Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Brotherhood of the Wolf/Le Pacte des Loups (2001) - Impressive elements in ludicrous French period monster actioner

11/28/2022

Brotherhood of the Wolf/Le Pacte des Loups (2001) - Impressive elements in ludicrous French period monster actioner

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Some very curious, face-covering coats on this poster for Christophe Gans' Brotherhood of the Wolf may provoke involuntary smiles and laughs

In 18th century France a nobleman and a native American are sent by the king to a bleak countryside to investigate the mysterious killings of hundreds by a beast there...

Brotherhood of the Wolf is written by Stéphane Cabel (Le Concile de Pierre (2006)) and co-writer/director Christophe Gans (Crying Freeman (1995)). It is loosely based on a series of actual 18th century killings and the legend of the beast of Gévaudan. The original French title translates to 'the pact of the wolves'.

Monica Bellucci (Under Suspicion (2000)) looks enticing in black, and adds quality on her own here, and the film also has a good-looking monster and generally handsome production values. The rest is a round of very pompous nonsense and to me, more detrimentally, a hugely dull waste of resources.

Brotherhood of the Wolf vacillates between historical melodrama and state-of-the-art, fast-edited action scenes. It is an overlong mess.

Christophe Gans: Silent Hill (2006) - Gans' senseless, unfrightening adaptation

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 29 mil. $

Box office: 70.7 mil. $

= Minor flop (returned 2.43 times its cost)

[Brotherhood of the Wolf was released 31 January (Switzerland, France) and runs 142 minutes. Shooting took place in France around March 2000. The film opened #28 to a 100k $ first weekend in 37 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #16 and in 404 theaters (different weeks), grossing 11.2 mil. $ (15.8 % of the total gross), becoming the 6th highest-grossing French film there ever at the time. The marketing disguised the fact that it was not an English language film in order to attract bigger (young) crowds - with success. The film's biggest market was France with 24 mil. $ (33.9 %). It was also #1 for 2 weeks in Italy. The film won 1/4 César award nominations, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Gans returned with Silent Hill (2006). Samuel Le Bihan (La Place d'un Autre (1993)) returned in La Niut de Noces (2001, short), Pourquoi t'as Fait ça? (2001, short) and theatrically in He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not/À la Folie... Pas du Tout (2002); Mark Dacascos (Sanctuary (1998)) in Instinct to Kill (2001); and Bellucci in Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra/Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre (2002). Brotherhood of the Wolf is fresh at 73 % with a 6.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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11/28/2022

Brotherhood of the Wolf/Le Pacte des Loups (2001) - Impressive elements in ludicrous French period monster actioner

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