Mani, Gregoire de Fronsac, Sylvia, Jean-Francois Morangias, Marquis d'Apcher, Marianne de Morangias
Where to start with a film like Brotherhood of the Wolf? Would the fact that I own three different copies (the French version, the director's cut, and the original American version) be enough? How about French gypsies, an Italian double agent, and the onset of the French Revolution? What about sweeping shots of the south of France or the slow motion martial arts battles or the real life husband and wife duo of Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel? All are huge elements in making the film viewable to say the very least, but these are not the reasons why I chose to do this review (which does very little justice to the film). The movie covers a very vital period in French history in which Louis XV ruled France in Versailles with powdered whig and fake mole-covered face. Somewhat recently, the history channel aired a special on the true story that inspired the film. It was made several years after the movie, and the fact that the special makes no mention of the movie is rather shocking, especially since the movie received so many rave reviews. I was lucky enough to catch it on its opening night in the United States back in early 2001.
The movie follows Louis XV's court-appointed Naturalist Gregoire de Fronsac (French actor Samuel Le Bihan) and his Native American sidekick, Mani (Mark Dacascos). Fronsac is renowned for his extreme intellenct, his reasoning skills, and his libertine tendencies. He and Mani are sent to the desolate region of Gevaudan to investigate the recent killings by a beast of some sort, which locals believe to be a wolf. Fronsac dazzles the Gevaudan bourgoise with his stories of New France (Canada) in the French and Indian War (where he came across Mani). While hearing about all the horrors of the beast's killings, Fronsac makes the acquiantance of Marianne de Morangias (Emilie Dequenne), who's as proper and prudish as she is young and beautiful. She's already caught wind of Fronsac's reputation as a libertine and remains on her guard at all times. Their relationship in one with flirtatious tendencies and their banter channels the word games worked so well between Liz Taylor and Richard Burton in Cleopatra.
Mani, an Huron Indian, comes off as Fronsac's exotic pet to the Gevaudan upper crust such as Marianne de Morangias, her snooty parents, her brother Jean-Francois (Vincent Cassel), local priest Henri Sardis, and new Fronsac comrade the Marquis Thomas d'Apcher. On a routine wolf hunt, Fronsac seeks the hand of Marianne while Mani forlornly watches as his fellow animal spirits, the local wolf population, are picked off one by one as scapegoats for the killings. Meanwhile, the beast continues to mame and murder its prey, and only the Naturalist and the Indian know that the slayer in no wolf.
Jean-Francois, a stuck-up hunter who lost his arm inside the angry jaws of an African lion, grows irritable around Fronsac, as he's found to be very protective of his sister, Marianne. Jean-Francois is a fine shot with custom-made firearm and the signature silver pellets fired from it. He and the local magistrate, Laffont, do all they can to disprove Fronsac's this-was-no-wolf-attack theories, playing their best Devil's advocate with a searing vengeance. And when Marianne grows tired of Fronsac's charm and wit as well, the Naturalist and his Huron accompany the Marquis d'Apcher to the local brothel. It's there that Fronsac comes across Jean-Francois's favorite lady, the mysterious and alluring Sylvia, a French-speaking Florentine Italian holidaying in Gevaudan to make a few francs and to pose nude for the impressive-illustrated notebook of Fronsac.
Fronsac is slowly falling in love with Marianne, but he frequently beds Sylvia in a soul mate/confidant sort of relationship. We assume they constantly engage in sexual relations, though we only see the deed once. Sylvia has her odd ways of making love all right, all corset and mask and dagger. But apparently, Fronsac likes that sort of thing and Sylvia soon picks up on his growing infatuation with Marianne. Sylvia and Marianne are the yin and yang of the story, one virgin-like and pure while the other constantly sells her body, one which director Christophe Gans (Silent Hill) turns very artistically into a sweeping shot of snow-capped mountains.
As Fronsac grows closer to the truth behind the Gevaudan killings, the more dangerous life in the simple French region becomes for him. Somebody knows something but nobody is telling him anything. Fronsac, Mani, and Marquis d'Apcher stick together like glue and eventually go on the hunt, wounding the beast that they finally lay their eyes upon. But Jean-Francois, Laffont, and a grimy band of French gypsies make life for the crusading threesome tough-going. The story grows more complex as more complex characters come into play, and seemingly, all maintain their own conflicting agendas - resulting in a shocking and applaudable climax.
Brotherhood of the Wolf is a one of kind movie. I've looked far and wide for another like it, even somewhat, because it is by far my favorite sort of movie (even though it's regrettably, like I said, one of a kind). The characters are authentic and colorful, as are their rich costumes. When it comes to Fronsac, Jean-Francois, and Sylvia, there's more than meets the eye and a captive audience will indeed come across this before the final credits role. Regrettably, there's not enough story left by the end of the movie for a sequel. And Silent Hill was a cool movie, but Christophe Gans for some reason hasn't dared to tackle another Brotherhood-type flick. Watch Brotherhood of the Wolf. Many times. You'll find that the only thing wrong with it is that once you've seen it, you've seen it - and you'll never see anything else like it again.
It sounds great--sort of epic and dreamlike. I feel like this was discussed before somewhere, but then again it might have been something that was talked about a lot at work when it was released. I haven't seen it, but I'll put it on my list.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely do that. It's one of a kind. Yeah, it was kind of a big deal when it came out. It did so well in Europe that it actually came to the theatres in the US, which rarely ever happens.
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