Film Forum

CAT AND MOUSE
France, 1975
Written and directed by Claude Lelouch
With Michèle Morgan, Serge Reggiani, Jean-Pierre Aumont
Approx. 103 min. DCP.

“As Inspector Lechat ('the cat,' as high-school French would have it), Serge Reggiani is warmingly rumpled, worldly wise and roguish, bringing to mind Norman Mailer in one of his pixilated, lap-dog moods. Reggiani is able to make Lechat endearing even when the inspector casually helps himself to a few thousand francs of stolen loot. Michèle Morgan is similarly engaging as the inspector's suspect and eventual romantic obsession, Madame Richard, whose husband (Jean-Pierre Aumont, briefly) dies early in the film, taking a number of very valuable paintings with him. Lechat is certain that the wife killed the husband for the insurance money and that the missing paintings are only a ruse. When he attempts to prove that Madame could have zoomed from a Paris movie house to the scene of the crime and back again within two hours — so as to have the movie as an alibi — the film takes off on an exhilarating joy ride.” – Tom Shales, The Washington Post

with

Rendezvous
France, 1976
Written and directed by Claude Lelouch
Approx. 9 min. DCP.

“As car chase movies go, this nine-minute short is the ultimate pedal-to-the-metaller. Lelouch strapped a camera to the bonnet of his new Ferrari, and hit the gas early one Paris morning in 1976. To say that one or two traffic laws were violated is a bit of an understatement — Lelouch pretty much ignored speed limits, traffic lights and pedestrians in an insane dash from the Boulevard Periphérique to Montmartre. As a film, it's stunning — pure adrenaline from beginning to end. Mostly because you can't doubt the reality of what you're watching — especially when Lelouch mounts the pavement or swerves into oncoming traffic to get round a traffic snarl-up.” – The Guardian

Reviews

For CAT AND MOUSE: 
“One of Mr. Lelouch's best and most ingenious films.”
– Janet Maslin, The New York Times