomas Katz has got to be one of the strangest. It's a paranoid yet hilarious film, mixing post-modern end-of-the-world visions with biblical ones. It's one heck of a ride, and though the budget has obviously been quite small, the creators of the film have not let the finances bind their imagination.

In The Nine Lives of Thomas Katz the fair city of London stands on a brink; a solar eclipse is going to darken the skies, and madness begins to emerge. Arcanely dressed Thomas Katz rises from the sewer, and it soon becomes obvious that he is the harbinger (or even the cause) of the chaos to come. The only hope lies in a blind police commander, who is deeply connected with the spirit world. Can he save the white astral child who represents life before Thomas Katz goes through his weird series of metamorphosis, thus sealing the fate of London. And what is Dave going to do about it? What, don't you know who Dave is? Well, he knows who you are, and after you've seen the film you understand why.

When I saw the film the director, Ben Hopkins, was there to present it; he told that much of the dialogue was done by improvisation, and many of the scenes were invented right before they were shot. It's not hard to believe those claims. The Nine Lives of Thomas Katz is not thematical whole; instead it is a series of funny, eerie and surreal scenes portraying the chaos that inhabits our world. While some of these scenes may not work, most of them are, in all their absurdness, scaringly accurate. This clarity of vision covers for the lack of coherence, and makes The Nine Lives of Thomas Katz a worthwhile watch. In it's depiction of irrationality and chaos the film owes much to Luis Buñuel (a debt it openly admits), and it could be even said that this is Buñuel for the post-modern age. Still, the film is highly original in it's own right, and such comparisons should not be taken as claims of plagiarism. Ben Hopkins is not the new Buñuel, but The Nine Lives of Thomas Katz is a film Buñuel would've been proud of.

You know, if you want to see something that will remind both of David Linch and Flann O'Brian, you will have to see that 9 lives. But remember - this drama won't help you to workout the positive point of view to the world. As usual for English absurd, this movie is rather dim and melancholic. Though the humor is bright and, considering the fact it was made almost without of any scripts, by only alive human inspiration, this is coming close to the highest level. I would not say I have understood something new about myself or someone else on this planet, but I certainly got the idea that not only Monty Pytons does something strange, and I'd say beautifully strange, in England.