Cat Swallows Parakeet And Speaks!
75 min, 16mm film, 1997
A gothic romp through a crumbling hospital.
The last time you saw a tabloid, maybe the headline read “Man Gives Birth to Nine-Pound Baby Girl”, or perhaps “Melt Fat Away As You Eat Your Favorite Foods!”. Taking such absurd claims as its starting point, Cat Swallows Parakeet And Speaks! puts the Arabian Nights saga through a surreal feminist revision.
In the classic tale, a mythical character must tell stories to survive a man who is trying to murder her and all other women. In this version, Scheherazade is a strikingly beautiful model recovering in the hospital after an ulcer operation. She becomes increasingly convinced that her inept doctor, aptly named Dr. Storey, is trying to kill her and the only way to survive is to tell him stories. Yet she is at a loss for words.
As Scheherazade’s stay is prolonged, she grows desperate for tales and seeks the help of Kore, a trashy, tabloid-reading fellow patient. Initially irritated by Kore’s willingness to believe whatever the rags print, Scheherazade gets drawn in by her need for a few good yarns. Slowly the two women grow closer, telling the preposterous tales from the tabloids in an effort to escape Dr. Storey. Meanwhile, the hospital around them is turned inside-out by the very characters whose stories they have been relating.
Beautifully shot in the abandoned building of a former insane asylum, Cat Swallows Parakeet And Speaks! combines B&W, colour, and Hi8 images, along with great performances to stunning results.
RAVE REVIEWS:
An intriguing experimental narrative that explores female body issues within the bounds of expressionist whimsy. The mixed morbidity, fantasticism, and quirky humor works surprisingly well. Pietrobruno has a real eye, with handsomely composed imagery. Atmosphere is dreamlike, often poetical … (with) several oddly sensuous set-pieces. –Dennis Harvey, Variety
A gothic romp through a crumbling hospital. Pietrobruno corrals the many elements into a gorgeous decaying whole using experimental film and video techniques with successful narrative effect. She brings together the female archetypes and lets them run around until the categories delightfully deconstruct. –Zoe Druick, Exclaim
Replete with lesbians, anorexics, necrophilic undertones and a deluge of menstrual blood, Pietrobruno’s febrile fable contains enough raw passion to ignite the sensibilities of even the most faded feminists. –Digmore Graves, Keller Report
Empowerment can come from the most unlikely places. Like, say, supermarket tabloids. Pietrobruno stacks this low-brow deck with allusions to classic fairytales and shuffles the cards thoroughly. As you might guess, Cat Swallows Parakeet And Speaks! is a visually intense work. –Peter Chattaway, Ubyssey
Takes up issues of female body image in an unforgettable visual spectacle … a skillful parody-pastiche … an amazing new explosion of a film … spins a stylish, nightmare world that lets no viewer escape from its web. –Elyssa Faison, Tokyo Review
Part feminist fable, part surreal dream, and part horror flick … beautiful. –Liz Czach, Toronto Film Festival
If your diet has been running lately toward the easily chewed, facing a 75 mins. plateful of oddly angled B&W posturing can be a jaw-tightener. But there’s a wise and witty heart beating beneath the initial pallor this film presents. –Kelly M. Brian, Just Out
Startling, hallucinatory beauty. –Dale E. Basye, Portland News and Culture
One of the most drop-dead gorgeous movies ever made in Vancouver … a dizzyingly ambitious experimental drama … the apocalyptic production design is breathtaking … a filmmaker of decidedly distinctive vision. –Jim Sinclair, Pacific Cinematheque
75 min, 16mm film, 1997
Principal Crew
CAST
TARA FREDERICK
REBECCA GODIN
ALEX FERGUSON
CHRISTINE TAYLOR
MINA E. MINA
MARGOT PLATTS
RACHEL CRONIN
CHRISTINA JASTRZEMBSKA
KATHLEEN DICK
ARI SOLOMON
CREW
PIETROBRUNO Writer/Producer/Director/Editor
JOHN HOUTMAN Cinematographer
EVA MADDEN Sound Mixer
ATHENA WONG Art Designer
BO MYERS Art Designer
Festivals
premiered at The Toronto International Film Festival
Best Canadian Feature, Making Scenes Film Festival. Ottawa, Ontario
Best Low-Budget Feature, Victoria International Film Festival. BC
Judge’s Award, Northwest Film and Video Festival. Portland, Oregon
Opening Night Screening, Oshawa Durham Film Festival. Ontario
selected screenings: Festival Du Nouveau Cinema. Montreal, Quebec. Verzaubert, Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Berlin, Germany. Frameline, Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. San Francisco, California. Outfest, Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Los Angeles, California. Figueira Da Foz International Film Festival. Lisboa, Portugal. Calcutta International Film Festival. India. Festival Cinematografico Internacional del Uruguay. Festival De Cine De Bogota. Columbia. Mediawave Film Festival. Gyor, Hungary. Feature Film Fund. New York, New York. Athens, Ohio International Film Festival. Rainy States Film Festival. Seattle, Washington. Out On Screen, Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Vancouver, BC. Lesben Film Festival. Berlin, Germany. Tokyo International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Japan. Long Beach Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Los Angeles, California. Image et Nation, Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Montreal, Quebec. Queer Stitch, Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Berne, Switzerland. Reel Vision, Women’s Film Festival. Halifax, Nova Scotia. Pacific Cinematheque. Vancouver, BC. Edison Electric Company. Vancouver, BC