Donald Ritchie's "Boy with Cat"

      Pets can ever be so needy. Donald Ritchie, the recently deceased, highly respected film critic of Japanese cinema, once made motion pictures himself, with his feline-inspired Boy with Cat claiming his status as artist provocateur. Simple as its on-screen narrative appears, Ritchie's film is a work ripe with creative flourishes both disorienting and unsettling. A film of contradictions, of a man wrestling between pleasure and annoyance, Boy with Cat shows Ritchie's interest in the mundane attributes of individual activities, as well as their absurdly humorous battles with their locales. 

    A film in which a man attempts to masturbate to explicit photos while a black cat interrupts and distracts, Boy with Cat serves as a story of frustration, and not just for the self-pleasuring human. Playfully jealous (if you will excuse my desire to anthropomorphize my reading here), the cat demands full attention and continuously makes contact and/or mounts the man while he is in a state of bliss. An anti-masturbation film posing as mind-blowing arthouse? The story of a nagging parent preventing their child from discovering adulthood? A tale of two lovers estranged by species? Ritchie invites all interpretations and smiles as he presents his human character smoking a cigarette, a common after-orgasm occurrence, as the film concludes.

     Emphasizing the vital connection between sound and image while assigning a musical signifier to both euphoria and the lack thereof, Ritchie's chosen musical score is of much interest. Notes are played on a piano (some famous) as our cinematic protagonist attempts to touch himself. When the cat makes its presence known, a distinct, ear-shaking buzzing sound invades the soundtrack. As the cat and boy "battle" on screen, so too do the non-diegetic sounds we're presented with; one mirrors the other. 

     Consistently self-aware, the pianist providing the score often trips over the piano keys, growing more impatient each time. Is he also the victim of an attention-desiring feline friend? As the cat's theme threatens to drown out the pianist's, the boy on screen eventually decides to give up (a debate could be made that he finishes, hence the notable appearance of a cigarette). We hear sounds of the piano being shut, in part representing a musician not fully satisfied with his imperfect skill. An erectile dysfunction joke symbolized through inept musical performance? Ritchie's film interrupts our thoughts through music and photography, just as the boy uses still photographs to try and block out the surrounding interruptions.

     The film can be viewed  here.