The Company of Wolves
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Company of Wolves | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Neil Jordan |
| Produced by | Chris Brown Stephen Woolley |
| Written by | Angela Carter Neil Jordan |
| Starring | Sarah Patterson Angela Lansbury Stephen Rea David Warner |
| Music by | George Fenton |
| Cinematography | Bryan Loftus |
| Distributed by | ITC Cannon (US) |
| Release date(s) |  15 September 1984 (premiere at TIFF) September 21, 1984 19 April 1985 |
| Running time | 95 mins. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2,000,000 (estimated) |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Company of Wolves is a 1984 fantasy-horror film directed by Neil Jordan, and starring Sarah Patterson and Angela Lansbury.
The film is based on the werewolf stories in Angela Carter's short story collection The Bloody Chamber ("The Company of Wolves", "Wolf-Alice" and "The Werewolf"). Carter herself co-wrote the screenplay with director Neil Jordan.
Carter's first draft of the screenplay, which contains some differences from the finished film, has been published in her anthology The Curious Room (1996).
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
The film concerns an adolescent girl named Rosaleen. The story is set almost entirely within her dreams. She imagines herself as a Red Riding Hood analog, encountering dangerous wolves and sexually charged werewolves who threaten the safety of her fairytale village.
At several points within her dream, Rosaleen either tells or is told fairytale-like stories about werewolves, witches and the Devil.
The film emphasises the psychological and sexual allegory that underlies fairy tales and the werewolf myth. The stories that Rosaleen hears and the creatures that she encounters represent the frightening but empowering onset of puberty.
[edit] Criticism
Feminist critic Maggie Anwell decries the film for its over-emphasis on bloody werewolf special effects,[1] but another, Charlotte Crofts, argues that the film is a sensitive adaptation of Carter's reworking of Charles Perrault's Little Red Riding Hood fairytale.[2]
[edit] Trivia
- Due to budgetary constraints and other factors, most of the 'wolves' shown in the film are Belgian Shepherd Dogs, mainly Terveurens and Groenendals.
- The use of lycanthropy as a metaphor for an adolescent girl's burgeoning sexuality is also used in the film Ginger Snaps.
- Goth icon Danielle Dax appears in the film in a non-speaking role as the "wolf-girl."
[edit] References
- ^ Anwell, Maggie (1988), ‘Lolita Meets the Werewolf: The Company of Wolves’ in Lorraine Gamman and Margaret Marshment (eds), The Female Gaze: Women as Viewers of Popular Culture, London: Women’s Press, pp. 76-85.
- ^ Crofts, Charlotte (1999), ‘Curiously Downbeat Hybrid or Radical Retelling?: Neil Jordan’s and Angela Carter’s The Company of Wolves’ in Cartmell, Hunter, Kaye and Whelehan (eds), Sisterhoods Across the Literature / Media Divide (London and Sterling, Virginia: Pluto Press), pp 48-63; Crofts, Charlotte (2003), Anagrams of Desire: Angela Carter's Writing for Radio, Film and Television (Manchester University Press).
[edit] External links
- The Company of Wolves at the Internet Movie Database
- The Company of Wolves at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Company of Wolves at Screenonline
- A fanpage analysing the themes of The Company of Wolves
- The Company of Wolves Fanlisting
- In the Company of Neil Jordan (Interview with Neil Jordan on the making of The Company of Wolves from the L.A. Weekly) by Michael Dare
