{"id":8075,"date":"2014-03-06T21:26:38","date_gmt":"2014-03-07T02:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=8075"},"modified":"2014-03-06T22:24:30","modified_gmt":"2014-03-07T03:24:30","slug":"dvd-because-of-the-cats-niet-voor-de-poezen-brutalization-1973","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=8075","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Because of the Cats \/ Niet Voor De Poezen \/ Brutalization (1973)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Brutalization\"<\/a>Film<\/strong>: Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: Poor \u00a0\/ Extras<\/strong>: n\/a<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong>One 7 Movies<\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong> 0 (NTSC)<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong> \u00a0January 7, 2014<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong> \u00a0Crime \/ Eurosleaze<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong> Det. Van der Valk discovers a rash of recent home invasions are tied to a gang of spoiled rich kids.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0 Theatrical Trailer<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Best-known for Van der Valk<\/strong>, the long \u2013running British TV series starring Barry Foster (Frenzy<\/strong>), the eponymous character first hit the cinema screens in the German production Amsterdam Affair<\/strong> (1968), and in spite of the ongoing TV series\u2019 success, apparently Nicholas Freeling\u2019s character was up for grabs, resulting it this Dutch-Belgium production with a mix of British and Dutch actors.<\/p>\n

Whereas the Thames TV series reportedly didn\u2019t use any of the plots in Freeling\u2019s 11 novels, Because of the Cats <\/strong>is more unique in being closer to the author\u2019s source material, but the final screen story is a strange mix of blatant sexploitation, police procedural intrigue, and a wrap-up shaded to resemble a particular 1972 high-profile murder conviction.<\/p>\n

The first stage of the film sets up the mindless routine of corrupted rich boys who target the empty homes of wealthy couples; if no one one\u2019s home, all precious contents are literally smashed, torn, and destroyed beyond recognition and restoration, but if anyone is present or happens to arrive early, the husband\u2019s forced to watch his wife gang-raped by each masked thug.<\/p>\n

The second stage introduces no-nonsense and borderline rogue Det. Van der Valk (Brit Bryan Marshall), a married man with kids who prefers to spend his private hours with prostitute Feodora (Canadian-born Alexandra Stewart), a woman whose connections with seedy characters ultimately helps Van der Valk find the culprits responsible for the ongoing home invasions and assaults.<\/p>\n

Hanging out where teens and young adults frequent, Van der Valk eventually realizes the benevolent owner of a club is in fact the leader of The Cats, a gang with more than soccer and tennis on their minds. Sleek Jansen (Brit Sebastien Graham) is a master manipulator and gang leader, and his position as a modest businessman of progressive youth-oriented centres enabled the monster to cherry pick only the finest most impressionable minds to make up his anarchic troupe, which he plans to use to disrupt global world order.<\/p>\n

The parallels between Jansen and then newly-convicted Charles Manson are highly unsubtle \u2013Jansen\u2019s the puppeteer who ultimately steers the group to commit the murder of one of their own \u2013 but being a European film made for a more liberal market, the Cats\u2019 inculcation ceremony is a trippy mix of martial arts training in the nude, naked female supplicants fondling a white cat before a ritual sacrifice, and Jansen presiding over his group meetings in a room where a naked female sculpture and its nether regions are always in view, and in focus.<\/p>\n

Star Marshall has his own full frontal moment, and the murder of a \u2018cat\u2019 consists of Sylvia Kristel (in her second feature film) luring her lover with fellow naked cult members for a midnight skinny dip and water-bound sex before drowning.<\/p>\n

In spite of the film\u2019s veering between distinct genre elements, Hugo Claus\u2019 script carefully moves the plot from mindless violence to the unveiling of a preposterous global takeover scheme, and the film\u2019s chilly tone and undercurrent of nihilism makes Because of the Cats<\/strong> a rather bleak crime film.<\/p>\n

Fons Rademakers only directed a handful of films in his career \u2013 including the Oscar-winning The Assault<\/strong> (1986) \u2013 but Cats<\/strong> is no hack job. There\u2019s a grittiness to the investigation scenes, and a concerted effort to show ill behaviour in its ugliness. The opening sexual assault is blatantly exploitive \u2013 like the husband, we\u2019re forced to watch the group\u2019s attack \u2013 but it\u2019s shot and edited with a titillating edge. (The film\u2019s trailer plays up the sexploitation quotient by specifically focusing on the sleaze, and spoils the gang\u2019s identity as a new kind of cult.)<\/p>\n

Ruud Bos\u2019 score is a complete mess, though, with his jazz-lounge-rock pastiche rarely matching any scene\u2019s tone. It\u2019s a schizophrenic score that may on occasion drift into functionality, but more often then not it goes against the grain, sometimes making a home invasion sequence seem hip, and then drifting into a tone that\u2019s functionally irrelevant. Bos\u2019 main theme \u2013 an evil corkscrew vocal played over the Main and End Titles \u2013 also bears more than a passing resemblance to Perry Como\u2019s \u201cCatch a Falling Star\u201d; the lyrics and instrumentation may be rooted in Muzak-rock, but the melody\u2019s very, very<\/em> close.<\/p>\n

One 7 Movies\u2019 packaging makes no mention of author Freeling, and the still of Kristel on the rear sleeve is ordered to make it appear she\u2019s both the star and victim of violence, which isn\u2019t the case whatsoever.<\/p>\n

Those familiar with the label\u2019s transfer won\u2019t be surprised by the source material\u2019s poor quality; instead of a ragged print transferred with heavy compression, this time it resembles a heavily compressed .avi file inflated to fill a DVD, framed at 1.77:1 instead of the film\u2019s reported 2.35:1 ratio. This is hardly the best presentation for the film, leaving the door wide open for a proper Dutch release, or maybe a special edition in North America from an indie label like Scorpion Releasing.<\/p>\n

Det. Van der Valk first appeared in the German film Amsterdam Affair <\/strong>(1968), and was followed by the German TV movie Van der Valk und das M\u00e4dchen <\/strong>(1972), and the debut of the Thames TV series (1972-1992). Both Because of the Cats<\/strong> and the German TV movie Van der Valk und die Reichen <\/strong>were produced in 1973, after which the character appeared in the French TV movie Pas de fronti\u00e8res pour l’inspecteur: Le bouc \u00e9missaire <\/strong>(1975).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2014 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

External References:<\/strong>
\nIMDB \u00a0<\/a>— \u00a0Soundtrack Album<\/a>\u00a0 — \u00a0Composer Filmography<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Best-known for Van der Valk, the long \u2013running British TV series starring Barry Foster (Frenzy), the eponymous character first hit the cinema screens in the German production Amsterdam Affair (1968), and in spite of the ongoing TV series\u2019 success, apparently Nicholas Freeling\u2019s character was up for grabs, resulting it this Dutch-Belgium production with a mix of British and Dutch actors…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[2575,2580,2578,2576,2579,2581,617,2577],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-26f","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8075"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8075"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8094,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8075\/revisions\/8094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}