Based on a true story, two men are sent by the King of France not long before the French Revolution to the countryside of Gevaudan to investigate a mysterious beast that is hunting down and killing women and children by the score. The two men - a court biologist named Grégoire de Fronsac (Samuel le Bihan) and his American Indian blood brother Mani (Mark Dacascos) - find themselves caught up in all kinds of intrigue while in that area of the kingdom and, of course, try to track down the seldom glimpsed beast.
Special Agent Matti
It's long but it's exquisite. Brotherhood of the wolf is a visual feast of costume, location, mise en scène and characters. It's like all you can eat day at Pizza Hut: you stay far too long and you eat far too much but you'll do it all again next week.
The story meanders its way through the French countryside in such a way that you feel the lassitude of the people who inhabit it. Well, the rich people, anyway, but they're the only ones who matter. Unfortunately, such an inducement does not make for good cinema-going, which requires (for the most part) the audience to be lifted above their boring, little lives. Which is not to say that Brotherhood of the wolf is a bad film, just that it takes a long time to do its thing.
MA 15+ (Medium level violence)
142 minutes (2:22 hours)
Film: 28 November 2002
