The Curse of the Cat People
The Curse of the Cat People is a 1944 American psychological supernatural thriller film directed by Gunther von Fritsch and Robert Wise, produced by Val Lewton, and featuring performances by Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph, and Ann Carter. This intriguing film tells the captivating story of a young girl who forms an unusual friendship with the ghost of her father's deceased first wife, a Serbian fashion designer who intriguingly descended from a mysterious race of people known for their ability to transform into cats. The film, which importantly marks Wise's first directorial credit, serves as a sequel to the earlier film Cat People (1942) and incorporates many of the same central characters; however, it is worth noting that the plot itself is only tangentially related to its predecessor, offering a fresh narrative experience.
When I was informed that my final project for my history of film class could be anything we desired as long as it maintained a clear connection to film, I was absolutely ecstatic.
In a previous assignment, I had written a thorough review of the film “The Curse of the Cat People,” which was released back in 1944. Personally, I consider myself to be quite the “crazy cat lady,” so whenever I’m given opportunity to choose a topic for a project, I will most likely gravitate towards my own cat or the broader subject of cats in general.
This particular project was especially enjoyable because the original poster for the film was created such a long time ago and with traditional artistic tools like acrylic paint and pencils. I wanted to seize the opportunity to translate the iconic poster into a more modern and digital aesthetic by reimagining it in a style reminiscent of popular contemporary movie posters.
These modern movie posters typically reflect a fan-made approach characterized by their simplicity, often featuring a significant element from the film or a captivating screenshot as the focal point, accompanied by clean fonts that display the title, year of release, and the names of the actors, writers, and producers involved.
Transforming the old poster to fit this modern style proved to be both challenging and somewhat heartbreaking, as the original design had so much charm and character. However, I feel that I still managed to pay homage to it by using the two main characters of the film as the central focus in my new design.
