Cat Skin (1962) User Reviews

The Poor Life of Cats Near to the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 29 April 2006]

In Rio de Janeiro, near to the Carnival, a group of boys from the slums in the hills chase cats to sell them to make a small percussion drum called "tamborim".

When I was a boy in the 60's, the strays cats simply vanished from Rio de Janeiro a couple of days before Carnival. The explanation was that poor people hunted them to sell the leather for manufacturing a percussion instrument called "tamborim", and the flesh to be sold by street vendors in small barbecues as if they were cow or ox meat. Joaquim Pedro de Andrade made this short visibly inspired by "Rio 40 Graus" picturing this reality through a group of boys that organizes a "chase to the cats" to raise some money. The story shows the economical situation superseding the sorrow or love the boy might feel for the animal, showing an "upper class cat" having the same fate of the stray cats, in spite of the boy have some feelings for it. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Couro de Gato" ("Cat's Leather")

Wonderful small film about big moral issues

[Daneel-2 · 9/10 · 10 March 2013]

First off, the film's score is a thoroughly charming slice of early 1960s samba. There are hints of Tom Jobim at certain points. (is that "Desafinado" playing in the scenes with the rich woman?)

The film is available on YouTube and I recommend it to all. If you have ever struggled with the treatment of animals in impoverished countries and areas, this film may spur more thoughts and discussions of those issues. The descriptions elsewhere on this page are all you need to be able to watch it, even if, like me, you do not speak Portuguese. The film addresses how we treat the less fortunate humans, and how we treat animals.

If you've seen City of God (2002), it was interesting/sad to think about how long those slums have been there in Rio, as they looked almost exactly the same in Couro de Gato as they do nearly 40 years later.

I have a feeling it will stick with me for some time.

Amazing Cinema Novo short film on unequal Rio de Janeiro

[guisreis · 9/10 · 17 February 2022]

One of the very best movies from Cinema Novo movment is a short film: this amazing piece by Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, brilliantly directed, filmed and acted. Its amazing cinematograghy explores beauties and contrasts of Rio de Janeiro. Actors go well and the impressive performance of the young boys from slums must be praised. It iszlso nice to see Domingos Oliveira, who was assistant of Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, also acting in the role of a waiter. Couro de Gato is delicate and fierce at once, showing how much lives worth very differently in this unequal society. The boys hunt cats for selling them to be killed and transformed in musical instruments. On thenother hand, the boys are hunted by the society, which loves cats and have bad feelings about the poor, such as indifference, hatred... and fear. Everything is shown in a very poetic, sad, and sometimes even funny way, always with a fantastic pace, either when there is a fast chase or when a boy and a cat share the little they have.

touching

[Kirpianuscus · 26 September 2018]

Portrait of sad reality. About poverty, choices, survive, emotions, deep reality. Boys and cats and Carnival. And fragments from a world who seems very easy to define only at the first sigh. Memories about City of God , samba and runs. And the last scene, one of the most touching from cinematography. Short, a film to must see. For understand a hidded reality who remains alive across more than a half of century.

Despicable subject, but not a despicable movie

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 22 February 2019]

"Couro de Gato" or "Cat Skin" is a Brazialian movie from 1962, so this one is already way over half a century old, closer to 60 years actually, maybe even above depending on when you read this review. It is a 15-minute (not 12) live action short film written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Joaquim Pedro de Andrade and this is among his earlier filmmaking effort, but not his first and he was around the age of 30 when he made this one. It was a tough call for me here. But eventually, I don#t really believe this is a film worth seeing. Even if there is no graphic violence against animals, I think the subject of skinning cats to turn their leather into drums for the Rio de Janeiro Carnival is truly despicable. I am not sure though if I had really udnerstood what is going on without reading the brief summary. Anyway, it is a black-and-white film too, which is not uncommon for early 60s, but not a given either. One thing that had major impact on my decision is that really the first half was really boring and uninteresting I must say. It does get better towards the end, also in terms of style and this actually turns into a pretty creative work surprisingly, also involving editing and cinematography, but I cannot simply ignore the mediocrity from early on. By the way, the spoken words here are so rare that you don't need to speak the language to watch the movie. And you won't need subtitles either. There is a kid screaming early on something about how he thinks he can increase his newspaper sales on the street and shortly afterwards a group of women singing. That's all the language you will hear. I must also add that it did not really feel like a documentary to me. The credits sound really funny with how the people in here are described in terms of what they do. But virtually everything does feel staged and I generally do not like that about documentaries, even if here it may actually have been depicted the way it happened when the camera was not around. So it doesn't feel 100% fake. Still, as a whole I think the weaker aspects here are more frequent than the stronger, which is a shame because technically de Andrade clearly has some talent and it is not a bad film. My suggestion is to skip the watch.