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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.153.151.150
Posted on Monday, January 24, 2011 - 01:37 pm:   

Sorry - don't know why I'm using the Culture Corner thing; makes me sound like a supplement.
Also, this is a bit meandering...
But, hey ho;

Werewolves were in the air in the early eighties. Maybe they prompted this film, or at least prompted it's makers to approach the theme from a different angle. Also it was a time when American films were made in the UK (notably Star Wars), and a lot of UK indie filmmakers were ogling the juicy sets and wondering why they never got to do that. Company of Wolves was made in 1984, Neil Jordan and Angela Carter turning out a script in a fortnight in Dublin. Jordan had directed one film. It only just made its money back and did much better in Europe than the US, where a nervous distributor tried selling it as a straight horror piece. I remember Palace Pictures being quite a brave, bright production company and used to look forward to their films. Looking back I think this was the best thing they released and the best film Jordan made.

I watched it on our projector on Saturday night at midnight. My memory of the film originally that it had tried and sort of failed, was a meandering, meaningless thing. On Saturday I went into it almost afresh because I'd not seen it in around twenty years. When it finished watching it this night I think it became one of my favourite films. I was half asleep, almost dreaming perhaps, that stae that often either improves a film or puts you in tune with it, I can't decide.
I think Lord P recently accused the film of being up its own arse, but feel that's unfair. The film isn't horror exactly but rather the purest kind of fantasy, the kind our dreams construct. It's about a setting and little details, where the camera takes us, the dark and mystery. We feel things we can't describe and find new ways of understanding ourselves. we react to things and say 'How true!' without knowing why. I think the film digs deeper inside us than we can plumb ourselves.
I listened to the commentary on the dvd later. Jordan sounded a little closed about it. I tried to figure him out but it was all projection; I feel he thinks it his best work but is unwilling to say. He sounded pleased with it but would not quite say directly.
High art is a tricky thing. It can seem pretentious and aloof. Sometimes those who aim high can find themselves exposed and revealing their shortcomings. We have to take this percieved air of pretention in the same spirit we take a rubber monster in Doctor Who, as a baby step. I think there's an air of it about this film but only because it is striving to be interesting and thought-provoking, trying to stray from a familiar path like Red Riding Hood herself.
I have more thoughts, but will keep them for any replies that come.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.153.151.150
Posted on Monday, January 24, 2011 - 01:46 pm:   

Ebert;
'The movie has an uncanny, hypnotic force; we always know what is happening, but we rarely know why, or how it connects with anything else, or how we can escape from it, or why it seems to correspond so deeply with our guilts and fears. That is, of course, almost a definition of a nightmare.'
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.166.117.210
Posted on Monday, January 24, 2011 - 02:30 pm:   

I always loved the atmosphere of this film, and the way it sort of meanders around the subject of fairy tales rather than having any kind of plot imposed upon its themes. Great film, actually.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.153.151.150
Posted on Monday, January 24, 2011 - 02:53 pm:   

It is! I love the fact the wolfman at the end was a dancer, not an actor. He felt completely otherworldly. Same goes for the girl, who was only 14. Jordan commented on her acting innocence and how it brought reality to it. He remarks on a bit where one os the guys lies on top of her and her reaction is completely genuine. He said a lot of proper actors freak out around everyday people because they just have this thing, this ability to be rather than do.
I like the meandering, too.
Funny thing; got the radio on in the background and they just mentioned the film in a question.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.153.151.150
Posted on Monday, January 24, 2011 - 02:55 pm:   

I have to say again just how immersive the use of projection is with these films. I've never seen this film better. Clearer, sharper maybe, but not as 'real' as this.
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Degsy (Degsy)
Username: Degsy

Registered: 08-2010
Posted From: 86.133.49.52
Posted on Monday, January 24, 2011 - 08:21 pm:   

The tagline of the cinema trailer has always stuck in my mind:

"We are the company that we keep - even in our dreams."

Have you seen 'Valerie and Her Week of Wonders' by Jaromil Jires? This has a very similar dreamlike atmosphere and was clearly an inspiration for certain scenes in 'The Company'.
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Allybird (Allybird)
Username: Allybird

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 88.104.139.63
Posted on Monday, January 24, 2011 - 09:01 pm:   

'Company of Wolves was made in 1984, Neil Jordan and Angela Carter turning out a script in a fortnight in Dublin. Jordan had directed one film.' Really.

Wonderful film.
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Simon Bestwick (Simon_b)
Username: Simon_b

Registered: 10-2008
Posted From: 194.75.171.106
Posted on Monday, January 24, 2011 - 09:11 pm:   

Brilliant film. As indeed is 'Valerie'. Must get them both on DVD.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.153.151.150
Posted on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 12:09 am:   

Ooh, I have Valerie but have yet to watch it.

It strikes me that many directors have a film like this in their canon, if they're lucky. Aronofsky has The Fountain, Del Toro his Pan's Labyrinth, Ridley Scott his Alien (not Legend), Kubrick his Eyes Wide Shut, Robert Wise his Curse of the Cat People, Stephen Soderberg his Solaris remake. It's pure dream stuff and perhaps my favourite kind of film, cinema at its most pure.
Degsy - that's beautiful. Now it's stuck in my mind, too.
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 61.216.47.26
Posted on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 08:49 am:   

"Ooh, I have Valerie but have yet to watch it."

Me too, Tony! I love The Company of Wolves (story and film). I'm about due a re-watch, so maybe a double bill along with Valerie would make for a good night's viewing.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.153.151.150
Posted on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 06:57 pm:   

Hey - last night I tracked down and emailed the last werewolf in the film, the huntsman, played by Micha Berges - and half an hour later he emailed me back! It was fantastic - he seemed a really nice bloke. He said being involved in the making of the film and being on that set was quite magic for many of the cast and crew. He also said he eventually lost touch with the girl playing Red Riding Hood. Shame, that.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.189.23
Posted on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 08:01 pm:   

"the last werewolf in the film"

As often happens, Tony, your phrasing has a memorable and poetic quality without even trying...
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John Forth (John)
Username: John

Registered: 05-2008
Posted From: 82.24.1.217
Posted on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 11:17 pm:   

I remember scenes from THE COMPANY OF WOLVES more than I recall the film as a whole. A great atmosphere, but the narrative meandered a bit. I think, in retrospect, it was perhaps striving a little to hard for profundity.

VALERIE is, I think, the better of the two - but the similarities are quite pronounced.
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 61.216.201.67
Posted on Wednesday, January 26, 2011 - 05:27 am:   

Tony, you should write a story about this ('I Emailed a Werewolf' perhaps?)
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.153.151.150
Posted on Wednesday, January 26, 2011 - 01:51 pm:   

Thanks, Joel...(cue touched/poignant emoticon)

John, I could tell it was striving, but like watching a baby try to walk it was quite moving, and in that so striving actually accomplished it for me. It does meander, but watching it while drowsy I realised it was the way it was meant to be, formless as a half remembered dream, making sense and telling the truth only while it lasts.

Huw - odd you should mention it, but the idea of people being haunted for the rest of their lives by a film they made really appeals to me. I think I might do that.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.166.117.210
Posted on Wednesday, January 26, 2011 - 01:54 pm:   

Indeed, I think the whole point of Jordan's film is that it's meandering and basically plotless - a dream within a dream. I think it's a gorgeous piece of work.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.153.151.150
Posted on Wednesday, January 26, 2011 - 01:57 pm:   

(as an aside, we wathced Jurassic Park on the projector last night - bloody fantastic! The sound of the approaching T Rex is even more gradual and happens earlier than you remember now we have these woofers and things surrounding us. And the scale! Oh, Lordy.)
Company of Wolves is now a top-fiver for me, easy.

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