The Cat

The Cat (Le Chat, 1971) is a French drama by Pierre Granier-Deferre you can watch online on iFILM. Jean Gabin and Simone Signoret play a married couple who have all but stopped speaking after decades together.

Julien and Clémence are growing old in a working-class quarter outside Paris, where the houses are coming down one by one. Whatever warmth their marriage once held is long gone, replaced by silence and small cruelties. When Julien takes in a stray cat, the animal becomes the only creature he still cares for — and to Clémence, a rival she has no intention of forgiving.

Built almost entirely on glances and pauses, the film lets two of French cinema's greatest faces wage a war fought without raised voices. Signoret won the Silver Bear at Berlin for her work here. A quiet, merciless study of love curdled into the habit of hating the person beside you. Stream The Cat (1971) online on iFILM.