Father Geek here with 2 reviews of the long awaited Le Pacte des loups, or THE BROTHERHOOD OF WOLVES. These are from two of our longtime Euro-reviewers that have been covering the Festivals on the continent for us for quite a while now. I'm especially excited about this film because it features the editing of David Wu who edited such great action stuff as A BETTER TOMORROW 1,2,and 3; PEKING OPERA BLUES; CHINESE GHOST STORY; HARD BOILED; THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR 1 and 2; BULLET IN THE HEAD; and THE BRIDE OF CHUCKY to only name a few. But enough of ol' Father Geek and on to Edgard and this special report...
Hello there, Edgard here... as we have been telling
you for a long time now at Euro AICN, BROTHERHOOD OF
THE WOLVES should be the main event of the beginning
of 2001 in French cinema... high hopes were put on
this entertainment film... trailer look great... story
is intriguing... the film will be released on 31st
January here and I can't wait to see it... The
official press screening was yesterday, and here're
two more reviews of it, from our usual writers
Grozilla and Champagne 2000 (remember they cover last
year's Festival de Cannes for Euro AICN). From what I
can read BROTHERHOOD is not a perfect film, it seems
to have flaws in its rythmn and acting abilities...
still it looks like a very entertaining film anyway...
Good sign for popular French cinema ? I really hope
so... Here're Grozilla's review, followed by Champagne
2000 review (and forgive the English mistakes, I just
translated both text very quickly... I am at work and
was supposed to do more serious things)
Tata-tsiiin... here's a review of THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLVES that I just saw yesterday morning...
Well where can I start ? This film is difficult to report on. Is it because I 've waited too much or is it because I am a Starfix child, the magazine created by Gans ?
(NOTE from Edgard : Starfix was in the 80's a very popular movie magazine among movie geeks; I was myself a big Starfix fan - Christophe Gans - director of THE BROTHERHOOD... - wrote excellent articles about genre films).
The fact is that I feel in-between about this film. Let's say it's half a failure and half a success.
Let's start by what's hurting in it : this film has the same problem than CRIMSON RIVERS, like Kassovitz, Gans tries to show at any cost that he can master the technical know-how. Except that you already knew that with CRYING FREEMAN. Then you end up with a first hour (the film runs for 2 hours and 22 minutes) really demonstrative and often repetitive (slow motion à la MATRIX, it's nice but after 15 times you get it well... same remark about the excessive sound); this is made to the prejudice of a real setting of the story - which is kind of good : who/what was behind the beast of Gévaudan, our really French urban legend from the 18th century ? This will take - like in CRIMSON RIVERS - some painful tunnels of explanations instead of something more narrative. The major problem being the total lack of actor direction. Those who are good - most of the second roles - get away with it; the rest mumbles painfully some not-so-good dialogues. The worst being Samuel Le Bihan, hero of the film, who has absolutely no presence or physical width to make you believe in his character, supposedly intellectual and licentious. Choosing a young and "new" actor was a total mistake; someone stronger and more "marked" physically would have been better. Especially when his side-kick is played by Mark Dacascos who has an incredible presence, very instinctive. Then after the first hour - not totally uninteresting, with beautiful scenes in the snow but spoiled because over-edited - you get an official explanation of the "thing", and then the movie really starts. In fact, as soon as the Beast appears the movie becomes a kind of huge non-stop action film. One hour and 20 minutes of pure adrenaline and scenaristic frenzy where you feel that Gans can at last express his love for the genre films. BROTHERHOOD... looks then like a kind of gothic film à la Mario Bava (with even a scene that reminds openly THE BODY AND THE WHIP) with a touch of Wu Xia Pian. Curiously the direction becomes more flexible and richer than in the first hour, which gives some bravery scenes like the attempt to trap the Beast, the attack lead by De Fronsac (Le Bihan) in the Beast hideout or the final duel with Vincent Cassel excellent as the bad guy. Even if it's a bit late the movie really takes off and goes really high, with the same intensity than in the final act of Michael Mann's LAST OF THE MOHICANS. Then it goes down like a soufflé for a stupid ending where only a Céline Dion song is missing on the credits.
I have to admit that I can't really say if Gans succeeded or not with this film. All what he said he wanted to show is really there, it's an adventure movie, something new but also a real popular film. Maybe he should have worked more on the first part, especially with the actors (the more I think about it, the more I think Le Bihan is a very bad choice). More important, BROTHERHOOD... shows we have a real director who just made a daring film in the actual French production. Now we need to see how the public will react. Especially that after the press screening (totally full, 200 persons could not have access), no one was really enthusiastic on the film. But I should get back later in January with more info after I interview Gans...
And to finish on a totally different topic, today was the Parisian press conference of Zemeckis and Hanks for CAST AWAY. Nothing really interesting was said, except maybe that Zemeckis was clear on one point : for him, there'll be no BACK TO THE FUTURE 4...
Grozilla®
****************
Hello everyone, Champagne 2000 reporting...
As you must know by now, the year 2001 will be a year where French genre films will make their come back in the movie theatres (meaning that French cinema should no more be synonym with total boredom). We can for example already count on a new version of "Tom Thumb" (the first images remind SLEEPY HOLLOW) or a "cool" Vampire film ("Les Morsures de l'Aube" - literally "The dawn's bites"). But the most awaited film is certainly THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLVES.
This film takes place in 1766 and follows Grégoire de Fronsac (Samuel Le Bihan), a young naturalist who goes to Gévaudan, a region where a mysterious creature is killing many villagers (this film is inspired by a "real" story, where 130 persons were killed mysteriously). The Beast is described as an extraordinary huge wolf and the young naturalist is ordered by the King to make a portrait of it. In his mission, De Fronsac is accompanied by Mani (Marc Dacascos - Crying Freeman), an Indian who can communicate with Nature... That's the story.
With this film, director Christophe Gans (Crying Freeman) wishes to go back to the great tradition of historical entertainment French films but also including modern references like western (Sergio Leone), martial arts (Philip Kwok - from HARD BOILED fame - made the fights; and David Wu - John Woo's editor - did a part of the editing here) and video games. That was for the presentation, let's take now a look at the film itself.
Christophe Gans promised us a quality entertainment film and he delivered a.... quality entertainment film. The heroes are charismatic (those who still think of Marc Dacascos as the one from DOUBLE DRAGON might be surprised as his performance here in the Indian role is probably the best of the film) and the settings are beautiful (the film costs a lot for a French production - 25 millions $ - but you feel like every centime is on screen). Like any good action film, BROTHERHOOD... has plenty of good fights. Although the first one is a bit disappointing : Mani protects against several men a couple of villagers just by using a wood stick. The fights takes place under the rain and in the mud - with an impressive shot of Mani using his stick to get in the air, in an horizontal position and kicking each of his adversaries. This fight lasts only one minute in the film, but was supposed to last 8 minutes in the first cut of the film, which is maybe why it doesn't look so successful here. On the other hand the second fight is really a pleasure. Again it's with Mani, facing this time 2 mercenaries - looking like the barbarians from Mad Max 2 - using weapons that reminded me of the claws of Serval. As I don't want to spoil the pleasure of watching the film, I will stop here concerning the fights. Just one last thing to get you excited : a weapon from the game SoulCalibur is used in the film and the last fight of BROTHERHOOD... seems taken directly from a video game (you almost feel like looking for the control pad).
As for the Beast itself (made by the Jim Henson Creature Shop), let's just say it's quite credible - not over or under exposed. It's shown when it needs to, and it's not when it doesn't need to. About the genre mixing, the western and martial arts mix well in the general atmosphere of the film, but I felt like the video game influence had more difficulties to mix in (especially concerning some visual choices). After the positive points (very good quality of interpretation, very good fights, credible creature,...) let's look at some negative points. The movie has a tendency of scatter itself. You go from the hunt for the Beast to a period painting, to the hero's love story then to his relation with his Indian friend; the result being the movie lasts for 2 hours and 22 minutes (which seemed to me a bit long). It's a bit like if BROTHERHOOD... had its eyes bigger than the stomach, like if it tried to talk about too many things at once. Even if the romantic scenes are really nice you wonder of their interest in the story (the hero wants to make his life with a young and pure beauty, still he gets in bed with the same whore every evening !).
Despite these little reserves about the rhythm and some scenaristic choices, BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLVES is a great entertainment film, a movie original and daring enough to make you forget about its weaknesses right the way.
A bientôt
Champagne 2000
