Le Pacte des Loups just sounds better doesn’t it? Well, at least it makes it sound fancy. The Brotherhood of the Wolf is a fantastic blend of several genres and this edition trumps the previous release, but if you imported the Canadian 3 disc set in 2002 then you’re familiar with this set. If you didn’t - then bon appetite.
Our tale begins during the French Revolution and an aged man is writing his memoirs as the mob is raging outside. He must finish his tale before his life ends at the hands of those that would eat cake.
We flash back to 1765 when Gregoire de Fronsac (Samuel Le Bihan) and his Mohican companion Mani (Mark Dacascos) are sent to the village of Gevaudan by King Louis XV to investigate a mysterious beast that is ravaging the countryside. The local militia has slaughtered many wolves but nothing has the bite radius that Fronsac divines that the beast must have.
Fronsac meets the local nobility and immediately falls in love with Marianne de Morangias (Emilie Dequenne). Marianne’s brother, Jean-Francois (Vincent Cassel) lost his arm on safari in Africa. Fronsac continues to stay in the area and hunt the beast but he and Mani also find different sport in the local brothel and Fronsac makes the acquaintance of Sylvia (Monica Bellucci).
The hunt goes on and the beast is still elusive. The king tires of waiting as he’s under political pressure from a book about the beast that compares the monster to his reign. He sends his weapons master to kill the monster but he just kills an ordinary wolf and has Fronsac work his taxidermy magic to fashion a more monstrous animal.
To the king, the case is closed and is sent on an African adventure to keep him out of the way. He’s approached by the young Marquis d’Apcher (Jeremine Renier), a noblemen and friend from Gevaudan, to tell him that the beast is still ravaging the countryside. He doesn’t want to return, but a romantic note from Marianne, who dismissed him when she found out about Sylvia, makes him return. He’s more interested in romancing Marianne until the beast nearly kills her and he realizes that he must put an end to this terror before more lives are lost.
Brotherhood of the Wolf, of Le Pacete des Loups if you want to sound highfalutin, is a mixture of several different genres that produces quite a nice concoction. It’s a French period piece, a marital arts film, a thriller, a horror movie, a monster movie, political intrigue, and even some elements of a Sherlockian mystery.
This version is the 150-minute director’s cut (the theatrical cut ran 142 minutes) and the problem with the film is that it feels a bit long. However, there are so many interesting things and elements flashing across the screen that you can forgive the time that it takes the film to unspool.
In some ways the film has a slight steampunk feel to it, though we don’t see much “out of time” technology. A word of caution though, avoid the English dub on the disc as some of the voices just don’t seem right coming out of the character’s mouths. I really didn’t like Fronsac’s English dubber and found the French track (with subtitles) more appealing.
The film was released by Universal in 2002 and only featured 40 minutes of deleted scenes. The Canadians got a delightful three-disc edition that featured some grand documentaries and many other nice features. This new release adds some of those fine special features for the Americans (if you didn’t import the Canadian version) but others don’t make it across the border.
What does make it is that the U.S. version had a stronger picture and this set replicates that while adding a selection of those special features.
Brotherhood of the Wolf is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Disc one features the 40 minutes of deleted scenes, with introductions by director Christophe Gans, and the 2-minute theatrical trailer. What doesn’t come across the border on this release was the two commentary tracks (one by Gans and the other by actors Cassel and Le Bihan) but both were in French with no subtitles.
I would’ve been happier if some effort in subtitling those commentaries would’ve been put in than just jettisoning them. Disc two features two massive making of documentaries, The Guts of the Beast (78 minutes) and “Documentary” (78 minutes). Naturalist Michel Louis speaks for 17 minutes on the real legend of the beast of Gevaudan and there are also 25 minutes of storyboards. Methinks the Canadian release had some galleries that also don’t make it to this release.
My only question was “where’s the Blu-ray?” This new edition is worth seeking out if you didn’t import the more expansive Canadian edition. It’s really the of both worlds, which features the better quality U.S. transfer (the Canadian one looked a bit lighter than the U.S. if memory serves) and the grand feature-length documentaries. I suppose that I still have to learn French if I want to hear the commentaries, but fans will want to snatch up this release.
Brotherhood of the Wolf (Director’s Cut) is now available at Amazon . As of yet, this version of the DVD is not available in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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