Klapisch film shows a genius for melancholy

“When the Cat’s Away.” Written and directed by Cedric Klapisch. Running time: 95 minutes. Rated R (for language and adult content). Nightly at 5:15, 7:10 and 9:05 p.m., Monday-Thursday at the Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville. In French with English subtitles.

To what lengths will the Hollywood marketing engine go to entice movie audiences to see its films? When dramas are misrepresented as comedies, it would seem there are no lengths.

I first became aware of this budding trend in the preview for “Love! Valour! Compassion!” Billed as a comedy, it is a drama with some amusing moments tossed in to lighten the maudlin mood. If you read my review, you know I had little compassion for “Love! Valour! Compassion!” not only because it is dated, simplistic and contrived, but because of its misleading trailer, which only highlights the film’s few funny moments and none of its simpering drama.

Such is the case with Cedric Klapisch’s “When the Cat’s Away,” a film whose trailer is so bizarre, so fresh and genuinely funny, it is startling to discover that this film is not so much a comedy about a missing cat but more a drama about a woman’s loneliness in a big city. Not one scene in its hilarious trailer appears in the actual film — though we’re meant to believe it will — which seems to me the ultimate cinematic ripoff and a new Hollywood low.

On the surface, the film is a harmless bit of meandering in a shallow groove. Set in a shabby section of Paris’ Right Bank, near the Place de la Bastille, it follows Chloe (Garance Clabel), a young, lonely makeup artist who lives with a gay man, has no boyfriend, but finds solace and companionship with her black cat, Gris-Gris.

When Chloe decides to take a vacation, she leaves Gris-Gris with Madame Renee (Renee Le Calm), an elderly, elfin woman who often cares for other people’s cats.

Problems arise, however, when Chloe returns from vacation to learn that Gris-Gris apparently escaped through Madame Renee’s kitchen window and is now wandering the city alone. As distraught as Chloe, Madame Renee is soon on the phone to her web of cat-friendly friends, an elderly army of white-haired women who scour the city for any sign of the missing Gris-Gris.

And here is where the film becomes something more than a simple cat chase: In Gris-Gris’ absence, Chloe is forced to confront her own loneliness, which deepens the film significantly. Without it, the film would have been minor, insignificant, trivial. With it, Klapisch shows a genius for melancholy that lifts this otherwise slow-moving film into a higher realm.

To call this a comedy is to overlook its subtle nuances, its rich neighborhood scenes (many of the actors actually live there and are playing themselves) and to miss its point entirely. It is a good film that reminded me of Eric Rohmer’s “Rendezvous in Paris” in its casual depiction of people in their everyday lives. Garance Claval, who manages to show in her wide expressive eyes a vulnerability and a sadness not recently seen on screen, is as strong as the surprising ending, and someone to look for in the future.

Grade: B-

Video of the Week

“Bullets Over Broadway.” Directed by Woody Allen. Written by Allen and Douglas McGrath. Running time: 98 minutes. Rated R (for language and violence).

When this film hit theaters in 1994, Mia Farrow and Woody Allen were embroiled in one of Hollywood’s more endearing separations. Then, some reviewers wondered whether Allen’s bullets were intended more for Farrow’s head than for those stars trumpeted on Broadway’s illuminated marquees.

But now, with those tantalizing images just a distant, dirty memory, video audiences can move beyond the drama and enjoy this comedy for what it is: intelligent, witty, one of Allen’s best.

Set in 1929, the film is about David Shayne (John Cusack), a young, idealistic playwright in search of financing for his next play. Shayne finds the needed loot in the deep, blood-stained pockets of Nick Valenti (Joe Viterelli), a Mob boss who floats the project with laundered money, but nearly sinks it by demanding that his girlfriend, Olive Neal (Jennifer Tilly), be given a starring role. Since Olive is as spectacularly untalented as The Spice Girls, Shayne’s choice is a difficult one: Either agree to Nick’s demands or lose a limb.

Almost immediately, Olive is cast — of all things — as a psychiatrist, and the film pushes forward to reveal a hilarious ensemble of misfits, three of whom are especially worth noting. Dianne Wiest, outstanding in her Academy Award-winning role as the aging Broadway star Helen Sinclair, captures the essence of a scene-chewing, martini-swilling diva and runs with it. Never has she been so good. Jim Broadbent, perhaps best known as the bartender in “The Crying Game,” plays Warner Purcell, a leading man who suffers from an eating disorder and balloons to astronomical proportions as the film unfolds. And Tarcey Ullman, whose Eden Brent is as loud and as high-strung as the Chihuahua in her arms, proves again that she is a master chameleon and seemingly can play any part.

But Chaz Palminteri, as Olive’s bodyguard Cheech, is the standout. In a film that constantly explores the responsibility of the artist to his art, Cheech emerges as the film’s only true artist in a twist not to be believed.

Grade: A-

Christopher Smith, a writer and critic who lives in Brewer, reviews movies each Monday in the NEWS.