Directed by Will Sharpe, this is a biopic of that late Victorian guy who painted pictures of cats, with Benedict Cumberbatch shining in the lead role. Before seeing the film my thumbnail understanding of Louis Wain's life was that he painted pictures of cats and then went mad, with there being some debate as to whether his mental 
deterioration can be traced in the development of his art style (some of the cat pictures are completely bananas but it is not clear that he painted them after the more conventional ones). The film throws in a couple of other sad facts about his life, revealing first that he scandalised his family by marrying his sisters' governess (wonderfully played by Claire Foy) but was then parted from her prematurely when she died of cancer. Also one of his sisters also goes mad (before his own breakdown); as presented in the film you get the sense that oddness ran in the family, with his more sensible elder sister (played by the always wonderful Andrea Riseborough) coming across as someone permanently putting on her game face to present as normal.
And yet, it is a far less miserable film than that potted summary of Wain's life suggests. He has his ups and downs and yes he does end up permanently institutionalised, but following a fundraising appeal by his admirers he is brought to a nice asylum where he gets to both keep a pet cat and paint away to his heart's content. There are worse ways of passing your days.
images:
Louis Wain cat art (Wikipedia)
A human, a cat, and another human (Screen Rant: "The Real Meaning Of The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain's Title Explained")
My cat pictures (Flickr)
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