Brotherhood of the Wolf (Director’s Cut) – Studiocanal

Director: Christophe Gans
Screenplay: Stéphane Cabel, Christophe Gans
Starring: Samuel Le Bihan, Mark Dacascos, Jérémie Renier, Vincent Cassel, Émilie Dequenne, Monica Bellucci
Country: France
Running Time: 151 min
Year: 2001
BBFC Certificate: 15

In 2001, StudioCanal released Brotherhood of the Wolf unto the world, a period genre-movie hybrid, based on actual accounts from 18th Century France. On paper, this unusual blend of gothic horror, swashbuckler, martial-arts movie and bodice-ripping romance shouldn’t work. However, the film, directed by Christophe Gans, garnered largely positive reviews and proved to be a hit with audiences too, becoming one of the biggest international box office successes for a French film.

The film’s popularity was aided by the fact that there was a big boom of interest in stylishly shot movies featuring martial arts, following the huge success of The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and others. I was riding that wave too, back then, hoovering up any kung-fu-heavy films I could find, newly discovering a great love of the martial arts genre. So, of course, I caught The Brotherhood of the Wolf as soon as I could.

I enjoyed the film a lot back then but, for whatever reason, haven’t revisited it for a long time since those first couple of viewings. So, when StudioCanal announced they’d be re-releasing the film in its Director’s Cut, with a new 4K remastered print, I leapt at the chance to review it.

Brotherhood of the Wolf is set in the year 1764 (other than framing scenes set during the revolution) in the picturesque region of Gevaudan in France, where a series of brutal killings terrorizes the local population. A mysterious and deadly creature, resembling a giant wolf, is believed to be responsible for the carnage. As panic spreads, the king sends the renowned naturalist and taxidermist, Grégoire de Fronsac (Samuel Le Bihan), to investigate and eliminate the beast.

Accompanied by his loyal companion, Mani (Mark Dacascos), a Native American Iroquois, Fronsac arrives in Gevaudan, where he is immediately met with suspicion and resistance from the superstitious villagers. However, he soon befriends Jean-François (Jérémie Renier), the local Marquis d’Apcher, and also falls head over heals for the beautiful noblewoman Marianne (Émilie Dequenne). Fronsac attempts to woo her, much to the dismay of her father and brother Jean-François (Vincent Cassel), the latter of whom is a famed hunter who seems bitter and twisted due to losing his arm.

As Fronsac and Mani investigate the incidents around the area, they become inclined to believe that this ‘beast’ is far from the large wolf many claim it to be and it may, in fact, have a human owner controlling its actions. This idea is dismissed by most though, as the local dignitaries push on with the senseless slaughter of the local wolf population.

Meanwhile, Fronsac becomes bewitched by the enigmatic courtesan, Sylvia (Monica Bellucci). This, as you might imagine, causes some friction in the relationship he’s developed with Marianne. Sylvia’s intentions are not clear though and being with her causes Fronsac to experience some frightening dreams.

I don’t whether it’s just the fact that I’ve seen an awful lot more martial arts movies since I last saw Brotherhood of the Wolf or that I wasn’t in the right frame of mind when I rewatched it recently, but the film didn’t quite live up to my memory of it.

Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed Brotherhood of the Wolf. It’s a sumptuous and action-packed romp. However, a few seams appeared to be showing this time around.

Gans, in his commentary included on this disc, admits he prefers the first half of the film to the second. I’d agree with that. Whilst the action effectively ramps up towards the end, the storytelling becomes convoluted and some character shifts are less convincing. The first half keeps things simple and this works in its favour, because the film, in essence, is something best appreciated at surface value. It’s not a deep, thought-provoking affair. As such, the epic length of the film feels unwarranted, even if it can hardly be called slow.

Some of this might be attributed to the fact that the version I watched on this disc was the extended ‘director’s cut’. There are several different versions of the film and the details of these are too complicated to get into here and I don’t know the previous versions well enough to attempt to do a comparison justice. However, from what I can gather online, whilst this ‘complete version’ makes more narrative sense than most of the others, some of the added strands are pretty weak. Most notably, we get a flip-flopping relationship with Marienne that is woefully unconvincing. I think this was available in previous UK cuts but not in some of the theatrical ones elsewhere. The UK finally get the added scenes with the ‘Chief of the Hunt’ though. The plot had some holes without these, previously.

The visual style of the film both impresses and shows its age. The film looks undeniably gorgeous, with the mostly on-location settings lit and lensed beautifully, with a great sense of atmosphere. The production design matches this too, with lavish details and carefully chosen colours. Gans is clearly a devoted cinephile (which is backed up by his contributions to the extra features) who puts a lot of thought into his mis-en-scene, referencing a wide range of influences to create stunningly cinematic imagery.

However, it’s in some of the extra flourishes, largely in the editing, that the style hasn’t held up perfectly. In the action scenes, in particular, the editing is too frantic for my tastes. You can still follow what’s going on, but I’d much prefer a more held-back approach to properly soak in the skills of the great Mark Dacascos. Gans also has a tendency to over use speed-ramps (where the film shifts between fast, standard and slow-motion speeds). These were very popular in the early-2000s, after The Matrix made great use of them, but now they feel a bit faddish and distracting.

The action scenes are still quite impressive though. As mentioned, Dacascos is a pleasure to watch, being highly skilled in martial arts on top of generally having a magnetic presence. Samuel Le Bihan does a convincingly good job with his action scenes too. Philip Kwok’s choreography is remarkably good for a non-HK production, utilising a lot of acrobatic moves and weapon combat.

The beast, when it’s finally unveiled, is made up of a mixture of animatronics (done by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop) and CGI. The latter, again, shows its age, not always looking wholly convincing, but it’s not bad for an early-2000s non-Hollywood production. It must be pointed out though, that the effects had to be tweaked for the new restoration, so that they would stand up in 4k. I imagine it was mainly just the textures that were amended though, rather than the movement.

Overall then, Brotherhood of the Wolf, like its blend of genres, is a bit of a mixed bag. Exciting on one hand, yet a little overlong, visually stunning but dated-looking in spots too. On the whole though, the film is a handsome, rousing adventure that may be shallow but still manages to be a thoroughly entertaining watch.

Film:

The Brotherhood of the Wolf (Director’s Cut) is out on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, DVD and digital on 15th May in the UK, released by Studiocanal. Gans claims the previous Blu-ray releases were merely SD upscales, whereas this new 4k remaster was done using the original negatives. I don’t have the details or my own copies of other versions to clarify, but I can state that this new version (on the Blu-ray I’ve seen at least) looks magnificent. Colours are rich, details are pin sharp, yet it still has that sumptuous, natural shot-on-film look. I’ve used screengrabs throughout this review to give you an idea of what it looks like, though these compressed JPEGs don’t do it justice. The French soundtrack is available in Dolby Atmos, the English one only in 5.1. I opted for the French and it was, once again, beautifully realised.

Disc/package: