Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001)

Of wolves and men

In motion pictures, the wolf - the werewolf, in particular - is used to elicit terror. In Brotherhood of the Wolf (Le Pacte de loups), the wolf is represented in many forms. Director Christophe Gans might have been inspired by the classic novel Steppenwolf, where German author Herman Hasse considers the artists and intellectuals as outsiders of society, comparing them to the wolves of the steppes (plains). In Gans' flick, the members of the so-called brotherhood are outsiders of a different kind.

In the southwestern French region of Gevaudan during the mid-18th century, the inhabitants are cowering in fear of a beast that has killed more than a hundred people, mostly women and children, and under mysterious circumstances. Hunting groups are organized, but they remain futile because no one has an idea where it hides and they can't tell if it's a werewolf or a supernatural creature. The news puts authorities in Paris in an anxious state and prompts King Louis XV to send Gregoire de Fronsac, a young man whose scientific way of thinking penetrates the ignorance and horror that thicken the beast's enigmatic nature. Aided by his Indian companion Mani and the Marquis d'Apcher, a young aristocrat who has the same disposition as Fronsac, the hero discovers that the beast is, indeed, a wolf, but that it is controlled and used by a closely-knit group of privileged people for protecting their selfish interest.

Those who classify this feature under a single genre are wrong, as the movie is filled with symbolism that encompasses more than one category. First and foremost, the French filmmaker ensure that the audience's impression of the feared beast during the first hour is one of a four-legged but sharp-minded creature, but afterwards reveal that the source of fear is human in form. The story is set during the Enlightenment Era, when gradual changes in the various structures of Europe has not yet affected many rural areas: an illustration of it is most of the villagers are portrayed as stupid. Furthermore, the French countryside, which is usually shown as majestic and breathtaking, looks gloomy and menacing in this movie, reflecting the bigotry and backwardness of the inhabitants of Gevaudan.

At the top of the social strata is a small group of aristocrats led by a priest named Sardis and a crippled hunter named Jean Francois. Their class scorns the impending change and tries to block their world from it by means of the wolf's terror. The reason isn't hard to fathom: the peasant's sufferings ferment their wrath towards their affluent countrymen and threaten a structured order from which the upper class benefits most. They train the wolf to be a menace to save their own skin from a change that they foresee as catastrophic (everyone knows that it was the French Revolution).

Both Fronsac and Mani represents two different kinds of changes. The young hero's rationality is the most distinctive trait of the Enlightenment, which Gevaudan refuses to welcome with open arms. The Iroquois shaman and hunter, on the other hand, provides a different kind of light, as the impression of America, his land of origin, is more or less "in the dark" to many Europeans.

Two women also play key roles. First is Sylvia, courtesan who will baffle many moviegoers with her mysterious but dangerous charm: will she aid Fronsac or kill him? Is she a secret agent of the Vatican? Second is Madeleine, Jean Francois' younger sister and the lady for whom Fronsac falls. She is the only unblemished object amidst the negative landscape, and one might wonder if she represent what the Old World was before a revolution shattered it.

Brotherhood of the Wolf is jittery and hypnotic, deriving much from its rationalism versus superstition conflict (or progressive versus backward). Lighting and music are both expertly used to provide an apocalyptic setting, the highlight of which is a scene in the forest where Mani, scantily clad in his native attire and his face painted as a sign of protection and guidance from the spirits, confronts the beast. Unfortunately, the film loses steam when the Indian departs from the screen and one feels the shallowness afterwards. It's a new reality where Hollywood finally invades French Cinema, but Gans manages to merge cerebral viewing with superficial entertainment. Proof is the slow-motion action scenes, a trend set by The Matrix. There are other eye-catchers as well. Mark Dacascos, who is know for starring in B action movies, would make his critics eat their verbal jabs at him with his performance as Mani. Monica Bellucci, whom Giuseppe Tornatore made immaculately beautiful as a young boy's object of desire in Malena, would make heads turn again in her latest role as Sylvia.

The final scenes shown the old Marquis d'Apcher escorted out of his castle by bloodthirsty peasant who are eager to get even with their rich countrymen. The background music suggests of sentimentality, adding a nostalgic tone to the image of the wolf. What starts as a suspense/action ends as old-fashioned melodrama, resulting in an ambivalent picture, which lessens the film's scary impact. On the whole, director Gans takes viewers on a roller-coaster adventure, which is what many of us are looking for when entering a movie theater.

(First published in Daily Tribune on October 27, 2002)