(birds chirping)
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(gentle music)
- [Narrator] The story which we are about to tell you
happens in a holiday cottage in the summertime.
The story in question is more like an animal news report
than an animal fable, although that is debatable.
Once upon a time, a cat had a weak liver due to overeating.
Let's not beat around the bush.
Marcelle is a greedy cat and a thief
whose owner, this time, caught red-handed.
(owner speaking in foreign language)
(owner hissing) (Marcelle meowing)
Two days beforehand in this very same place,
Cheeky, the former tenant's mouse, escaped from his cage
which wasn't shut properly.
Now left to his own devices,
he will have to deal with the trials and tribulations
of a life of freedom.
Between this predator and prey
who should really never have met, a chase full of danger,
tricks, and twists is about to start.
(Marcelle meowing)
(Cheeky squeaking)
(lively music)
(cat hissing)
The game of cat and mouse is an old story
but what appears on the screen as a game
is not funny in real life.
(children chattering)
It's a cruel game that can result in death for the mouse.
(child laughing)
Left to his own devices but more alive than ever,
Cheeky makes a feast out of a crumb
without anybody noticing.
The new occupants of the place, city slickers,
hate mice except in cartoons.
On the other hand, they love cats.
Rita is a Burmese cat, a rather sophisticated one.
(child laughing)
With a strict eye, she watches over one of her kittens.
- Meow.
- [Narrator] When he's not stealing salmon,
Marcelle is the favorite, a stray cat rescued by the family.
At six years of age, this city cat is in the prime of life
and his fur is as soft as a caress.
But watch out.
Under the guise of a friendly tom cat, Marcelle is a killer.
During the course of this story,
we are going to witness the strategies put in place
by the predator and his prey.
In plain language, will Cheeky escape
the murderous instincts of Marcelle the feline?
(crickets chirping)
(door banging)
In general, the predation drama takes place at night
when man is sleeping peacefully in his bed.
(owl screeching)
Then, at twilight, the animals take over.
(owl screeching)
(tense music)
Let's join Cheeky taking refuge between two walls.
Loyal to his opportunistic mouse tendencies,
he takes advantage of his new environment.
Cheeky has found room and board, and a piece of biscuit.
An adult mouse can snack 20 times a day,
with an appetite that is pleasing to see.
(clock ticking)
As curious as he is hungry,
Cheeky explores the big world of the kitchen
and comes face to face with the pantry, proof that man,
who often complains about the presence of mice in his home,
is also the one that feeds them.
Mice are omnivorous.
They eat very discretely.
Well, almost.
(inquisitive music)
Marcelle is nocturnal, with over-developed hearing.
His ears, able to move 180 degrees,
help him find the slightest hissing
or ultrasound emitted by his prey.
It's one o'clock in the morning
and Cheeky has his nose in the flour.
Usually Marcelle chases gray mice.
This type of mouse is a first.
For his part, Cheeky, who has been living in a cage,
has never seen a cat up close.
He weighs 30 grams to Marcelle's four kilos,
except that in the animal kingdom,
the strongest one isn't always the winner.
(tense music)
A cat like Marcelle doesn't kill the first mouse
that passes by just to eat him.
He can also kill as part of a game
or he can just have fun with it,
even if this time, the game didn't last long.
(bright music)
Cheeky has saved his skin, but what will happen next time?
(cockerel crowing)
In the morning, it needs more than the crowing of the cock
to awaken Marcelle.
(food rustling)
- [Owner] Marcelle.
(food rustling)
(Marcelle meowing)
- [Narrator] Marcelle can't resist the call of his kibble.
He has a voracious appetite
and eats a dozen small meals per day.
Nevertheless, instinctively, a well-fed cat still hunts.
(tense percussive music)
Marcelle is an eclectic predator.
As well as mice, he likes fish, including raw fish.
In his field of vision are Moby Dick and Bubble,
a couple who literally go round and round in circles.
The cat can spend hours lying in wait.
The sideboard in the lounge is a stressful environment.
Attracted by the movement of the water
more than by the goldfish, Marcelle quenches his thirst
because he's not really hungry.
Having renounced fresh flesh,
Marcelle scratches the mat with his claws.
He's acting fishy.
(tense music)
(owner hissing)
At the end of this tragicomic adventure,
Moby Dick and Bubble continue to swim in circles.
They return to their normal existence.
(bright music)
Between these partition walls,
Cheeky the mouse moves between two universes.
He has already visited the kitchen.
Now he has arrived at the back of the barn.
This mouse, reared and bought in a pet shop,
meets gray mice, called Mus musculus, for the first time.
These mice sneak into our homes all year round.
A dozen of them live here as a family
but outside of their clan,
any newcomer is an intruder who can be killed.
(bright music)
Cheeky is a stranger and the dominant males
are about to give him a hard time.
(mice squeaking)
The quibbling stops and this little mischief of mice
ends up in the nest that the Mus musculus have built
with twigs, paper, cardboard, pieces of tissue,
fiberglass, and cotton.
Barely tolerated, Cheeky chases a female.
But just at the moment where he's about to get lucky,
as we say, a competitor intervenes.
When it comes to flirting,
it's important to respect the rules of the Mus musculus.
Cheeky will have learned at his expense.
In the meantime, he's champing at the bit.
(birds chirping)
In the garden it's picnic time.
The lady of the house is feeding the kittens
with a baby bottle
because due to lack of milk after the birth,
Rita the cat couldn't fill her role as a nurturing mother.
After two months not yet weaned,
the kittens attack the treat greedily.
The lady of the house helps raise
her two adorable little felines, two future predators
with their blue eyes.
(gentle inquisitive music)
At the other end of the garden, let's join Marcelle
whose behavior is intriguing.
He scrutinizes the ballet of the blue tits.
The more they eat, the hungrier he is.
A cat like Marcelle spends on average three hours a day
on the act of predation.
A stray cat can spend double that time.
With exception of rodents and some lizards,
birds represent 1/4 of the prey killed by Marcelle.
But the world is cruel.
A glass door separates the cat from the blue tits.
Disappointed, Marcelle goes on to new adventures.
(tense percussive music)
(Cheeky squeaking)
In the barn, Cheeky lives his life on a beam
six and a half feet high.
And to think that the mouse's vision is blurred
and he's aware of very few details.
He compensates with his tail and his whiskers,
very sensitive tactile organs,
and he has a powerful sense of smell
that helps him find his bearings.
(serene music)
If he could see further than the end of his nose,
he would see that a mouse is making a break for it.
Where is he going?
It's a mystery.
(mouse squeaking)
(crickets chirping)
If this intrepid mouse is going so far from his nest,
it's because he's hungry.
To eat, he's ready for anything.
(owl screeching)
The owl is too.
But let us return to the mouse
who doesn't have the characteristic trait
of making provisions, which forces him
to search for food when he is a little peckish.
A mouse weighing 30 grams eats
between three and five grams per day.
That's a lot.
At the end of a successful search, the mouse eats the seed
which he usually shells before eating.
The mouse doesn't know that the barn owl is biding his time.
It's also called the death owl.
One might think that his face is mourning his prey.
Although his ears are hidden under a bed of feathers,
he has exceptionally acute hearing.
Even better, he has the discretion of a ghost.
In flight, you can't even hear the flutter of his wings.
(tense music)
(mouse squeaking)
(owl screeching)
(gentle music)
On a balmy summer night with the moon as the only witness,
a mouse caught off guard in the midst of a meal
goes from life to death.
(owl munching)
(Cheeky squeaking)
Let's rejoin Cheeky between the barn and the kitchen,
this place between the two worlds that he likes
because it's rich in all kinds of material.
(Cheeky squeaking)
It's five o'clock in the morning,
the hour when Cheeky chews the cardboard
which is in for a hard time of it.
There's a reason for this, it's physiological.
In mice, incisor teeth grow all their lives
which explains their need to use them.
Gnawing in this compulsive manner keeps the teeth sharp.
(inquisitive music)
These gnawing sounds haven't fallen on deaf ears
except that Marcelle is on the wrong side of the wall.
This scamp of a mouse is annoying.
The next morning, the field alongside the house
is a beautiful sight to behold.
(inquisitive music)
On fine summer days for a domesticated cat like Marcelle
who spends all year living in an apartment in town,
the temptation of the great outdoors is strong.
Letting him out awakens his senses.
So he explores, he observes, or he hunts.
Marcelle tracks down field mice,
rodents a bit bigger than the gray mouse but more lively.
And he watches up to the moment
where the unexpected makes a deafening appearance
in the form of an agricultural machine
which starts to cut the grass.
Poor Marcelle, whose hopes for field mice recede
as the tractor approaches.
(serene music)
In fact, the tractor is a godsend.
Soon the ground will be littered with seeds.
The rodents will be more and more numerous
and more easily spotted.
The problem is that the neighborhood is frequented
by farm cats or domestic cats who have returned to the wild,
competitors capable of killing 10 rodents per day.
In the meantime, Marcelle is hot.
He needs to be a bit more patient
before the field mice hunting begins.
It's eight p.m.
The gas is burning under the simmering saucepan.
(tense music)
Soon there will also be trouble simmering in the kitchen.
Cheeky's fault, this little hairy two-colored creature
has launched into an exciting expedition.
Cheeky uses a crazy amount of energy
and his heart is put to work.
The heart rate of a mouse is very fast
with an average of 500 to 600 beats per minute.
That's five times faster than that of a cat.
On this worktop, the mouse is having a cake
and eating it, as we say,
and indeed, there's also cake for dessert.
Isn't he cute, this nibbling Cheeky?
Isn't he lovely when he removes the crumbs from his fur?
In children's fairytales or cartoons,
isn't it the mouse that attracts more sympathy
than the big bad cat?
Popular imagery has made the mouse a mischievous character.
In reality, they're much worse.
If they are hunted, it's because of the food they destroy
and the diseases they can transmit to man
so don't be surprised if Cheeky causes shock and anger.
(alarm ringing)
(woman screaming) (tense music)
Cheeky has found a way of escaping the broom,
but as soon as the sun goes down,
the big maneuvers will begin.
(tense music)
From today, Marcelle the cat is joined in his fight
by the lady of the house, and all hell will break lose.
She chops, she chops again and again.
She does too much, but it's due to the annoyance
with this Cheeky that she wants to catch
by means of a spring-loaded trap called a mousetrap.
(trap clicks)
From sticky bands to poison paste,
lots of ways exist to kill a rodent, not to mention a cat.
For beginners, the mousetrap is the favorite.
Still, it's important to choose the right bait.
If it's too big, the mouse can nibble it
without triggering the diabolic mechanism of the trap.
(Marcelle purring)
True to his reputation as a big gourmand,
Marcelle is more interested in food
than the preparations for the battle.
(tense music)
(light switch clicks)
It's five to midnight when we find Cheeky,
his destiny in his hands.
If he goes to the barn, he will join the gray mice.
If he goes to the kitchen, it's going to be a sad story.
Let's continue the suppositions.
If Cheeky eats, he dies, unless...
With just the right amount of greed and caution,
the mouse foils the trap, taking advantage
of the inexperience of the lady of the house
who doesn't do things by heart.
At half past midnight, Cheeky goes back to his world.
He has had a good meal.
(birds chirping) (cockerel crowing)
At first light, a beautiful day dawns on the countryside.
(cockerel crowing)
The lady of the house hopes for a new day,
imagining the mouse caught in the trap.
(woman groans)
(trap clicks) (woman screams)
(bird chirping)
(inquisitive music)
Let's leave the lady of the house to her pain
and observe the face-off engaged in
by this brave Marcelle and Tweety the canary.
We cannot trust Marcelle, whose predator instinct,
despite a few failures, can arise at any moment.
Spying in this way, Marcelle sees
in Tweety the canary a prey.
His eyes do not deceive him.
As domesticated as he is,
Marcelle has kept his wild animal reflexes
and Tweety owes his life to the cage that's protecting him.
Forgetting his sudden aggression,
he's now attacking his grooming.
(inquisitive music)
Cat grooming isn't only aesthetic or hygienic.
With his rough tongue and his saliva,
the cat deodorizes his fur and skin
which allows him to hunt without his odor giving him away.
Basically, the mice had better watch out.
For now, they are milling about quietly in the mess
and the dust, ignoring the danger.
The Mus musculus don't know
that Marcelle has a formidable anti-mouse weapon:
cat pee.
Since his arrival in the countryside,
Marcelle has projected jets of urine to mark his territory.
This kind of behavior has caught
the attention of scientists.
They have discovered that cat pee contains an odor molecule,
the L-felinine, which has an effect on mice.
First surprise, a young mouse exposed
to the urine is marked for life by its odor.
In adulthood, it will be less cautious
and easier to capture.
Second surprise, with females,
this molecule can stop pregnancy
and reduce the number of litters.
Catching Cheeky with cat pee isn't enough,
as Marcelle knows first-hand.
(birds chirping)
In the late afternoon as the river runs quietly
below the house, a little event takes place
at the water's edge.
(serene music)
For the first time during the holidays,
Rita the cat is going out.
At the river under the responsibility of her owner,
she watches her kittens discover the great outdoors.
(playful music)
Rita is a little stressed, contrary to the kittens.
Through fun exploration, they learn agility.
They learn to move and smell,
all useful qualities for future hunters of prey.
After half an hour of exercise, we return home
but continue to play the game of predation.
A kitten raised by the baby bottle
and in an apartment can become a good hunter,
as long as it's educated.
The apprenticeship begins with games.
(inquisitive music)
While playing, the kitten is on the lookout.
He leaps, he tracks, he reproduces the behavior of catching.
For the predation, the mother is the appointed teacher
of the kittens.
Soon she will bring dead mice for them to touch.
Then she'll return with live prey
and one day they will learn to kill.
Around the age of three months,
they will play with their prey as they would with a ball,
playing the game of cat and mouse.
(owl screeching)
With a worrying cry, the white owl
pierces the calm of the night.
However, tonight is not his night.
This full-moon night will be the night of the hunter.
(tense music)
Marcelle doesn't go to the barn by chance.
When hunting, he takes a favored path.
He tends to return to the scene of old captures.
Neither Cheeky nor this little gray mouse are aware
of the danger that lies in wait for them.
If they imagine that the darkness protects them,
they are mistaken.
In the darkness, the cat adjusts his vision
thanks to his retina which can adapt
to a very faint light,
whereas the human eye can see only black.
He is at home in the nighttime.
At night, he knows that his prey is more active
than in the day.
He knows that they are less cautious
because they think it's safe.
Finding refuge in his nest, which is inside a cardboard box,
the mouse is cutting his teeth.
With mice, if the head can pass through,
the body will follow.
The little nibbler leaves his box.
Cheeky goes into his.
This box of wool is a stroke of luck and a hiding place.
Has he sensed the danger?
(dramatic music)
To escape the cat, the first reflex of the mouse is to flee.
The second reflex is to hide.
The third reflex, it's too late.
A wild cat kills to eat.
A cat like Marcelle plays with the life of a mouse.
This time, Marcelle gives the impression
of taking the hunt seriously.
He doesn't take his eyes off him.
How can the mouse get out of this one?
It's then that he activates the last chance mechanism.
To stay alive, he will freeze.
This process, triggered by fear,
has a name, tonic immobility.
He predicts that the predator whose senses remain on alert
can be distracted if its prey no longer moves.
Three minutes without moving, and the cat wanders off.
(gentle music)
Cheeky has seen nothing of this astonishing confrontation.
However, he will see everything
of the distressing incident that follows.
(dramatic music)
(mouse squeaking)
The tragic game of cat and mouse isn't over yet.
Cheeky sees Marcelle leave the barn,
his prey still alive in his mouth.
(crickets chirping)
The cat doesn't kill where other mice live.
That would only make them more suspicious
the next time around, so Marcelle takes him to the house
where the environment is safe
and he's hidden from rival predators.
(owl screeching)
(serene music)
The following day, it appears
that the sweet pleasures of life are back.
(woman humming)
The kitchen smells of cherry pie
and there's an odor of quiet happiness floating in the air.
Purring with pleasure, it looks like Marcelle
wants to grab his owner's attention.
Would he, by any chance, want to eat kibble?
No, it's nothing to do with kibbles.
It's said that a cat brings a dead mouse to his owner
as an offering or to prove to her
that she's totally useless at hunting.
(woman screaming)
The most plausible explanation is literally geographical.
It's in his feeding area, located in the kitchen,
that Marcelle has laid his prey
because it's there that he's used to eating his kibble.
(inquisitive music)
While Marcelle is busy with his bowl,
a mouse is on an outing.
He's left the barn, his secret lair,
and the perimeter of the house.
In the countryside, it's been known
for domestic mice to cover 500 yards
between two farms in search for food.
Our mouse won't go that far.
Nonetheless, his running off feels like a great adventure,
an adventure motivated by hunger.
This adventure in broad daylight
inconveniently exposes the mouse to danger.
(tense music)
(bird squawking)
The danger is in the air with this threatening buzzard
whose diet mainly consists of small rodents.
The mouse is therefore an ideal prey.
Luckily for him, the noisy tractor
puts the predator to flight.
As one danger goes away, another one with large wheels
suddenly materializes, a metal monster
that the farmer, Mr. Johnny, handles dexterously
whilst moving around a 500-kilo bale of hay.
(dramatic music)
It was a close call.
This field nearly became the field of despair.
Having come close to death twice,
the mouse nonetheless carries on his trip.
(inquisitive music)
While the sunlight slowly goes down,
he arrives at Mr. Johnny's farm.
The farm, for a mouse, is the place of all the foodstuffs,
not to say of all the dangers.
Here, a cat named Toffee rules supreme as a predator.
He's on top form for outdoor hunting.
(tense music)
What a bad idea that was for the mouse
to leave his cozy nest.
By escaping the great Toffee, the mouse has dodged a bullet.
He's going back home.
He's had such a perilous day.
With Mus musculus, life expectancy
is between one to three years.
This mouse very nearly got a much shorter one.
(mouse squeaking)
It's 11 p.m., calm prevails.
It's even more pleasant as it's rather rare these days.
(gentle piano music)
Soft music accompanies the owner of the house,
immersed in the reading of a great novel.
Her loyal Marcelle by her side,
that companion with a gentle look in his eyes
who's so much more than just a domestic animal.
Let's monitor Cheeky to make sure he's not misbehaving,
but that's not the case.
He's just leaving a wash, caution.
With Cheeky, leopards do not change their spots.
He's starting to chew on an electric cable to cut his teeth.
In the living room, the pages of the novel
which tell the story of the friendship between two men
are being flicked through,
a far cry from the relationship between Marcelle and Cheeky.
(owl screeching) (tense music)
(owl screeching)
The cry of the barn owl announces
the beginning of hostilities
as the mouse progresses in his destructive work
with one snap of the incisors.
(gentle piano music)
Page 47, Aunt Clara offers a rubber mouse to Lennie.
With Cheeky, we're miles away from this fictional novel,
but we're about to witness
an authentic dramatic turn of events.
(dramatic music)
(electricity buzzing)
(lights clicking)
The mouse blows the fuses.
(woman screaming)
This is the crucial moment
when the lady of the house is looking for the fuse box.
Here comes the eagerly awaited moment
when the lights come back on, the moment when,
inevitably, there is electricity in the air.
(woman screams)
(inquisitive music)
In the dead of night, Cheeky runs off,
leaving the lady of the house alone
with her resentment and a grudge.
(birds chirping) (bell clanging)
After the nocturnal confusion,
there follows a day full of upheaval.
(dramatic music)
The lady of the house has decided to exterminate the mice
using her 100% DIY trap which should send Cheeky falling
to the bottom of the bucket.
- [Woman] Marcelle.
Marcelle?
- [Narrator] The lady of the house can forget it.
Marcelle's gone looking for adventure across the fields
where Mr. Johnnie's big mower has just passed.
Marcelle is going through a field mouse phase
and all the conditions are auspicious,
clear grounds and no other cat in sight.
Marcelle gives a searching look around
with his vertical pupil,
the sort of pupil which shuts itself in broad light,
sparing him from being dazzled
and helping him make out details in broad daylight.
Needless to say that the first field mouse
he'll encounter will be in trouble.
(tense music)
But a bad surprise is on its way.
A common kestrel, with its shrieking cry.
There is a jewel in the sunlight
as the kestrel, common in the countryside,
hunts the same ground as Marcelle.
Kestrel also feed on mice.
After several long minutes checking out his opponent,
the city cat on holiday in the countryside
throws in the towel to the kestrel who's stronger than him.
The kestrel has the land to himself
and when he spots the mouse, he pounces on his prey.
(tense music)
Poor Marcelle, it becomes touching
that he's so consistently unlucky.
It's painful to see him leave empty-handed
but we know that a bowl of kibble awaits him at home.
(crickets chirping)
(owl screeching)
(inquisitive music)
In the middle of the night,
Cheeky is faced with the temptation trap.
Looking at it under the spotlight,
we ask ourselves who's going to win,
the Cheeky who is cautious
or the Cheeky who gives in to his greed?
Following frequent trips which involve much procrastination,
the verdict is announced.
(dramatic music)
Cheeky ends up falling for the trap.
(Cheeky squeaking)
The situation of the mouse is critical
and Marcelle arrives on the scene.
It just needs a blow of the paw and one bite
to finally finish this adventure.
(trap components clattering)
(Cheeky squeaking) (inquisitive music)
Surprised by the noise of the bucket,
the clumsy Marcelle runs away
so the mouse, miraculously freed, heads towards the pantry.
With Cheeky, this is an unmistakable sign
that he's in the pink.
(birds chirping)
Cheeky sleeps soundly while the morning mist
descends upon the countryside.
(serene music)
The perfect harmony between animals and nature
can be witnessed in this field where a herd of cows
finds itself feeding on abundant vegetation.
(cows mooing)
There's something for everyone here.
There is rich grass for the bull,
branches full of leaves for the cows,
and a touch of motherly love for the calf.
In unison with this charming pastoral scene,
we find ourselves in our country house at breakfast time.
Here, the animals enjoy being fed at home.
(kibble clattering)
The priceless Marcelle, a terrible glutton, has decreed
that the cat is never better served than by himself.
As for the lady of the house, she cuts,
she cuts again and again.
There will be toast for everyone.
And there are crumbs for Cheeky.
This mischievous mouse has finally found an adoptive family.
Even if it means brushing with danger,
he also finds contentment in this house.
(lively music)
(fork boinging)
(nose honking)
The story that we've just told you
is more real than life itself.
♪ Because she gets to fill ♪
- [Narrator] And what if, in real life,
the story ended as a fable?
♪ You will always ♪
- [Narrator] Let's dream a little.
♪ Ding dong dell ♪
- [Narrator] What if the cat made peace with the mouse?
And what if Marcelle accepted
that Cheeky would tickle his feet?
(fork boinging)
(nose honking)
♪ Ding dong ♪
- [Narrator] Let's imagine that the predator
and his prey became friends
and that they stopped their frenzied pursuits
for playful pranks.
(dramatic music)
(cat screeches)
With what ifs, we could set the animal world to rights.
With what ifs, Cheeky and Marcelle would live
in peace and harmony, but for how long?
(lively music)
(bright playful music)