Brotherhood of the Wolf: Collector's Edition [Blu-ray]

Director: Christophe Gans Christophe Gans

Overview

French legend has it that a creature known as the Beast of Gevaudan -- a huge, wolf-like monster -- was responsible for the violent deaths of over 100 persons in the mid-18th century, and this horror fantasy blends the lore of this fabled beast with a story of two men who set out to capture it. After a number of mutilated corpses begin appearing across the French countryside, naturalist Chevalier Gregoire de Fronsac (Samuel Le Bihan) is dispatched by the King to find and capture the animal responsible for the killings. Mani (Mark Dacascos), an Indian from Canada and an experienced hand in the wilds, is hired to assist de Fronsac in his work. Gregoire's assignment earns him the acquaintance of Marianne de Morangias (Emilie Dequenne), the lovely daughter of the idly wealthy Count de Morangias (Jean Yanne), but Gregoire receives a much chillier welcome from her brother Jean-Francois (Vincent Cassel), who, despite having lost an arm to a lion in Africa, is quite the huntsman himself. As Gregoire and Mani arrive in the village of Gevaudan, they're drawn to a local house of prostitution, where the animalistic allure and supernatural powers of Sylvia (Monica Bellucci) prove to have a profound effect on the naive Gregoire. Jim Henson's Creature Shop provided the special-effects expertise for the creation of the Beast of Gevaudan.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/27/2021
UPC:	0826663217964
Original Release:	2001
Rating:	R
Source:	Shout Factory
Language:	English
Time:	2:31:00
Sales rank:	20,074

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Samuel Le Bihan	Grégoire de Fronsac
Vincent Cassel	Jean-François de Morangias
Monica Bellucci	Sylvia
Mark Dacascos	Mani
Jean Yanne	Le Comte de Morangias
Jean-François Stévenin	Henri Sardis
Jacques Perrin	Thomas d'Apcher (Old)
Johan Leysen	Beauterne
Edith Scob	Mme de Morangias
Hans Meyer	Marquis d'Apcher
Christian Marc	Old Thomas' Servant
Karin Kristom	Bergere du Rocher
Philippe Nahon	Jean Chastel
Virginie Darmon	The Liar
Vincent Cespedes	Soldier
Jean-Paul Farre	Pere Georges
Pierre Lavit	Jacques
Eric Prat	Capitaine Duhamel
Bernard Farcy	Laffont
Michel Puterflam	Eveque de Mende
Jean-Loup Wolff	Duc de Moncan
Nicolas Vaude	Maxime des Forets
Max Delor	Old Noble
Christian Adam	Old Noble
Jean-Pierre Jackson	Noble Diner
Nicky Naude	La Felure
Daniel Herroin	Blondin
Gaelle Cohen	La Loutre
Virginie Arnaud	La Pintade
Charles Maquignon	Valet at Maison Teissier
Isabelle Le Nouvel	Brunette Prostitute
Albane Fioretti	Tessier Prostitute
Clarice Plasteig	Tessier Prostitute
Edit Cassou	Tessier Prostitute
Delphine Hivernet	Valentine
Juliette Lamboley	Cecile
Pierre Castagne	Cecile's Father
Gaspard Ulliel	Louis
Stephane Pioffet	Peasant
Eric Laffitte	Villager
Eric Delcourt	Camp Beauterne's Help
Andre Penvern	Buffon
Bernard Fresson	Mercier
Christelle Droy	Bergere Dollines
Andres Fuentes	Paysan Chaumiere
Nadine Marcovici	Jeanne
Jean-Claude Braquet	Pierre
David Bogino	Lanceur de Couteaux
Emmanuel Booz	Officer Bucher
François Hadji Lazaro	Machemort
Pascal Laugier	Machemort's Assistant
Émilie Dequenne	Marianne de Morangias,Actor
Jérémie Renier	Thomas d'Apcher
Nicky Naudé	La Fêlure
Frankie Pain	La Tessier,La Tessier
Francois Hadji-Lazaro	Machemort
Joseph LoDuca	Composer

Technical Credits

Christophe Gans

Stéphane Cabel

Valentine Tracelet

Claudine Strasser

Christophe Gans	Director,Screenwriter
Hal Bertram	Special Effects
Seb Caudron	Special Effects
Nathalie Cheron	Casting
Georges Demetrau	Special Effects
Richard Grandpierre	Producer
Samuel Hadida	Producer
Philip Kwok	Stunts
Brigitte Moidon	Casting
Bernard Savin Pascaud	Casting
Val Wardlaw	Special Effects
Jean-Paul Mugel	Sound/Sound Designer
Stéphane Cabel	Screenwriter
Katerina Mattingley	Executive Producer
Emmanuel Gateau	Producer
Christopher Anthony	Special Effects
Philippe Amouroux	Sound Effects
Nicolas Becker	Sound Effects,Sound/Sound Designer
Yannick Boulot	Sound Effects
Fabrice Conesa	Sound Effects
Colette Constantini	Sound Effects
Frédéric Alhinho	Stunts
Arthur Windus	Producer
Piers Hamptons	Producer
Antoine Simkine	Executive Producer
Valentine Tracelet	Screenwriter
Vincent Cespedes	Stunts
Virginie Arnaud	Stunts
Olivier Schneider	Stunts
Jean-Jacques Desplanque	Stunts
Emmanuel Lanzi	Stunts
Cyrille Hertel	Stunts
Didier Beddar	Stunts
Patrice Boutroux	Stunts
Joelle Balland	Stunts
Cyril Raffaelli	Stunts
Thierry Saelens	Stunts
Pascal Mercury	Stunts
Thierry Guerrib	Stunts
Jerome Colas	Stunts
Michael Troude	Stunts
Hugues Dalmagro	Stunts
Patrice Cossoneau	Stunts
Gaëlle Cohen	Stunts
Sebastien Peres	Stunts
Frederic Vallee	Stunts
Jean Bouello	Stunts
Claudine Strasser	Screenwriter
Mario Luraschi	Stunts
Alain Figlarz	Stunts
Catherine Robert	Stunts
Pascale Denizane	Stunts
Thierry Delhief	Stunts
Karim Hocini	Stunts
Stephane Orsolani	Stunts
Leslie Rain-Goranson	Stunts
Pascal Madura	Stunts
Leslie Shatz	Sound/Sound Designer
Patrick Dodd	Sound/Sound Designer
Cyril Holtz	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Take the dread and gore of a horror flick, add the flash and fury of Hong Kong action, dress it up in 18th-century French costumes, and the result is Brotherhood of the Wolf, a wildly original action film with a wicked bite. The story concerns a legend about a werewolf-like beast feeding on French countrymen and the crack team of specialists -- a naturalist (Samuel Le Bihan) and his kung fu-kicking Native American companion, (Marc Dacascos) -- who are ordered to find the elusive monster and end the bloodshed. As if the wolf weren't enough trouble, an alluring prostitute (Monica Bellucci) may prove to be involved, as may be a count's scary son (Vincent Cassel), who frowns upon his sister's (Emilie Dequenne) affair with our lone-ranger naturalist. Brotherhood easily rises above its genre siblings Blade and Resident Evil, not so much for its melodramatic story and bone-crunching action as for its genre-bending style and unrepentant flair. Like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon before it, the film takes aim at some old Hollywood myths: that good action flicks require major explosions, that good foreign-language films are all obscure, and that good costume dramas are all dull. Indeed, Brotherhood of the Wolf disproves all three.

Barnes & Noble - Tony Nigro

It may have too many costumes (and minutes of celluloid) for kung-fu fans, and too much action for the period piece crowd, but the French hit Le Pacte des Loups is a stylish visual exercise, full of gristle and vigor, by anyone's standards. In some ways the film Peter Hyams' The Musketeer could have been, in others resembling the gritty swordplay milieu of John McTiernan's The 13th Warrior, Christophe Gans' Brotherhood of the Wolf (as it is known in English) may best be categorized as a child of the post-Matrix era. With freeze-frame action that shifts abruptly in and out of slow motion, and a wandering camera that skims snow-swept hills and rainy forests, it's a restless film that convincingly applies space-age visuals to 18th century France. The plot strays from coherence on more than one occasion, structurally scattershot, but to the credit of screenwriters Gans and Stephane Cabel, most of the loose ends wrap up by the close. The virtuosity of the fisticuffs and swordplay, including some surprise weaponry and booby traps that seem more like big-budgeted Hollywood creations than products of French cinema, should please those looking for some fancy ass-kicking. Where Brotherhood of the Wolf stumbles a bit is in trying to straddle too many genres. It can't blend the standard scares of a monster movie with the quill pens of a costume drama and the roundhouse kicks of a Hong Kong actioner without seeming a little exhausted by the last of the 143 minutes. Still, it's difficult to watch the characters using various weapons to annihilate pumpkins, the pulp splattering hither and non, without cracking a grin at the audacious visual energy of it all.

All Movie Guide

The Brotherhood of the Wolf plays like an explosion at the genre factory.

Chicago Sun-Times - Roger Ebert

A little Sergio Leone here, a little Sleepy Hollow there, a grand helping of late royal-era Gaul with its wigs and finery, and, uh, martial arts-style confrontations galore are all deftly melded in Brotherhood of the Wolf. Lisa Nesselson

Variety

May be the most purely entertaining foreign-language crossover since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Lou Lumenick

New York Post