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Felidae (film)

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Felidae
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMichael Schaack
Screenplay byAkif Pirinçci
Martin Kluger
Stefaan Schieder
Story byAkif Pirinçci
Produced byHanno Huth
StarringUlrich Tukur
Mario Adorf
Helge Schneider
Uwe Ochsenknecht
Klaus Maria Brandauer
CinematographyWerner Loos
Edited byKlaus Basler
Music byAnne Dudley
Production
companies
TFC Trickompany
Animationstudio Ludewig
Uli Meyer Animation
Natterjack Animation
Azadart
Mediasoft
Premier Films
A-Film APS
Dagda Film Limited
Hahn Shin Corporation
Wang Film Productions
Distributed bySenator Film Distribution
Release date
  • November 3, 1994 (1994-11-03) (Germany)
Running time
82 minutes
CountriesGermany
Denmark
Taiwan
LanguagesGerman
English

Felidae is a 1994 German adult animated neo-noir/crime thriller film directed by Michael Schaack, written by Martin Kluger, Stefaan Schieder and Akif Pirinçci based on the 1989 novel Felidae, produced by Trickompany, and starring Ulrich Tukur, Mario Adorf and Klaus Maria Brandauer. The story centers on domestic house cat Francis and the grisly feline murders taking place in his new neighborhood.[1]

Felidae became infamous[citation needed] for its gruesome and very violent content and disturbing sequences.

Plot

A green-eyed black and white tomcat, Francis, moves in with his owner to an abandoned house in a new neighborhood, and is greeted by Sascha's slain body. Local street cat Bluebeard is convinced that this, and three other recent killings, have been committed by a "can-opener" (cat slang for a human).

Francis disagrees, and as he finds out more about the victims, he is sure that the murderer is a cat and each of the victims was sexually aroused at the time of death. He is aided in his investigations by Bluebeard, blind but wise Felicity and the tech-savvy elderly Pascal. His sleep is haunted by nightmares, which offer insight into the murderer's mind.

Francis runs afoul of the local bully Kong and his posse, two cats both named Hermann. Francis learns of the suicidal Claudandus Sect, led by Joker, and he discovers that his new home was once the site of a laboratory owned by Dr. Preterius. Preterius, in his search to create a bonding glue that would heal any flesh wound, performed painful and deadly experiments on cats, including Claudandus, the namesake cat of the sect. This particular cat was originally a stray, the first upon which the bonding glue worked, something Preterius attributed to superior genetics. He continued said routine vivisection on Claudandus, and as his experiments continued failing, the doctor descended into a state of alcoholic craziness. Claudandus attacked Preterius by challenging him to combat.

After Preterius's death, the abandoned lab became a meeting site for the Claudandus Sect, who believe that Claudandus was imbued with powers that could help the cat species evolve into something greater. Some members believe that Claudandus has ascended to another life, and that by sacrificing themselves through ritual suicide, they may attain perfection. It is also implied that some of the cats were victims of Preterius's experiments.

Joker is discovered dead and was killed by Claudandus. Claudandus seeks revenge against humanity, citing them as the only truly evil animal. Through selective breeding, he aims to give rise to a 'new breed' of feline - one perfect enough to overtake the humans. Pascal theorizes with Francis that Claudandus is systematically killing the cats he deems unworthy of breeding. Pascal names his computer database after the biological family of the cats, "Felidae."

Francis meets up with a female Egyptian cat and has sexual intercourse with her, after which she is implied to be a femme fatale who is connected to Felidae. After learning Mendel's genetics theory, Francis and Bluebeard sneak into Pascal's home. Bluebeard is attacked by an unseen force. While deleting the Felidae project, Francis encounters Pascal, who is revealed to be Claudandus.

When Francis confronts him, Claudandus reveals that he spoke to Preterius and killed him. He reveals that he is attempting to breed cats back to their Egyptian roots using Mendel's theory, and has been killing mixed breed cats who attempted to mate with the "pure" specimens; Claudandus plans to embark on a genocidal crusade against man and other "lesser" animals. Due to his fatal disease, and having been impressed by Francis' intelligence, he hopes that the younger cat will continue the Felidae project after he dies, seeing Francis's intelligence as a sign of superior genes despite his mixed breeding. Appalled and disgusted, Francis deletes the Felidae database and destroys the computer, sparking an electrical fire. The two cats fight, and Francis reopens Claudandus's scar from the experiments, disemboweling him and revealing that he is a mutant. The mutilated Claudandus remarks as he dies that he was once as pure as Francis.

Francis escapes the burning building with the injured Bluebeard, and all remaining traces of Claudandus and the Felidae project are destroyed. Looking over the remains of Claudandus's home, he muses that there must be optimism for a brighter future for humans and Felidae alike.

Cast

  • Ulrich Tukur as Francis, a cat detective and the main protagonist.
  • Mario Adorf as Bluebeard, Francis's best friend.
  • Klaus Maria Brandauer as Claudandus, formerly known as Pascal and the main antagonist.
  • Wolfgang Hess as Kong
  • Helge Schneider as Jesaja
  • Gerhard Garbers as Preterius
  • Mona Seefried as Felicity
  • Ulrich Wildgruber as Joker, the high priest of the Claudandus sect.
  • Manfred Steffen as Gustav
  • Uwe Ochsenknecht as Archie
  • Michaela Amler as Nhozemphtekh
  • Christian Schneller as Mendel
  • Tobias Lelle as Hermann 1
  • Frank Röth as Hermann 2
  • Alexandra Mink as Pepeline

Production

Felidae was the most expensive animated film produced in Germany to date, reportedly costing 10 million marks.[2] The film was mainly animated by TFC Trickompany in Hamburg, from which Hayo Freitag notably animated the Mendel sequence. Some of the animation was farmed out to other studios, including Animationstudio Ludewig in Hamburg, Uli Meyer Animation in London, Natterjack Animation in Vancouver (from which Steven Evangelatos was the head animator), Azadart in Toronto (from which Armen Melkonian was the head animator), Mediasoft in Hamburg, Premier Films in London (from which John Cousen was the head animator), A-Flim APS in Kopenhagen (from which Michael Hegner was the head animator), Dagda Film Limited in Dublin (from which Paul Bolger was the head animator), Hahn Shin Corporation in Seoul (from which Shin-Mok Choi was the head animator) and an uncredited Wang Film Productions in Taiwan.

Release

Aside from being released on the VHS, it was also issued on the Laserdisc format in the English dub.

It was released on PAL DVD region 2 with Dolby 5.1 and 2.0 surround sound for the original German audio and Dolby 2.0 for the English audio dub in Dolby 2.0. Extras (in German only) include DVD commentary, trailer in German, and a "making of" documentary.[3]

Soundtrack

Untitled

Track listing

  1. "Felidae" — 04:44 (Boy George/John Themis)
  2. "Main Theme From Felidae" — 02:06
  3. "Bluebeard - And Archie" — 01:26
  4. "Kong And His Cronies" — 02:11
  5. "Celebrating The Black Mass" — 05:55
  6. "Felicity" — 01:50
  7. "Pascal - The Enigma" — 01:37
  8. "Mendel's Waltz" — 02:39
  9. "Blood Sport" — 02:17
  10. "A Gruesome Encounter" — 04:03
  11. "Catacombs Of Doom" — 01:01
  12. "The Egyptian Dream" — 01:18
  13. "Seduction NHOZEMPHTEKH" 01:29
  14. "In The Snow" — 01:14
  15. "The Riddle Falls Into Place" — 05:04
  16. "I Am Claudandus" — 05:01

References

  1. ^ "Zeichentrick - Jagen und töten". spiegel (in German). Retrieved 15 April 2016.
  2. ^ Chin, Rita (2007). "Toward a German Multiculturalism". The Guest Worker Question in Postwar German. Cambridge University Press. p. 230. ISBN 0-521-87000-3.
  3. ^ "ASIN: B0001HN2SY". Amazon.de. Retrieved 9 January 2009.
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