The Company of Wolves (1984)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Neil Jordan

Writers:

Angela Carter (story)
Neil Jordan (screenplay)

Release Date:

19 April 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Fantasy

Tagline:

Where fairy stories meet horror stories [Australia Theatrical]

Plot:

A bag full of symbolic folklore about werewolves, or, rather, their sexual connotation. Granny tells her granddaughter Rosaleen strange...

Plot Keywords:

Folklore | Grandmother | Sexuality | Woods | Storytelling

Awards:

Nominated for 4 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 10 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Sarah Patterson	...	Rosaleen
Angela Lansbury	...	Granny
David Warner	...	Father
Tusse Silberg	...	Mother
Micha Bergese	...	Huntsman
Brian Glover	...	Amorous Boy's father
Graham Crowden	...	Old Priest
Kathryn Pogson	...	Young Bride
Stephen Rea	...	Young Groom
Georgia Slowe	...	Alice, Girl Killed by Wolves
Susan Porrett	...	Amorous Boy's mother
Shane Johnstone	...	Amorous Boy
Dawn Archibald	...	Witch Woman
Richard Morant	...	Wealthy Groom
Danielle Dax	...	Wolfgirl

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | South Korea:15 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 (original rating) | Norway:18 (re-rating) | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

Incorporated Television Company (ITC)

Trivia:

The wide shot as the stork flies away from the tree climbed by Rosaleen (Sarah Patterson was shot by positioning a small doll on a banzai tree, surrounded by other banzai trees, and all set against a painted backdrop. The movement of the bird was done by stop motion animation.

Quotes:

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.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Big Bad Wolves (2006)

Dreaming of wolves

The company of wolves is very far from being the typical movie about werewolves, it's very different from films such as An American Werewolf in London or The Howling. This film is full of symbolism, it's a kind of rewriting of Perrault's Little Red Ridding Hood with Freudian elements. The film was directed by Neil Jordan, but in it we can notice the writing of Angela Carter, an author who is mainly interested in rewriting folklore myths from a feminist point of view. If you see this film you will enter a world of magic, of dreams, not only by means of the script, but also by the settings, which are really wonderful. The film itself deals with the end of childhood and the beginning of adolescence, with all its sexual connotations, and the loss of innocence. When we become adults we realize life is not a magic tale. All this is treated from a feminist point of view, the main character is a girl who dreams about several stories with werewolves. Visually the movie is incredible, and it manages to reflect the symbolism of woods, the mixture of light and darkness, the magic creatures which live there during the night and the dangerous inside them especially for the girls who don't follow the path. From my point of view the film is one of the best dealing with the myth of werewolves, mainly because the film is a metaphor of life, of the human specie, all of us have an animal inside.