Tribeca dispatch: Grinning Cat

[Pierre-Alexandre Despatis suffers for his cinema. Now covering his second edition, our official festival reporter and multi-function human cyborg will provide us the sights (plenty of cool pics!), the sounds, the reviews and the occasional interviews of the still very young 5th edition of the Tribeca film festival. Below are some of Pierre-Alexandre’s reviews in easy to read, insightful capsule form. Enjoy!]

THE CASE OF THE GRINNING CAT
The tone of the film is set precisely with the film’s first sequence. It's actual footage of a group of random people who received an e-mail asking them to go to a park and all open their umbrellas in unison! Such urban graphic artists who 'enhance' cities with their art are also the ones responsible for the most famous icons is the “OBEY” graffiti’s found just about all over the place. In France (and in NY for the duration of the festival–see the pictures), a grinning cat started to appear on many buildings. As the narrator says, "at night someone was risking his life to put a smile over the city". In the film, the pro-peace cat is used as an excuse to look at French and international politics over the past few years. It's very entertaining … like when you read a Garfield cartoon, there is a new (and often very funny) tagline every 30 seconds or so. The film's ironic look at modern society is effective, North American audiences won’t find themselves lost in translation as the doc’s message. Near the end of the film, Chris Marker attempts to bring too many issues into his political discourse – the death of a professor, the murder of French singer/actor Marie Trintignant, etc. don’t add anything to the discussion. Not one of Marker's best, but THE CASE OF THE GRINNING CAT is still of interest and provides a cool and critical look at our society.

All pictures © of Pierre-Alexandre Despatis 2006.