Rating: 3.5/5
Cult Movie Challenge 2016 | 40/52 | Troma
From the distribution company that brought you My Dinner With Andre comes a film of a decidedly different tone.
This film has been edited from the 25 hours of footage found at the "Be My Cat" crime scene in Rădăuți, Romania, on May 20, 2014
Adrian is an aspiring filmmaker. He has written a film called Be My Cat in which he sought the perfect star. When he saw Anne Hathaway play Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises, he knew she was perfect for the role.
This film showcases Adrian’s filmmaking style, assembled to convince Anne Hathaway to come to Romania and star in the movie. He invites three local actresses to shoot demo scenes.
The film Adrian is making seems to be about a creep named Adrian, an aspiring filmmaker obsessed with Anne Hathaway.
** SPOILERS **
Adrian Țofei went method for this movie, committing himself to being this character for five years.
Țofei followed Ion Cojar’s method, which attempts to create performances that feel like authentic experiences to the degree that the audience should not be able to tell it is a performance.
He performed all the filmmaking roles, including filming himself, despite having no experience with a camera.
Despite filming the first in-person meetings with the actresses, they corresponded for months prior. They established boundaries and prepared the roles so that they could improvise throughout.
These boundaries included using the spoken language to allow the actors a safe out — if they speak in English, they’re in character — if in Romanian, they are themselves (with some exceptions).
The intro statement is correct — Țofei captured 25 hours of footage, 10 in guerilla style, and then edited the movie down from the footage.
Like The Blair Witch Project, this is a film that people have and will continue to repeat. Once the audience is in on it, the mystique is gone. But the quality of this filmmaking stands.
I don’t think this film is as successful as The Blair Witch Project because no matter how meta it gets, we know it’s a film. No one can recreate that deception.