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by Jennifer Alpeche Published: September 17, 2002
"Convictions can make men blind and drive them mad. They can devour their hearts and transform them into beasts.” Based on a true story, “Le Pacte des Loups” (“Brotherhood of the Wolf”) explores an eighteenth-century French legend: the Beast of Gevauden. First seen in 1764, the “beast” took the lives of more than 100 people in the span of one year and left the rest of the province in perpetual fear. Into this darkness, two strangers arrive to see about the beast: naturalist and taxidermist, Gregoire de Fronsac (Samuel Bihan) and his Native American friend and spiritual brother, Mani (Mark Dascascos). Sent by the king, their royal mission was to preserve the beast after its capture and return it to Paris, where the king would put it on display. However, before anyone could think about capture, the beast first had to be found -- a feat no one had been able to do for well over a year. Was it supernatural beast or wild wolf? The only evidence of its existence were its victims and their bodies told an extraordinary story. Fronsac would note that the beast’s jaws were that of a 500-pound animal and no one wolf could make such wounds. Although skeptical at first, he becomes convinced that the beast was not a wild wolf, but rather something else -- once natural, now corrupted by man. The hunt for the beast (and later its master) occupies much of “Le Pacte des Loups,” but there are other subplots to keep track of, including Fronsac’s love for Marianne de Morangias (Emilie Dequenne); Mani and his kinship to Nature; Marianne's brother, Jean-Francois de Morangias (Vincent Cassel), and his challenges to, and his jealousy of, Fronsac; and the mysterious courtesan, Sylvia (Monica Belucci), who seems to know more about Gevauden’s situation than anyone else. There's also a revenge story, Henri Sardis (Jean-Francois Stevenin), and the secret society referenced in the flm’s title. All of these threads are meant to tie together, but in the end there’s just too much. “Le Pacte des Loups” shifts from a hunt to a romance to a history lesson. It is a horror film, as well as a werewolf film, a mystery, and a martial-arts film. Although the fight scenes and weaponry used in the film are inspired by the martial-arts genre and Marc Dascascos’ scenes in particular are well done, the film has too many shifts in style and tone. I found myself frustrated that it refused to stay in any one moment. That being said, it’s not all bad. For one, its cinematography is very beautiful. The location shots are impressive and the set pieces were well designed and realized. In the deleted scenes, director Christophe Gans comments on the making of “Les Pacte des Loups.” Like with any film, there were some problems along the way concerning budget, permits, time constraints, and editing. He admits that the film had many subplots to deal with and while editing, decisions had to be made on whether they were going to emphasize action or romance, spectacle or drama. Hearing that Gans and his crew struggled with these decisions was helpful. The deleted-scenes portion is rather conprehensive. It runs about 40 minutes and Gans focuses (in French with English subtitles) on five specific scenes, but he manages to relate them to the filmmaking process as a whole. The first scene is the fight scene, which introduces us to Fronsac and Mani. In the film, we see Mani come to the rescue of a young woman and her father. He fights her attackers and does so easily. While he fights, Fronsac sits atop his horse and watches, only to dismount later to return a stolen pouch to the old man. In the deleted scene however, we find that this scene was actually much longer and in the original, Fronsac fights as well. The scene, unedited, is about 4 minutes and 20 seconds. Gans explains that they trimmed the scene because it was too long and that he didn’t want to take the audience out of the film so early. He didn’t want to confuse them or distance them from the film’s main plot: the beast of Gevauden. Gans also explains that the original concept for Fronsac and Mani’s introduction was to take place on the Pont Neuf in Paris. They were to chase down some bad guys and ultimately have a showdown where we would see one of the themes of the film played out: forces of light allied with the forces of Nature can defeat the forces of darkness. But the scene was too complicated and so they came up with the famous fight scene in the rain. Gans explains that the rain was artificial and the filming took several days. The fight scene in its entirety, is a good one to watch -- although I agree that it is quite long. Other deleted scenes focus on how Mani communicates with the natural world; Sardis and his influence over the Morangias family, as well as the way he used the beast of Gevauden to support his religious beliefs; a secret meeting between Fronsac and Marianne on a fog-shrouded lake; and a bordello sequence that further established Sylvia’s power and knowledge. Like with the first scene, Gans explains that these scenes were cut for various reasons, including pacing, character consistency, and time. The secret meeting between Fronsac and Marianne, for instance, would have given the audience a better understanding of their love, but Gans decided to remove it because of pacing. Although he notes that some would have liked to have see the love story developed more, Gans needed to make a decision about where the film was going and once made, he had to go with it completely. As noted above, I had a few problems with the film because some things seemed unresolved or underdeveloped. The love story between Fronsac and Marianne is one of them and it’s interesting to hear Gans talk about it. My problem is that in the film, Marianne doesn’t get to share many moments with Fronsac and yet when he returns to Gevauden, she is ready to run away with him. Although it is clear that she wishes to escape her family, I still think that a few, brief additional scenes between Fronsac and Marianne would have better established their connection. Perhaps her desire to leave her family combined with her instant attraction to Fronsac, was seen as enough to support their love. Yet the time he spends with Sylvia makes him seem unworthy of Marianne’s love -- even though he is described from the beginning as a libertine. Perhaps a minor complaint, but storytelling bumps like this made the film stop, start and stall for me. Also included in the DVD are production notes, which can be clicked through. There are five screens worth of notes, offering information on the story’s background, the true existence of the characters, “scape-wolves,” and the weapons used and choreography seen. Brief bios and filmographies of select members of the cast and filmmakers are also included. We can read about Samuel Bihan, Vincent Cassel, Emile Dequenne, Monica Bellucci, Jeremie Renier, Mark Dascascos, and Christophe Gans. The theatrical trailer can also be watched. At the IMDb, the film is categorized as: action, horror, fantasy, adventure, more. Indeed, “Le Pacte des Loups” is difficult to size up. Perhaps that’s part of its appeal to some, but for myself, I wanted to see more structure and better storytelling. You can see its potential. At 2 hours and 24 minutes, it is a long film with many twists. It’s not easy to keep everything straight or to stop yourself from asking questions that might make it worse. It’s an ambitious film that falls short of its mark. However, with Halloween around the corner, “Le Pacte des Loups” is being released at the perfect time. I recommend it for holiday viewing and the joy of DVD allows us to skip the lesser parts and replay the better ones. It can be watched in French or with a well-done English dub. I myself enjoyed it best with the subtitles. Again, the film has a beautiful look and is overall watchable -- so long as you don’t try to follow the story too closely. Overall rating: C+ for the film, B- for the DVD. Available on October 1, 2002. |
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