Dan Laustsen - Brotherhood of the Wolf
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Dan Laustsen - Brotherhood of the Wolf |
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You can jump directly to these sections : The Story , Behind the Camera , Premiere , Subtitles? , The Actors , The Director , The Illustrator , Stuff to buy , Pictures . | |
I hope nobody will get confused when I refer to the movie as Pacte - I've known it by that
title for so long that it stuck. Pacte des loups,original French titleInternational title : Brotherhood of the Wolf. The official website for Pacte des loup is in French - but don't let that discourage you from enjoying the movie clips, wallpapers and screensaver. The StoryPacte takes place in France in 1766 and is based on a true story. The Beast of Gevaudan killled more than 100 women and children in Southern France - but no males above the age of sixteen ......In the film, the French king sends Chevalier Grégoire De Fronsac, who is an explorer, biologist, taxidermist and philosopher to Gevaudan to sketch the animal and prepare it once it's been killed. Fronsac is accompanied by his bloodbrother, the Iroquois indian Mani (played by American Mark Dacascos, known from cult favorite Crying Freeman). Fronsac met Mani in America during the indian wars. They lodge with Comte D'Apcher, and his grandson Thomas guides them around in the area - both outdoors and indoors. Fronsac falls in love with the young noblewoman Marianne de Morangias, but still he can't keep away from the mysterious courtesan Sylvie - who might be more than she looks? Fronsac has to fight the beast - but also ignorance, blind faith and conspiracies. Behind the CameraThe film is directed by Christophe Gans, who is a big fan of Hong Kong action movies, and John Woo is clearly one of his idols. Gans picked DL to film Pacte after seeing his work in Mimic and Nightwatch. He's said "Sa lumière absolument stupéfiante participait largement à leur originalité" - their absolutely astounding light played a big part in their originality.DL about the shoot : "The complexity of the project, the sets, and Christophe's extreme ambition in regard to the visual expression, made it a real challenge to the DP. I tried to get light with a contrast of very dense shadow. It was necessary to give the movie a twilight look to underline that we are witnessing the end of an epoch. I wanted the viewer to have a feeling of light in perpetual motion, even if it came from just candles. It gives a gravity, a mystique, a mood that fits exactly the vision Christophe has of the genre." PremiereThe movie premiered on January 31st, 2001 in Paris, and has since spread slowly across the world. First to French-speaking countries, and eventually to others. Danish premiere was November 16th, and Germany will be some time in 2002.Premiere in the US was January 11th, 2002, in a limited release, and January 25th for an unlimited release. Universal Focus has been promoting it on MTV during Real Live Request, VH1, and during NYPD Blues and ER. It has also been on IMDB's main page. Check further release dates on IMDB. Subtitles, dubbed or ?At one point, there were rumors that the movie was being made in both French and English, but that rumor was untrue. Another rumor was that it was going to be dubbed using CGI, but that would have been prohibitively expensive - also false. Pacte turned up in its original language with subtitles most places, though the Germans will see a dubbed version, and probably the Italians will too. The UK and US got a dual-language DVD.It may be thanks to the success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" that Universal will show an action movie with subtitles. Perhaps thanks are also due Jean Reno. His success in the US may have lured some American fans into seeing Les Rivières Pourpres (Crimson Rivers) with subtitles. And Amélie has further accustomed the Americans to French movies. The ActorsSamuel le Bihan - meaning "little" in Breton - plays Grégoire de Fronsac, the intrepid man of many talents. Le Bihan has been in several movies, among them "Three Colors: Red", Captain Conan and Venus Beauty Institute. He can play the charming fool and the menacing tough guy equally well, and Gans considers him a candidate for new French action hero.Born in 1965. French fansite, Dolores' American fansite. More details about his movies on IMDB . Mark Dacascos plays Iroquois indian Mani, a shaman. Mark Dacascos had an experience different from the other actors. He could really understand Mani's "fish out of water" feeling since he himself was experiencing much the same - being the only American actor in the group. Also, while the rest of the actors could take off their costumes, make-up and wigs and be themselves over the weekend, Dacascos had his eyebrows shaved somewhat and didn't use a wig, but hair extensions, and had his tattoos touched up over the weekend, so Dacascos REALLY lived with his role for six months. Dacascos has worked with Gans before, playing the lead in Crying Freeman, which unfortunately has never been released in the US. Dacascos has starred in a bunch of action movies, and also in the tv series, "Crow: Stairway to Heaven". Born 23 February, 1964, in Hawaii More details about his movies on IMDB. Official Mark Dacascos website, American fansite, German fansite in German, English and French, Danish fansite in English Like Dacascos, Laustsen also experienced the "fish out of water" feeling, working with a mainly French crew without speaking any French himself - I don't think he shaved his eyebrows though ;-). Vincent Cassel plays Jean-François de Morangias. Played the co-lead with Reno in Crimson Rivers. Was also in La Haine(1995), Dobermann(1996), L'Appartement(1996) and many other movies. He was set to play Bob Morane in Gans' next movie, The Adventurer, but bowed out. Born 23 November 1966 in Paris. More details about his movies on IMDB . Official Vincent Cassel website, vcfansite - in English, Casselonline Monica Bellucci plays Sylvia. She started out as a model, but has also made a number of movies. I first saw her in 1991 when she played one of Dracula's three brides in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Most recently, she's been in Malèna, and the Asterix movie, Playing queen Cleopatra, and she is in Matrix Reloaded Born 30 September 1968 in Citta di Castello Perugia, Italy. monicabellucci.it More details about her movies on IMDB . Emilie Dequenne plays Marianne de Morangias. Dequenne won gold palms for best female role at Cannes in 1999 for her role in Rosetta. For Rosetta, she also won the CFCA and the Joseph Plateau award and was nominated for the Cécar and the European film award . Born 29 august, 1981 in Beloeil, Belgium. fansite More details about her movies on IMDB . Jérémie Rénier plays young Thomas D'Apcher. Réniér has been in a lot of films, but then, he started at the tender age of ten. He got his break in La Promesse, and among others, he's made Les Amants Criminels and Le Pornographe. He was born in Brussels, Belgium, January 6, 1981. official site More details about his movies on IMDB . The DirectorChristophe Gans is a big movie lover, and with friends, he started his own movie magazine, Starfix. He was editor in chief from 1983 to 1986, and after stepping down, he continued to contribute to the magazine.In 1993 he made a third of Necronomicon, and in 1995 his first full length movie, Crying Freeman. Between Crying Freeman and Pacte des Loup, he worked on a movie about the young Captain Nemo, but in the end, the project was never realised. When CanalPlus offered him the script for Pacte, he jumped at it at once. Born 1960 in Antibes, France. More about Gans. The IllustratorMathieu Lauffray also worked with Gans on the Nemo project. In his own right, he's a well-known illustrator of covers for Star Wars books, comics and he's made some comics albums himself. In the movie, Fronsac's sketches and water colors are made by Lauffray. Here are a few more examples of Lauffray's work .Things to buy ....Learn about the many different DVD versions.There are both one-, two-, three- and four-disc versions! But alas, none of them has subtitles on the two commentary tracks. A soundtrack is also available - get it NOW! The music is by American Joseph LoDuca, who also made the music for Sam Raimi's three Evil Dead films, as well as the music for the two tv series Hercules and Xena. France and Germany also got a novelization, written by French mystery author Pierre Pelot. |
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Pictures from the movie : |
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 D'Apcher and Fronsac |
 Fronsac and Mani |
 Mani |
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 Sylvie |
 Morangias |
 Marianne |
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 The Cave |
 A Victim |
 The Hunt |
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 Goatherds in the snow |
 Fronsac kneeling |
 First battle |
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 Marianne and Grégoire |
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