The Company of Wolves
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The Company of Wolves

Year:
Duration:
95 min
Genres:
Horror | Fantasy
IMDB rate:
6.8
Director:
Awards:
Nominated for 4 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 10 wins & 1 nomination
Details
Country: UK
Release Date: 1985-04-19
Filming Locations: Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK
Earnings
Budget: $2,000,000
Opening Weekend: $2,234,776 (USA) (21 April 1985)
Gross: $4,389,334 (USA) (5 May 1985)
Cast
Actor
Character
Angela Lansbury
Granny
David Warner
Father
Graham Crowden
Old Priest
Brian Glover
Amorous Boy's Father
Kathryn Pogson
Young Bride
Stephen Rea
Young Groom
Tusse Silberg
Mother
Micha Bergese
Huntsman
Georgia Slowe
Alice
Susan Porrett
Amorous Boy's Mother
Shane Johnstone
Amorous Boy
Dawn Archibald
Witch Woman
Richard Morant
Wealthy Groom
Danielle Dax
Wolfgirl
Vincent McClaren
Devil Boy
Ruby Buchanan
Dowager
Jimmy Gardner
Ancient
Roy Evans
Eyepatch
Edward Marksen
Lame Fiddler
Jim Brown
Blind Fiddler (as Jimmy Brown)
Jim Carter
Second Husband (uncredited)
Terence Stamp
The Devil
Did you know?
Trivia
The film is primarily based on the werewolf stories in Angela Carter's short story collection The Bloody Chamber ('The Company of Wolves', 'Wolf-Alice' and 'The Werewolf'). However, the plot of the film is more similar to Carter's 1980 radio adaptation of 'The Company of Wolves' than to the original story, as it was in the adaptation that Carter introduced such concepts as digressive narration within the main narrative (in the original story, the various diversionary narratives are separate from and occur prior to the main narrative).
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Angela Carter's first draft of the screenplay, which contains a number of differences from the finished film, was published in her anthology 'The Curious Room'. One of the most noticeable differences is the end. In Carter's script, the film ends with Rosaleen diving into the floor of her bedroom and being swallowed up. 'Neil Jordan' liked this ending, but as he explains on the DVD commentary for the film, the limited visual effect technology of the time made such a scene impossible to shoot on a small budget. Other differences include another story told by the Huntsman to Rosaleen, a different final tale told by Rosaleen to the wolf and a scene in a church with an animal congregation.
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The voiceover at the end of the film is the moral from Charles Perrault's original Little Red Riding Hood story, 'Le Petit Chaperon Rouge', which warns young girls always to be wary of charming strangers.
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Quotes
Witch Woman: So I wasn't good enough for you? I was once. Once upon a time! Don't you remember? Well, don't you? The Wolves in the forest are more decent!
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Rosaleen: And that's all I'll tell you, cause that's all I know.
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Mother: You pay too much attention to your granny. She knows a lot but she doesn't know everything. And if there's a beast in men, it meets its match in women too.
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Faq
Q
What is the significance of the wedding story?
A
As mentioned above, it has been suggested that each of the four stories told within the dream have their own intrinsic meaning, and this story (the 3rd of 4) is no different. A standard interpretation of the scene is that it is illustrative of class struggle in the 18th century. The land-owning gentry commonly used and abused their workers and their workers' families due to their absolute domination of the social hierarchy. This was not seen as somehow nefarious or evil, but was a commonly accepted aspect of society. For example, in Ireland, a landlord in Longford named Richard Lovell Edgeworth gained great notoriety and infamy amongst his fellow landlords because he didn't mistreat or abuse or take advantage of his workers. Other landlords in the area thought this was abnormal behaviour, and many of them suspected him of being in league with the Irish peasants in their efforts to overthrow English rule, simply because he treated his workers well. This is a good example of how ingrained and acceptable such behaviour and abuse was.Taking all of this into consideration, the scene could allude to this type of abuse, and the desperate action of the abused to exact some kind of revenge. The witch turns the gentry into their 'true' form; they act like wild animals, so she punishes them by literally turning them into wild animals. This is especially apparent in relation to the elderly woman who is seen greedily stuffing her mouth with food every time the camera cuts to her. Also important is the fact that the witch only turns the gentry into wolves, not the servants or musicians. Indeed, at the end of the transformation, the servants seem to approve of what the witch has done, perhaps agreeing that she has made the gentry appear on the outside how they truly are on the inside (which of course, is an important concept throughout the movie). As such, the scene represents the punishment exacted by a peasant on a member of an elitist class who has impregnated and abandoned her, and that punishment is to turn that class into wild animals, as that is how they present themselves anyway.
Q
Who is the man in the back of the car and what is the potion he gives to the young boy?
A
He is the devil. When sitting in the churchyard with Rosaleen, Granny explains that if a priest's bastard is born on Christmas day, feet first and with eyebrows which meet in the middle, he is destined to meet the devil in the woods and become a werewolf. Which is exactly what happens to the young man in the story; he meets the Devil, who gives him a potion, which turns him into a wolf (although we only witness the beginning of the transformation process). According to the 'Behind-the-Scenes Dossier' booklet included with initial batches of the special edition DVD, "the devil rides through the forest in a silver car seeking out those who have been cast out from society. He provides them with the salve needed to turn from human into wolf, making them his fierce creatures of the night." This 'salve' possibly includes aconitum; a plant more commonly referred to as wolfsbane. The name comes from the medieval belief that aconitum, if eaten, smelled or worn, would turn the person who ate, smelt or wore it into a werewolf. This belief stemmed from the fact that aconitum was a common ingredient in witches' potions at the time.However, there is perhaps more to the scene than simply the Devil turning a young boy into a wolf. It has often been argued by fans that each of the four stories told in the dream have a significance in and of themselves beyond their immediate narrative, and that they refer to a larger societal sphere. In relation to this particular story, it has been suggested that the story is a metaphor for how young men often want to rush puberty, they want hair to grow on their chests quickly, ie they are keen to become men. However, in the story, the young boy, in his desire to become a man prior to his time, is tricked by the Devil, who gives him a potion which instead of turning him into a man, turns him into a wolf. This aspect of the story, the fact that the young boy becomes a wolf, could refer to the fear that some men do experience during puberty. The transformation into a wolf represents the boy's discovery of his adult masculinity, and, in terror, he rejects it. However, he is trapped by it, unable to escape (as represented by the vines which weave around his legs), and in the end is forced to accept what it is he is becoming.
Q
What is the significance of the little statues in the eggs?
A
When Rosaleen is out in the forest with the young village boy (Shane Johnstone), she runs away from him and climbs a tree. At the top of the tree is a stork's nest. The bird flies away, and Rosaleen looks into the nest, wherein she finds a group of eggs, a hand mirror and some lipstick. After putting on the lipstick, the eggs crack open to reveal their contents to be tiny baby statuettes. Rosaleen takes one, and upon returning to the village, she shows it to her mother, at which point the statuette sheds a single tear.This scene has provoked a great deal of speculation amongst fans as to its meaning. On his DVD commentary track, director Neil Jordan makes the following point early in the film: The one thing Angela [Carter] and I did not want [the film] to be was logical in a linear way, which might have caused problems for some people, but we wanted surreal elements in it, and we wanted elements that kind of came from nowhere, because the story is structured around a young girl's dream, and I wanted elements that were as unexpected as things that happen in a dream, a strange reality, they didn't need to actually be symbolic of anything. There are some deeply illogical things and images in the movie that are just there." With this in mind, in relation to the nest scene, Jordan comments, "It's totally surreal. You can't explain it, you can't even say these elements are symbolic."Nevertheless, as is the nature with much of this film, symbolic readings have indeed been hypothesised. For example, the 'Behind-the-Scenes Dossier' booklet says the scene "can be seen as the awakening of sexuality, and the power to give birth not only to a child, but to her own adult self." Along similar lines, James Rose suggests that The symbolic value of these eggs obviously lies within the notion of birth and so makes the nest in which the eggs rest a surrogate womb. As Rosaleen watches the eggs hatch an analogy is made between what she is witnessing and the bodily changes she is undergoing. The eggs can be seen to represent Rosaleen's awareness for her capacity to give birth to not only to children but also to her adult self. Combined, these symbolic values imply the onset of her sexual awakening. These values are consolidated by the presence of the mirror and lipstick, both connotations of the adult that Rosaleen will eventually grow into (quoted here). Other interpretations offered by fans tend to run along the same lines. Most arguments suggest that the meaning of the scene is that Rosaleen (in both the real world and the dream world) has reached puberty and can now have children, ie, her female sexuality has matured. This is reinforced when she brings one of the statues home to her mother, and there is a moment of silent acknowledgement between them, as if they both understand something which is unspoken, ie Rosaleen can now fulfill her 'function' as a woman; she can give birth.Eggs are a symbol of fertility and rebirth in many cultures and religions (including Christianity), and as such, if the eggs are a symbol of fertility, it means that when Rosaleen finds the nest she is actually encountering a representation of her own maturing sexuality. It is perhaps significant that this encounter occurs immediately after what we suppose to be her first kiss with a boy, and immediately prior to the first appearance of the wolf in the film. The first kiss is merely the first step towards sexual maturity; all other steps will build on that kiss, until Rosaleen reaches the point where she is ready to experience animal sexuality (as represented by the wolf; see below for more on this theory). With this in mind then, a purely symbolic reading of the sequence is that the kiss leads to the wolf, and the end result are the eggs. The lipstick works in tandem with this, as it too seems to represent her new found maturity, and taken together with the mirror, they represent the vanity that comes with sexual development.None of this however answers the question of why the statue cries. The reasons for the tear remain vague at best. Some fans have suggested the statue is crying because it never got a chance to become a real baby (due to Rosaleen's menstruation, the egg was 'killed'). Others suggest it is an allusion to the sadness of sexual maturity, and the inability to reclaim childhood innocence and wonder ever again. Whatever the case about the tear however (which remains one of the most ambiguous aspects of the film), the general consensus is that the statues themselves are part of the overall symbolic tapestry of Rosaleen's sexual maturation.
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Photos from cast
Sarah Patterson
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