Die Katze aka The Cat [dir. Dominik Graf]

Dominik Graf's 1988 thriller The Cat begins with the visual of a man and woman having sex to the strains of Good Times by The Animals, then craftily segues to a couple of blokes in a car singing along with the radio. All these people will play a part in a planned heist. The woman is unhappily married to the bank manager and a willing accomplice in the plan. The two blokes are henchmen that will carry out a robbery and later hold the manager and employees hostage for a hefty ransom. The man - played by German star Gotz George - is the cold-blooded brains behind the operation.

What follows is a multi-layered scheme in which the man arranges for the henchmen to ask for the ransom to be carried by the manager's wife (Gudrun Landgrebe). From his hotel room window opposite the bank and access to police radio communications the man can clearly predict the police operations and accordingly issue counter instructions. Later in a thrilling interlude, he himself navigates fire escapes and narrow ledges, and even slinks under trucks to sabotage them (Gotz reportedly performed his own stunts). But his mistress complicates his scheme by demanding that he kill her husband in return for her cooperation.

As can be gleaned from the above summary, The Cat is a tense noir thriller, and brilliantly done at that. Because of the gray shades in all of the characters, the film is able to constantly play with audience sympathies. The calculative intensity of Gotz's character, the frustration that builds among the henchmen when events start to overwhelm, the tactical games with the police, these make for a boiling mix. This visual texture of the film reflects this element - it unfolds over the course of a sunny, humid day and the characters are frequently bathed in sweat. There is constant cross-cutting between the events inside the bank, Gotz's hotel suite and the police control room; the overall effect is of a constantly tightening grip.

I had not previously heard of the film, and was able to experience it thanks to Radiance Films' excellent blu-ray. A few words about it:

The high-definition transfer beautifully represents the evocative cinematography (Martin Schafer, who did camera duties for Wim Wenders on his Road Trilogy, Paris, Texas and The American Friend). The stereo track comes across strongly in the action scenes and in the soundtrack. There are a number of meaty extras, including a lengthy conversation with Graf (in which he details his early career, the Robert Aldrich influence, how this project began, the contributions of star Gotz George etc) and shorter ones with writer Christopher Fromm and producer Georg Feil. There is also the usual limited edition booklet.