Cat People: Flouting "The Rules"

In the beginning of filmmaking, a set of standards for films and filmmaking was put in place to protect the public; one could not possibly subject civilized people to such obscenities as such a personal and private act of sex. “The Rules,” so to speak, paint a pretty specific picture of what was, and was not, allowed to be seen or discussed in a film. These restrictions, though very specific, left just enough room for interpretation and loopholes.  The film “Cat People” is an example of how a filmmaker could flout these rules with many implications and metaphors for sex. The way in which Jacques Tourneur presents the relationships between Irena and Oliver and Alice, and even the doctor, gives the audience just enough information for them to infer an unfulfilled desire for sexual contact leading to an affair without an outright explanation of the situation.

Irena and Oliver’s love develops quickly, a little too quickly since Oliver says, “I love you” within 2 days of meeting Irena. While the romantic notion of “love at first sight” may be the acceptable interpretation, it’s easy to see that Oliver has a purely sexual attraction to Irena and it needs to be presented in an appropriate way. He cannot act on the attraction if the couple is not first in love, and then married; in other words, in order for Oliver to get to have sex, he has to marry Irena. After becoming man and wife, Irena, for fear of becoming a cat monster, still refuses to even kiss Oliver. We are given a scene where Irena refuses to kiss (and subsequently have sex with) Oliver and they are on either side of Irena’s bedroom door. With the door between them Irena gets on her knees while Oliver remains standing, and the audience is allowed a view of what Irena should be doing as a dutiful wife to her husband, performing fellatio. As their seemingly weeklong marriage unfolds, Irena’s continued fear of intimacy leaves Oliver unsatisfied; Irena is not fulfilling her wifely duties and Oliver is beginning to question his decision to marry her.

This doubt comes forward most clearly when Oliver intimates to Alice that he is “unhappy” for the first time in his life. This is not the first time a question of “happiness” is discussed. In this movie, we can interpret “happiness” as sexual satisfaction. Irena is upset because she wants to make Oliver “happy” but she is afraid to, Oliver is “unhappy” because Irena has not yet touched his penis, and Alice would love nothing more than to make Oliver “happy.” Even the doctor assumes Irena’s assumed delusions stem from a lack of “happiness” and eventually tries to provide her with “happiness” with an extremely passionless kiss. The overall effect of using “happy” as a code word for sexual satisfaction provides a publicly appropriate expression that the audience can understand but also not be offended by.

            The recurring images of keys and locks in this film are also obvious representations of sex and sexuality. Irena is in control of the key to the leopard cage, just like she is in control of the sexual relations (or lack of sexual relations) between her and Oliver. Having a key to the leopard’s cage also represents how sex is primitive and animalistic but under control since it is caged. There is also the obvious sexual motion of a key being thrust into a lock, or rather lack thereof in regards to the relationship between Oliver and Irena, since the lock on her bedroom door remains keyless.

            The overall effect of this manner of sexual implication allows the public to be in a sort of denial of the sexual nature of the film, and instead take the movie at face value. Thus, “The Rules” remain in play while the more sexually literate are able to enjoy the innuendo provided by “Cat People.”