The Time of the Wolf (2003)
Also known as "Le Temps du Loup (France), Wolfzeit (Germany)"
a poetic vision of society stopped dead in its tracks
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Béatrice Dalle, Patrice Chéreau, Rona Hartner, Maurice Bénichou, Olivier Gourmet, Brigitte Roüan, Lucas Biscombe, Hakim Taleb, Anaïs Demoustier, Serge Riaboukine, Marilyne Even, Florence Loiret-Caille, Brano Samarouski, Daniel Duval, Thierry Van Wervecke, Michaël Abiteboul, Pierre Berriau, Costel Cascaval, Luminita Gheorghiu, Franck Gourlat, François Hauteserre, Maria Hofstätter, Valérie Moreau, Claude Singeot, Ina Strnad, Adriana Trandafir
Director: Michael Haneke
Running Time: 113 minutes
US MPAA rating: RUK BBFC rating: 15
Drama
On DVD Michael Haneke has built himself a reputation for making films that are uncompromising ('Funny Games', 'The Piano Teacher'), and even the opening credits of 'The Time of the Wolf' reflect a refusal to make any concessions to the conventions of commercial cinema. Far from being big, loud and brassy, or even elegantly classical, the film's credits are written in squintily tiny white letters on an otherwise black screen, accompanied only by silence. This starkly minimalist opening sets exactly the right tone for a bleak, harrowing film which has no musical soundtrack at all, and involves many scenes shot in near darkness or thick mists.
Georges (Daniel Duval), Anna (Isabelle Huppert), and their children Eva (Anaïs Demoustier) and Ben (Lucas Biscombe) - a typical bourgeois family - arrive at their holiday house in the woods, only to find that another family has taken up residence there. Within the space of a few minutes, Georges has been shot dead, their car and supplies seized, and Anna and the children have been forced out into the night to fend for themselves. In the darkness they find unfriendly locals, dead livestock, and a larcenous teenager (Hakim Taleb), before joining a fragile group of people holed up in a station in the hope that a train may pass through bringing salvation.
Post-apocalyptic films are a dime a dozen (e.g. the 'Mad Max' franchise,
DVD Extras: Scene selection; choice of 2.0/5.1 surround; optional English subtitles; 'making of feature' (20min, subtitled), featuring behind-the-scenes footage and thoughtful interviews with Isabelle Huppert, Michael Haneke and Anaïs Demoustier; 'Cannes featurette' (7min, subtitled) showing Béatrice Dalle, Haneke, Maurice Benichou and Demoustier promoting the film at Cannes 2003, with Haneke commenting "it's always nicer to work on a Haneke film than to watch one"; trailer (subtitled); bios (with tiny writing) of Haneke, Huppert, Patrice Chéreau and Dalle.
It's Got: Naturalistically low-key acting, poetically sparse visuals, dystopian despair, a shockingly realistic image of a horse having its throat cut, and humanity seen in the worst light (in more ways than one).
It Needs: Probably one to put aside if you want your spirits raised.
Alternatives: 'Stalker', 'The Sacrifice', 'A Boy and his Dog', 'The Grapes of Death'
Summary: With neither science-fiction nor action elements, the dystopian world presented by 'The Time of the Wolf', for all its disrupted services, isolation and anarchy, is otherwise uncomfortably close to our own world today, and exposes the darker side of our humanity. Confronting, austere, and with a fireside climax that represents the grimmest brand of optimism, this is a poetic vision of society stopped dead in its tracks.
Review Date: 16th November 2003
External Links
Official Web Site
The Time of the Wolf at the IMDB
Comments2 Comments |
| I liked your review and I'm terribly encouraged that someone else noticed this picture's slight, occasional, but most definite resemblance to "The Grapes of Death." Good call. |
| Comment by:- G. Kenny | | 03 March 2004 | ip: logged |
| saw this one two days ago. still a bit haunted by it. it was very nice, although not haneke's best. still worth getting on dvd. |
| Comment by:- mattia | mattia.seulcontretous.com... | 28 May 2004 | ip: logged |
