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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Le Pacte des Loups / Brotherhood of the Wolf

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

09:14 / 27.01.02

I saw this just tonight. French film, in sub-titles, about 2 hrs long.

I enjoyed it. It's got a good plot, plenty of surprises (none are too obvious, anyway), enjoyable characters. Takes place in mid-18th century france. Main characters are a French naturalist and an Iroquois/Mohawk Native American. You don't have to suspend disbelief very often, except for the giant 500 pound wolf and French naturalists using asian martial arts. But hey, the fight sequences are well done (there are plenty), and I was very impressed with the photography. All in all, it's well done, and easily worth seven or eight bucks to see.

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You'll get kinda confused when Mani, the Indian fella, whom I was led to believe was the main character, is killed not far from the end. You'll be more confused when the actual main character is killed a little later. But the plot works itself out, and the love story gets resolved, and everythings okay unless you count all the dead villagers and the dead Indian guy (which I didn't like. He was cool, in a warrior/shaman kinda way).
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Okay, I'm done. It's safe.

09:45 / 27.01.02

Feh. I saw this last night. Wasn't bowled over impressed. Wasn't out-and-out disappointed. Just middle of the road movie really. Interesting plot but the fight scenes, especially the hokey one with the hero and villain at the end, was just too much to bear. Ho hum.

SPOILER

What the hell was with that asinine bone-whip whatchamacallit that Jean Francois used in the end? Utterly took away from the already cheesily climactic fight scene. And the resurrection of the hero wasn't to my tastes. Pretty mediocre film all around.

Should've made the whole damn movie about the prostitute in my opinion. The Vatican's James Bond whore. Now she was worth watching.

[ 27-01-2002: Message edited by: Dekapot Mass ]

11:36 / 27.01.02

I thought this film really sucked.

Ludicrous, needless, badly filmed kung fu, cretinous storyline, zero historical realism, woeful attempts to be 'stylish', unbearably laddish, somewhat mysogynistic .. it was like watching a really bad video game.

Mister Remington Finn

17:30 / 28.01.02

I liked the flick very very much, although some parts were hard to swallow, I mean, martial artist native indians? tres strane. But the mve in my opinion gets away with it, and it has has high entertainment value. And as fas as 'videogames' movies goes, it beats Tombraider 9 rounds out of 7.
except it has Angela Jolie....sigh...hormones be silent

19:39 / 28.01.02

I thought that except being a subtitled French film, this was the ultimate guy movie.

My evidence?

Lots of violence.

Lots of blood and gore.

Lots of naked women.

A bit of romance, a bit of strategy, a bit of revenge. Politics that I could understand. And that whip sword was straight out of Soulicalibur.

19:47 / 30.01.02

the flick seems to fall apart in the third act...

The death of mani ws shocking, but then things got sorta lame...

Most especially that damned whip-bone-saw..um.. sword.

I thought the Indian martial Artist wasn't bad... aside from being Bad Ass, there is a sort of history for martial arts in the americas... sort of.

when the French guy started flipping around & throwing kicks that was pretty bad, At least give the guy a different fighting style.

I think that 500 pound wolf was actually supposed to be a lion raised from birth by the guy with one arm, and a bad manicure.

YES the best part of the film was the Pope's fortunetelling Whore/spy...
<drewl>maybe they'll make a sequal about her!!!</drewl>

Did enjoy the cinematography... especially that staff fighting scene in the rain, early one!!!

00:40 / 31.01.02

Just came from seeing this (for free! yes.) and described it to my roommates as Blade, but French. Johnny, don't know how you ever mistook who the 'main' character was - Mani had about six lines fer crissakes. Thought the whole thing was pretty foolish and transparent, but kinda liked Vincent Cassel. Had thought he was the good thing in Crimson Rivers and he wasn't bad here, despite a crap part.

Have to admit I liked the stupid chain/sword at the end - would have loved to have that when I played D&D around age 12.

00:42 / 31.01.02

Oh yeah - when Long Nails = Evil, I get a little grumpy. Such a stupid, stupid image.

13:36 / 31.01.02

quote:Originally posted by PATricky:
when the French guy started flipping around & throwing kicks that was pretty bad, At least give the guy a different fighting style.

I was wondering if this film was featuring savate, since it's French and they teach that in the French army and all.

13:40 / 31.01.02

This movie was completely retarded. It wasn't even a propper werewolf movie! The only two characters I thought were worth a damn was Mani and that Secret Agent Witch Hooker! I mean honestly, the movie really should have been about them. The plot (if you could call it that)was all over the place. It was waaaay too long for it's own good and could have used some good cutting. I almost walked out of this sucky movie (but youknow I was with people and didn't want to come across as, um, impulsive).

19:10 / 31.01.02

No Noticable Savat techniques...

The French Naturalist seems to have been trained how to fight by his Mohawk Blood brother...

19:35 / 31.01.02

quote:Originally posted by PATricky:
The French Naturalist seems to have been trained how to fight by his Mohawk Blood brother...

Who are well known to have been martial arts masters. Those injuns were deadly on wires!

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

09:44 / 01.02.02

quote:Originally posted by videodrome:
Johnny, don't know how you ever mistook who the 'main' character was - Mani had about six lines fer crissakes.

Yeah...maybe I just wanted him to be. He was a hell of a lot more interesting than the Naturalist.

18:38 / 01.02.02

Actually there is some presidence for Native Americans as martial artists...

More along the line of grappling if memory serves... a cary over from Mongolian wrestling perhaps...

No noticable wire work though... maybe for a leap or a staff stunt... but no standing on bending bamboo forests

06:30 / 29.03.02

Saw this last night in the cheapo theatre. Good news is, that it was a whole $2.50. The bad news, well, how much time have you got?

Anyways, I'll corroborate what alot of other posters already have said--pretty so-so. The thing that bugged me was the little things that made no sense. Like when the main character stealthily sneaks into the livery & shoots flaming arrows into the hay. Where the hell did the fire come from to light the arrows? Isn't it a little hard to be incognito when your carrying a torch? What'd he do--use flint & tinder on all 5 arrows?!? Or the scene with the shepardess & the lamb. Say you were hungry & desperate. Would you go for the helpless lamb that hasn't a snowball's chance in hell of escaping you or the grown human female (who's too big to eat for you anyways & might attack you). Since when do animals, like humans, pick off the stronger adversary?

And yes, the Secret Agent Witch Hooker should've been in the film more.

10:08 / 29.03.02

'Ludicrous, needless, badly filmed kung fu, cretinous storyline, zero historical realism, woeful attempts to be 'stylish', unbearably laddish, somewhat mysogynistic .. it was like watching a really bad video game. 'QUOTE

Aye, but it still pisses all over what Hollywood considers to be good action/fantasy fodder. I've been avidly watching last yeras French film crop, and I've got to say they put US films in the shade.
Take this example, Jet Li in Romeo Must Die, an appalling Hip Hop come Romeo and Juliet farce, containing badly stitched together action sequences, comapared to Kiss of the Dragon, Vavoom, stylish martial arts thriller, where style and character development cover a simplistic plot.

Brotherhood of the Wolf should be viewed as a comic book adaptation, rather than a foreign art house flick. I know its subtitled, but thats coz Dubbing is dumb, if you can read.

May I suggest Taxi and Taxi 2 for cars, action and comedy, in a flavor that Jackie Chan attempted in his movies.

13:59 / 29.03.02

I thought it rocked the house.

Every character was their own genre. It was like the cool bits of 6 different movies.

You've got a werewolf horror genre movie to start. Mani as "the mysterious foreigner" archetype pulls off both the native shaman and wusha hero archetypes. Its a story of the French Revolution, and a period piece full of courtly intrigue and a love story. Its a spy story, with agents form the Vatican and a tremendously hot mysterous superspy with a killer war fan who only shows you just how punk rock she is for a moment at the end. There's witchcraft and magic, of a sort. There's a monster. There's the evil from the darkest heart of Africa (also a staple genre convention). There are cool weapons right out of a video game. And the hero? He's all of it at once.

Its a genre smorgasborg! You've just got to be a fan of movies to appreciate what they did with it. I thought it was brilliant, for what it was: the coolest elements of every genre the director could pack into it. How can you go wrong with that?

16:37 / 29.03.02

You and I, Cusm, have got the same shaped head.

17:58 / 29.03.02

I saw this movie in the right mood. I think if I'd been feeling even slightly grumpy when I went in there I'd've despised it, but I was feeling all light hearted and fluffy and having a swell day, the movie flipped my suspension of disbelief switch into the on position and left it there. The whole thing was totally implausible to the point of being ludicrous, but goddamn, it was fun.

Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

13:53 / 03.04.02

"maybe they'll make a sequal about her!!!"

As an aside, it's probably worth noting that that actress is currently at work on Matrix Reloaded.

And I fucking loved this movie. It was beautiful and completely insane.

22:35 / 03.04.02

for anyone who's interested

00:30 / 04.04.02

And here's a link to the director's & Mani's interviews on BadazzMofo.com

03:34 / 04.04.02

Trimming. Yes. More trimming.

And a rewrite.

It kind of sagged in the middle and by the time the flick picked back up in the 3rd quarter, I found my interest flagging.

Still, worth the money if you're not paying full price. (i.e. video)

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I really liked that CG shot of the Spy's naked (yummy) body morphing into snow covered mountians.

Mister Remington Finn

15:43 / 08.04.02

If you liked The Brotherhood of the wolf, I mean with the french 'everone is corrupt' kinda feel to it, and want to see some strange editing go watch Vidocq.
It has depardieu in it, but the main things is, the whole movie was digitally recorded.....

Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

22:07 / 09.04.02

If I could find a place showing Vidocq, I'd be all over it. It looks fantastic. (and has Apocalyptica on the stdk, no?)

Mister Remington Finn

15:17 / 11.04.02

Indeed....so to be the ultimate Apocalyptica fan, lets hunt down the OS......see who gets there first...the vid...the dvd...the cd...

Mister Remington Finn

15:19 / 11.04.02

Indeed....so to be the ultimate Apocalyptica fan, lets hunt down the OS......see who gets there first...the vid...the dvd...the cd...

18:50 / 11.04.02

sigh. . .

05:02 / 08.10.02

Ehh. I thought it was far too long and for whatever charcter development was supposed to take place hindered the motion of the film. Personally, a decent editor could cut out about an hour of footage and still perserve the integrity of the film. To its credit, the movie had some amazing actions scenes, but they were few and far between.But aside from that i really didnt care for it.But my dissatisfaction to BOTW is probably due to my barbaric, linear, American mindset when it comes to film. Or not.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

08:49 / 08.10.02

I loved it... I saw it by accident last Halloween- I'd just been to see "The Man Who Wasn't There" and felt in a movie-seeing kind of mood, then realised that not only was it Halloween, it was a full moon! Werewolf movie it had to be.

Implausible? Fuck yes.

Damn good fun? Even fuck yesser.

11:57 / 08.10.02

Totally fantastic film. Excellent camera work, acting, fighting, blah. Nice mixture of French period piece with classy action sequences. Cinematography was sublime.

If anybody saw the dubbed, public release version, go and see the director's cut, which has another fourty minutes of film (taking it up to somewhere around three hours something). It just makes a whole lot more sense, instead of cutting from them in the area to them returning to the area, we see them go back to Paris, and get more background on the plot.

22:15 / 08.10.02

Might that version be on the DVD?

00:16 / 09.10.02

I think it's a seperate DVD. There's a normal release and a director's cut.

10:44 / 09.10.02

I have it on good authority that at least three versions of the film were shown around the globe - one for the French market, one for the English/American market and one for the rest of the universe.
Versions differ strikingly in terms of montage and actual plot - there's some scenes that some countries got and others did not.
I saw the "rest of the world" take and found it a pleasant enough fantasy, but little beyond that.
It would be interesting now to see what actually made it to DVD.
For the interested parties, the Vatican Spy/Whore/Fortune Teller is Italian actress/model Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassell's real life wife.
She can't act to save her life, but try googleing (or yahooing or whatever) her name and check the pics when you feel that sort of longing ;-P

13:08 / 09.10.02

Those looking after Monica Belluci will be eager to catch upon Gaspar Noe's, "fierce and realistic" last film Irreversible, starred by Belluci's real life husband and herself. Word has it the film "provoked outrage and disgust" at Cannes (see Gaspar Noe Defends 'Irreversible' Against Critic Outrage).

I haven't seen it yet, but if someone did and feels it deserves a thread, well, just do it.