The Company of Wolves. 1984. Directed by Neil Jordan.

(10/8/00)

The Company of Wolves is both a haunting fim and an exasperating one. Inspired by the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, it has lots of interesting images and ideas--yet I really don't know what to make of it.

It begins with a mother (and father?) coming home from shopping. They live in a fancy house and have two daughters. There is going to be a party. They tell one daughter to fetch the other. It is obvious that the girl doesn't like her sister. When she goes to the sister's room and knocks on the door the sister doesn't answer. She is asleep and can't rouse herself.

An interesting opening--but it is never developed. The rest of the film--or almost so--is the girl's dream. We never come back to the family situation or learn what has knocked her out so that she can't get up or even answer her sister.

In the dream the girl, Rosaleen, stays with her granny in the woods after her sister is buried. The sister had been attacked by wolves, prompting Granny to tell Rosaleen a story about the worst kind of wolf, the one who is "hairy on the inside" and who will drag you down to hell. And so we see a story about a girl who marries a man who goes out to pee and disappears. He returns years later, after she has remarried, and turns into a wolf right in front of her eyes. The transformation scene, repeated later in the film, is shocking and grusome, but at the same time seems rather tacky. The man pulls his face off, revealing just a mass of something, until a wolf's head emerges from that.

Granny is a bit sinister, especially when she asks for a kiss.

The human and the wolf-like intersect several times in this film, as if to hit us over the head with the idea that the wolf that terrorized Little Red Riding Hood was a metaphor for the beast that lurks in human beings, or for his/her animal desires. Granny sees the wolf as strictly masculine, but Rosaleen tells a story about a wolf that is wounded and turns into a naked girl, speechless and frightened. Or, as Rosaleen's mother points out, "If there is a beast in man it meets its match in woman, too."

The wood is dangerous if you stray from "the path." This path obviously refers to conforming to the expectations and demands of society, especially in regard to sexual matters. However, there is really no way to keep the world at bay, as Rosaleen discovers when she meets an elegant young werewolf on the way to Granny's house. The confrontation of Rosaleen and this chap at Granny's is the most powerful scene in the whole film. She shoots him, but is filled with remorse. And she becomes a wolf and goes off with him. This actually surprised me as he had just killed her Granny, but then a lot of things in this film are surprising. Perhaps she can accept it since it was done out of survival. (Or was it? I mean, nobody actually forced him to come over to Granny's place.)

Another example of the tacky, grusome special effects: Granny's head comes off and goes flying across the room.

I don't know what to make of the boy who likes Rosaleen and wants her to go walking with him. I don't get any sense of how she really feels about him. She doesn't show much interest in him and eventually runs away. I think she just likes playing with him. I didn'tthink there was any reason for her to refuse his offer to accompany her to Granny's because ofwhat he did lasttime. He didn't do anything bad--although, of course, he might have if she hadn't run away. But he seemed OK to me; I don't think he would have tried to rape her or anything.

Rosaleen climbs a tree and finds a nest with eggs in it. The eggs open and inside are little human figures--like embryos. She takes onw ith her and when sh shows it to her mother it sheds a tear.

The film abounds with images of animals. I don't know what to say about that.

The color is very muted. I thought at first thatthe print was faded, but I'm pretty sure that it was made that way. Rosaleen looks enchanting in that red cloak, set against the green forest.
Sarah Paterson has quite a presence as Rosaleen. She has a confidence and a knowingness that enhances her budding sexuality.

This film is interesting and entertaining, but confusing and bewildering. I don't know what to make of it all, but I enjoyed watching it.