Brotherhood Of The Wolf (Director's Cut) (1 4K UHD + 3 Discs) [Region A & B & C]

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The decision to use an ACES colour managed pipeline saw the 35mm film reels scanned as 16-bit DPX ADX files for maximum flexibility. Sebastien Prangere, the original editor of the film, reassembled the offline edit in Avid Media Composer with the grade, conform and finish completed in DaVinci Resolve Studio. Studio Canal has announced a Blu-ray and UHD release of the director’s cut of Brotherhood of the Wolf, the cult 2001 release from director Christophe Gans and starring Marc Dacascos. The deleted scenes are interesting to watch too, greatly aided by explanatory interviews with Gans. With these additional excerpts, the deleted scenes as a whole add up to a considerable length. One of the scenes is an extended version of the opening fight. I’m surprised how much was cut out and actually prefer this longer take on the sequence, as it allows the fight to ‘breathe’ and play out properly. However, I appreciate Gans’ reasons for leaving out Fronsac’s inclusion, allowing for his ‘transformation’ in the final act.

Some of this might be attributed to the fact that the version I watched on this disc was the extended ‘director’s cut’. There are several different versions of the film and the details of these are too complicated to get into here and I don’t know the previous versions well enough to attempt to do a comparison justice. However, from what I can gather online, whilst this ‘complete version’ makes more narrative sense than most of the others, some of the added strands are pretty weak. Most notably, we get a flip-flopping relationship with Marienne that is woefully unconvincing. I think this was available in previous UK cuts but not in some of the theatrical ones elsewhere. The UK finally get the added scenes with the ‘Chief of the Hunt’ though. The plot had some holes without these, previously. The director went on to make a video game adaptation movie of Silent Hill (he is currently working on a sequel) and the live-action version of Beauty and the Beast. The action scenes are still quite impressive though. As mentioned, Dacascos is a pleasure to watch, being highly skilled in martial arts on top of generally having a magnetic presence. Samuel Le Bihan does a convincingly good job with his action scenes too. Philip Kwok’s choreography is remarkably good for a non-HK production, utilising a lot of acrobatic moves and weapon combat. Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. Compared to Scream Factor’s previous Blu-ray and the other discs that navigated the globe over the years, Studiocanal’s new 4K restoration didn’t have much to compete against. Anything would be better than what we had, and what we get with this 2160p Dolby Vision/HDR10 transfer is pretty damn glorious. Fine lines are clean, and facial features, costumes, textures, and scenery all render beautifully with an appreciable amount of fine cinematic film grain. Gone is the frustrating over-use of edge enhancement and I didn’t spot any irritating smoothing or aggressive grain reduction.The dated film transfer doesn’t hold up its end of the bargain. The movie is in dire need of 4K treatment. Licensed from StudioCanal, Brotherhood of the Wolf has suffered in high-definition with a litany of sub-par Blu-rays across the globe. The film is a fascinating mix of period drama, action and horror with excellent costume design by Domonic Borg and gorgeous cinematography from Dan Lausten (Oscar-nominated for The Shape of Water). STUDIOCANAL announce a stunning brand-new restoration of the thrilling 2001 cult classic BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLFDirector’s Cut by Christophe Gans, starring Samuel Le Bihan, Mark Dacascos, Jérémie Renier, Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci. The 2-disc Blu-ray includes deleted scenes and a host of extras, while the 4-disc 4K UHD release also includes the theatrical cut and eight featurettes – while all formats include the English audio as well as the French audio in Dolby Atmos.

SYNOPSIS:During the reign of Louis XV an isolated district of south-central France is haunted by the “Beast of Gévaudan” which has savagely killed over 100 people, primarily women and children. As panic sweeps across the region, the King sends his finest military minds, the scientist and adventurer Grégoire de Fronsac and his martial-arts-trained Iroquois blood brother Mani to flush out the Beast and kill it… The Guts Of The Beast (78:11 in SD) – A look at the creation of the film from the fight scenes to the digital effects. An extensive and nigh comprehensive documentary starring the cast and crew. The filmmakers are quite proud of their efforts detailing bringing the beast to life. Legend– An interview with author, Michel Louis, who wrote the novel the film was based on. He shares his knowledge of the lore as well as some candid thoughts on the film itself. The beast, when it’s finally unveiled, is made up of a mixture of animatronics (done by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop) and CGI. The latter, again, shows its age, not always looking wholly convincing, but it’s not bad for an early-2000s non-Hollywood production. It must be pointed out though, that the effects had to be tweaked for the new restoration, so that they would stand up in 4k. I imagine it was mainly just the textures that were amended though, rather than the movement. Mix in some love/sex interest courtesy of Monica Bellucci and Émilie Dequenne and a great cast which also includes Samuel Le Bihan, Vincent Cassel and Jérémie Renier and you have an engrossing tale of intrigue and horror.

Brotherhood of the Wolf Review

As Fronsac and Mani investigate the incidents around the area, they become inclined to believe that this ‘beast’ is far from the large wolf many claim it to be and it may, in fact, have a human owner controlling its actions. This idea is dismissed by most though, as the local dignitaries push on with the senseless slaughter of the local wolf population.