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Brotherhood of the Wolf | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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n the eve of the Reign of Terror, an aging chevalier writes of the bizarre events that brought him to this pass: the fateful season in 1764, the season of the Beast.
Something, it seemed, was stalking the villagers of Gévaudan—an unseen horror that ravaged women and children and left their broken bodies in the mud. King Louis XV, distracted by the war against the English in New France, dispatched two men to investigate these crimes and rid the countryside of this affront to his royal sovereignty.
When the strangers arrive, they are set upon by local peasants who mistake them for bandits. With a display of heretofore unseen martial arts, the two strangers readily disarm the villagers. Later, they are taken to the home of the elderly Marquis D'Apcher (Jérémie Renier), where their true mission is revealed.
The men—the world-weary botanist and scientist Gregoire de Fronsac (Le Bihan) and his mysterious Iroquois companion, Mani (Dacascos)—explain their mission: to find and, if possible, destroy the beast. The men are introduced to local nobility, which includes the beautiful and spirited Marianne de Morangias (Dequenne) and her one-armed brother, Jean-Francois (Cassel), scions of the region's most powerful family.
The courtiers believe the beast is a monstrous wolf and resist Fronsac's efforts to uncover the truth. Mani, attuned to the rhythms of nature and his wolf brethren, knows that the beast is not something of this Earth. Winter comes, and the attacks continue. Fronsac seeks solace in the arms of the mysterious courtesan Sylvia (Bellucci), an Italian expatriate with a murky past.
Impatient for results, the king dispatches a second emissary, Antoine de Beauterne (Johan Leysen), who mounts a massive hunt to ferret out the creature. When they capture a large wolf, it is sent back to Paris in triumph, case closed. But both Fronsac and Mani doubt that the matter ends so simply—and set out on their own to discover the secret of the Beast of Gévaudan.
This monster hit mashes genres
Based loosely on the historical legend of the Beast of Gévaudan—which rampaged through rural France and killed more than 100 people two centuries ago—Brotherhood of the Wolf represents a new kind of French film. A huge hit in its native France, Wolf energetically smashes together genres and stirs them up with a raft of cinematic techniques, surprising viewers at every turn with a story that is at once original, sensual, graphically violent and luridly preposterous.
The film echoes everything from The Matrix and Jaws to Sleepy Hollow and Quills. Clocking it at nearly three hours, Wolf has a little something for everyone. There's the kung-fu spectacle in the rain, fought between combatants in greatcoats and tricornered hats (with fight choreography by Hong Kong stunt coordinator Philip Kwok). There's velvety palace intrigue and high political crimes and misdemeanors, played out in candlelit chambers. There's bodice-ripping romance against a Maxfield Parrish backdrop, as well as decidedly non-American sensuality. There's stomach-churning horror wrought by a monster from a splatter movie, complete with milky-white corpses and buckets of blood—not to mention a beast designed by Jim Henson's Creature Shop.
For anyone who expects a French movie to feature a languid pace and genteel cinematography, Wolf also surprises. Director Christophe Gans, clearly a fan of American and Hong Kong movies, employs every technique he can muster, from wire stunts and Matrix-y slow motion to quick cuts, lap dissolves, flying camera moves and the rest. The sound feels harsh and extremely amplified, as if it were heard by a wolf. The lighting is starkly dramatic, almost expressionistic.
Against all this, the comely actors never seem overwhelmed by the moviemaking. French heartthrobs Le Bihan and Dequenne generate some nice sparks, as do Le Bihan and the voluptuous Bellucci. Dacascos, best known to American audiences for his role in The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, kicks butt and broods convincingly.
If anything, Wolf is a little too much of everything, and not focused enough to make a whole lot of sense. A viewer who allows his attention to lapse will lose track of the elaborate thread of conspiracy woven through this blood-stained tapestry. And it's easy to let the mind wander as the movie at times meanders from one explosive sequence to the next. — Patrick
Also in this issue:
Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers and
Mad Max Special Edition DVD
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