Black Cat, White Cat
| Black Cat, White Puss | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Emir Kusturica |
| Written by | Emir Kusturica Gordan Mihić |
| Produced by | Karl Baumgartner Maksa Ćatović |
| Starring | Bajram Severdžan Srđan Todorović Florijan Ajdini Branka Katić |
| Cinematography | Thierry Arbogast |
| Edited by | Svetolik Zajc |
| Music by | Nele Karajlić Voja Aralica Dejo Sparavalo |
| Distributed by | Focus Features (in USA) |
Release date | September 10 1998 |
Running time | 135 min |
| Countries |  France Germany Yugoslavia |
| Languages | Romani, Bulgarian, German, Serbo-Croatian, Italian |
Black Cat, White Puss (Serbo-Croatian: Црна мачка, бели мачор, Crna mačka, beli mačor) is a Yugoslavian Romantic comedy film directed by Emir Kusturica in 1998. It won the Silver Lion for best direction at the Venice Film Festival.
Plot
Matko, a small-time Roma smuggler and profiteer is living with his son teenage Zare by the Danube River in eastern Serbia near the Bulgarian border. He has plans to acquire a whole train of smuggled fuel, which he finds at cut-price. To obtain a loan that would subsidize the heist, he visits Grga Pitic, a wheelchair-bound old gangster, who is an old friend of Zarije, Matko's father and Zare's grandfather. Matko then plots the details of the job with an ally of his named Dadan, a rich, fun-living, drug-snorting gangster type who has a harem, juggles grenades and cheats at cards. However, Dadan double-crosses him and glitches up the deal by giving Matko a drink that is drugged, and carrying out the job while Matko is unconscious, which means that Matko owes Dadan a great deal of cash. Matko cannot afford to pay, so Dadan makes a deal whereby he would forgive the debt, thereby wiping the slate clean, if Afrodita, Dadan's midget sister, and Zare get married. However, Zare is in love with Ida, a barmaid who works in an establishment run by her Roma grandmother, Sujka, and Afrodita is waiting for the man of her dreams. Dadan coerces Afrodita into marrying by dunking her down a well, while Zare first learns of the scheme to marry him off from Ida, who had overheard Dadan and Matko plotting it in the restaurant where she works. Meanwhile, Zare retrieves Zarije from the hospital where he is being kept.
The two reluctantly endure the wedding ceremony held at Matko's house, which Dadan refuses to postpone after the sudden apparent death of Zarije. They were not supposed to have a wedding while in mourning, but Dadan decides to delay the death announcement, so Matko and Zare hide Zarije's body in the attic packed in ice. Zare is dismayed, since he wants to leave the place, and had hoped that the required mourning period for his beloved grandfather would give him the opportunity to get away, and thus avoid being married off against his will. Ida and Sujka provide the catering for the wedding, and Ida is upset at seeing her beloved married off to someone else. By contrast, Dadan is really enjoying himself. However, the bride runs away mid-ceremony, pursued by Dadan and Matko. She stumbles across a six-foot plus giant named Grga Veliki, who is willing to protect her from her villainous brother, and the couple fall instantly in love. Grga Veliki's grandfather, Grga Pitic, wants him to get married, and is delighted that he has found his mate. The old gangster forces Dadan, who had once worked for him, to accept the match.
The groom meanwhile conspires with Sujka and Ida to bring Dadan down a peg, and rigs the outhouse so that the seat would come apart. While the preparations for the wedding ceremony of Afrodita and Grga Veliki are being conducted, Matko and Dadan pass the time by playing cards, with Dadan cheating. Sujka comes in during the game and serves the unsuspecting Dadan a drink spiked with something that would give him diarrhea. Furthermore, Grga Pitic apparently dies, and Dadan and Matko hide his body in the attic, where Zarije's body is also hidden. However, the two corpses soon both come back to life; they were not dead after all. They are surprised to find themselves together, as they had not seen each other for 25 years and each had thought the other was dead. During the ceremony, Dadan starts to feel uncomfortable and rushes into the outhouse ... and falls into the manure. His harem deserts him, and as he tries to clean himself off on a goose, only Matko remains loyal, and he provides Dadan with a shower from the garden hose. Zare meanwhile grabs the wedding official at gunpoint and orders him to solemnize his marriage with his sweetheart, Ida, and the two sail off together on a riverboat with a fistful of cash stashed in his grandfather's accordion, and the blessing of their respective grandparents.
There are many recurring gags throughout the film, for example a scene where a pig is devouring a rusty old Trabant, and the appearance of the titular two cats (a black one and a white one), who end up as the only witnesses to Zare and Ida's wedding. Also, Grga Pitic is obsessed with the last line in the film Casablanca, "this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," which he says to Zarije at the end, after both came back from having apparently died.
Trivia
- The literal translation of the title is actually "Black female cat, white male cat" - a contraposition not present in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and some other title translations.
- The film is strongly inspired by an influential Italian comics series, Alan Ford by Roberto Raviola and Luciano Secchi. In a scene of the film you can clearly see one of the characters reading an issue of the Yugoslavian version of Alan Ford.
