A sleeper favourite that won awards and was nominated in niche festivals like A Night Of Horror and TromaDance, Be My Cat has been likened to a blend of other found footage films, like something between The Blair Witch Project and Creep. But, with a clearly lower budget, the film succeeds by making the most of subtly and the disturbing ease in which its central character – writer, director, actor and cameraman, Adrian Țofei, progresses with seemingly minimal effort or even thought.
Adrian opens the film by introducing himself, and his purpose – he loves cats and the Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway, and hopes to combine his two loves into a film that will propel Hathaway’s career and Romanian cinema itself to new heights. Speaking directly to Hathaway, he explains that what we are seeing serves as both a video diary and a proof of concept to showcase his idea and his acting and directing abilities. As a series of young actresses are cast as stand-ins for Anne Hathaway, it becomes clear that none will live up to Adrian’s idealistic expectations, and that the line between his film and reality are blurring.
While many movies use the ‘found footage’ style simply to mask a low budget, the format suits Be My Cat, and, unlike the often-nauseating trope of ‘shaky camera running through darkness,’ the style is used with care here, giving us the eerie sensation of the character’s point of view.
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