Last Updated on 5 January 2026 by Vanessa
Most cats are couch potatoes that love to watch Netflix with their humans. But some felines are such cinephiles that they prefer to spend all of their time at the film archives.
This is the case of Mr. Glouton, the cat of the Cinémathèque de Toulouse in France.
Meet Mr. Glouton, the cat from the Cinémathèque de Toulouse
In February, I was a guest at the Extrême Cinéma film festival in Toulouse, France, where I got to program and introduce some of the vampire films featured in my book Strange Blood: 71 Essays on Offbeat and Underrated Vampire Movies.
Going to film festivals is always a fun experience, but it becomes even more fun when the cinema has a cat.
In the case of Extrême Cinéma, the main location was the Cinémathèque de Toulouse. And the cat was Mr. Glouton.
How Mr. Glouton became the “resident feline” of the Cinémathèque de Toulouse
Glouton (his name is the French word for “voracious”) doesn’t actually belong to the Cinémathèque de Toulouse.
The first time he showed up, a little over a year ago now, the employees of the Cinémathèque noticed he had a collar containing the message, “Hi, my name is Mr. Glouton, and I live at 7 rue des Lois. If I happen to be too far away from this address, you can call 06…..”
The cat loves to visit all sorts of different restaurants and bars in the neighborhood, but the Cinémathèque is his favorite place of all.
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Days at the film archives
“Glouton usually arrives when we open the doors at 09:00 am, and he stays there until it closes,” says Frédéric Thibaut from the Cinémathèque de Toulouse.
“No need to look for him in the evening, by the way, because he knows when we’re closing. We’re sensing that he would love to stay, but we can’t agree to that as he would otherwise set off the alarm.”
His habit is starting each “working day” with a visit to the kitchen to check if his food and water bowls are full. He then tours the offices (to say hello?) and looks for a place to sleep.
If it’s cold, he goes to the library and settles into a chair. If it’s warmer, he goes down into the hallway and curls up on one of the red upholstered benches.
Favorite of both staff and audience
Every staff member of the Cinémathèque de Toulouse is obsessed with Mr. Glouton. It’s surprising how EVERY conversation, no matter what it’s about, eventually leads to a story about this cat.
And there are more than enough stories to tell…
Read next => Meet the feline “employee” of the Book Buyers Library in Charlotte
Earlier this year, Mr. Glouton surprised everyone by bringing a giant mouse inside the Cinémathèque.
“It was right before a screening,” remembers Frédéric Thibaut. “Mr. Glouton had put the mouse right near the entrance, where everyone passes to buy tickets. He then ‘played’ a little with it in the yard before it fell through a drain. He was so disappointed. But not a single visitor flinched or said something bad about Mr. Glouton.”
The audience is used to this cat, and as long as Mr. Glouton is happy, the audience is happy as well.
More famous than the movie stars
Mr. Glouton was also the main attraction during the open-air screenings, and several filmmakers and actors who have visited the Cinémathèque have posed for pictures together with their new favorite feline.
He might even be responsible for some of the Cinémathèque’s programming.
The latest edition of the film festival Extrême Cinéma, which took place at the Cinémathèque de Toulouse in February of 2020, opened with a cinematic concert to the 1927 movie The Cat and the Canary. I suspect that Mr. Glouton had something to do with the choice of that title.
Read next => These cats of Cannes turn more heads than the movie stars
Back home
Now that the Cinemathèque of Toulouse is temporarily closed due to the Corona crisis, Glouton is back home.
“We met his owner right before the confinement, and she couldn’t believe all the stories we had to tell about her cat,” says Frédéric Thibaut.
“And I have to admit that we all miss Mr. Glouton very much.”
Final thoughts
What do you think about Mr. Glouton? Would you go to the Cinémathèque de Toulouse in France just to visit him?
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the film festival and film archives of Toulouse, but Glouton made my stay a little extra special.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, and don’t forget to share this post with your friends, especially cat lovers!
Text and photos 1-4 by Vanessa Morgan / Photo 5 by Frederic Thibaut / Photos 6-9 by Damian Galli
