Love fades and hatred settles in, holding firm for a very long time in Pierre Granier-Deferre's grim study of a marriage gone bad. Jean Gabin & Simone Signoret are a married couple whose relationship has outlasted their love for one another. They live in nearly mute misery, staying out of each other's way & exchanging notes as opposed to speaking. Gabin shows more affection, in fact ALL of his affection, toward a stray cat than to his wife. Signoret, a one-time acrobat injured years earlier & now saddled with a permanent limp exacts a terrible revenge on both Gabin and his cat. Granier-Deferre peppers the film with a fair amount of symbolism, but it's never muddy. It's quite clear that the decline of Gabin's and Signoret's relationship coincides with the gentrification of their neighborhood. Their house is the last on the block slated for demolition. An astounding, brilliantly acted movie and a very harsh look at just how nasty one human can be toward another. Philippe Sarde did the haunting music score.
Review of Le Chat
