Le temps du loup

Plot synopsis:
Immediately before a global catyclysm, Anna and her family arrive at their holiday home in the countryside only to find it is occupied by a family of complete strangers. The occupants refer to the cataclism and tell her the rules of society no longer apply. Then, without provocation, Anna's husband is shot dead. Anna and her two children flee and roam through the woods. At one point, they reach a shelter, filled with hay. They decide to spend the night there. Ben, the youngest child, still seems in shock, and he no longer speaks. At night, he disappears, and in a panick, Anne ventures out to find him. His sister lights handfuls of hay with a lighter, hoping the light will attract her brother. Unfortunately, sparks set the shelter on fire, and the building completely burns down. Ben re-appears the next day. They move on and reach a railroad with some kind of farm building next to it. Although they aren't really welcomed by the occupants, they are tolerated and allowed to stay. A boy tells them that a train sometimes passes there, and they hope to stop that train in order to travel on it to a better place. In the mean while, one man, Koslowski, at leasts tries to uphold some laws and rules there, but people are desperated, cold and impolite. Anne's daughter, Arina, makes friends with a young runaway. When he is suspected of theft, he must leave the compound. Arina keeps giving him food, while he hides in the woods. Her brother, Ben, eight, hasn't spoken since he witnessed the murder of his father. They start a daily routine, with people joining in the chores, such as collecting firewood. A couple of days later, a large group of people arrive at the compound. Strong in number, they use the farm' s facilities. Then Anne makes a shocking discovery: one family of the newly arrived are the ones who were occupying her holiday home and who killed her husband. Although most people believe their accusations, as their emotions are genuine, there is no proof, it is their word against the word of the other party. A make shift judge declares there's nothing he can do. At night, with so many people around, Arina and Ben can't sleep. They witness how a young girl is being raped, while a knife is being held to her throat. The girll commits suicide the followign day. Another family, Polish immigrants, are accused by the newcomers of being thieves, and the husband is almost lynched.
That night, Ben, who overheard a lore about 36 angels jumping into fire in order to save society, builds a fire, takes off his clothes and prepares to jump in the fire. A guard manages to save him with a trick. In the struggle that follows, Ben's shouts and screams. These are the first words he speaks since his father's murder. The guard holds him in his arms and tries to comfort him.

Tags: violence, murder, storytelling

Review:
Le Temps du Loup is not about the third world, anyone who thinks that third world countries look any thing like what is happening in Haneke's film is out of his/her mind.
If, at the start of Time of the Wolf, you are aware of Michael Haneke's 1997 shocker, Funny Games, you may believe that this film will be treading similar grounds.
However, unlike the familial hostages of Funny Games, the remaining Laurent's make their way to a local for help, and the audience is startled by the matriarch, Anne's (Isabelle Huppert), admission that they had buried the father.
We are certainly not in the regular world; this place is different, a point that is further exacerbated when Anne is asked if she is aware of what is going on.Time of the Wolf is unfamiliar territory concerning its central concept of a post-apocalyptic landscape.
Some sort of cataclysm has occurred  all we really know is that most water supplies are tainted  and we follow a mother and her two children (the father is with them when the film opens) as they vie for survival.
The characters are often devoid of extreme emotion during the crises they face in the film, so the viewer assumes that whatever happened that changed the world must have been graphic and brutal.Haneke is an exceptional filmmaker and has quite an eye.
This approach lends a striking realism to the movie.Some of Haneke's films -- especially "Funny Games" -- are marred by heavy-handed social commentary.
A very subtle film about individual and mass psychology after an unnamed cataclysm.Also a cautionary tale about having plenty of fresh batteries, lighters, and a good knife, or knives, on hand (you never know when you're going to have to skin your own dinner; hey, call me extreme when that unnamed cataclysm comes around).An added bonus: no digital effects (although I think they got lucky with fog one day, and made a beautiful scene with it), no manic editing as a substitute for storytelling, no facile heroics, no predictable deus ex machina...it will cleanse the visual palette.
"Temps Du Loup" is probably Michael Haneke's most successful attempt at presenting his bleak outlook on mankind.Vaguely set in a post-apocalyptic world, the film works both ways: a.
When those who do watch it tell you how bored they were, act shocked and say, "oh my goodness, how is that possible?" This is a great example of what I'd call an "anti-film." Imagine going to a contemporary art gallery for a reception, and you are the first one to arrive.
Rather than having "zombies" pop up every so often and chase the leading characters around, why not show the quiet desperation people feel when they know that there are forces about to destroy them, but they don't understand those forces, and don't know exactly how (or when) they will be destroyed (which could mean actual death or a psychological "meltdown").I was hoping this would be the case for the film "Blindness" (which I saw before this one), but instead experienced a bland, rather conventional construction that was not compelling on any level.
It is bizarre to watch a film as relentlessly gloomy; as impeccably shot and as seemingly brim full the notion that great danger might very well be lurking around the corner just hit the wall and die in the way that Time of the Wolf does.
Here is the post-apocalyptic movie wherein we do not get the feeling the apocalypse has actually happened; here is the film depicting the fallout to a great terror wherein we actually feel unthreatened, unthreatened by not only what this newfangled world looks like but additionally by the very item that brought everything to what it now resembles.
It is a strange thing indeed; not anything that transpires within, but how relentlessly dull Austrian director Michael Haneke actually makes the end of civilised life in France actually look.
To think that the likes of then-recent French films La Haine and Irreversible actually set themselves within functioning societies as we know they exist, yet still managed to construct what felt like a bubbled universe of decay and hatred, is extraordinary.In its purest of forms, the film is barely much more than a cluster of people bedded down in a single location for its entire duration - during this time, people sit; stand; speak; argue; walk around and wait for a train to arrive.
This was fine, when it was Sydney Lumet's 12 Angry Men. Ah yes; the train: the reason for the likelihood of a train coming and going is that these people occupy a railway side signal booth, a small but large enough structure in the remote ruralness of somewhere-or-another which they all inhabit as the skies cloud over, the grimaces on the characters' faces tighten and everyone lives in fear of........some wild dogs.The lead is Isabelle Huppert's Anne Laurent, a woman whose husband is killed in front of her and who must flee a holiday property with her two children, Ben and Eva, when what appears to be a group of squatters ambush them upon arrival.
Haneke was much more pleasurable, if that is the correct word, when he subverted traditional codes of a certain branch of the horror film in Funny Games.In terms of characterisation, at least Hillcoat's aforementioned The Road had this often quite touching central bond between a father and son as the elder readied the younger for the day he may no longer be around.
Although the story of people trying to survive in the aftermath of a disaster is nothing new, Haneke's bleak vision of an imploding society packs not only a punch but also a long, increasingly unbearable squeeze.
This is perhaps Haneke's least accessible work,which is not writing that his other works are entertaining stuff.The star Isabelle Huppert becomes some kind of walk on in the second part which makes me think that the movie would have been better without her (and using non professional actors à la Robert Bresson) This movie shows groups of people,leaving the cities (which we do not see) for...
That bible's Apocalypse it won't be anything but the man devouring the man, because the wolf of the title is the man himself; the humanity perishing by its own sins.Haneke portraits this Final Judgement with his usual coolness and brutality, and puts the spectators in front of such uncomfortable and disgusting situations (anyway, none of them are unnecessary or gratuitous mmm OK, maybe we don't need to watch how someone cuts a horse's throat-).
He just puts his camera and lets the reality show up: some would sell their children for a glass a water, some would give their lives to save them And for an extreme-brand new film from Michael Haneke there's nothing better than a veteran and full of talent actress like Isabelle Huppert.
There's nobody more appropriate for surviving in such an inhospitable and post-apocalyptic world than Cabrol's muse.Haneke-Huppert connection works greatly again and knocks us out like a Tysson's punch right to our faces.My rate: 8/10.
This film is about what it would really be like if the end of the world came.Do not make a mistake here, just because there is no wise-cracking bad guy leading hoards of murderous cut-throats, it does not mean there is no drama or danger here.
There is cruelty and compassion.The main portion of the film deals with a group of people who are waiting at an abandoned train station in the hope that a train from the south might come to rescue them.
Time of the Wolf is a realistic and gritty look at what would happen after an apocalyptic event where only a few people have survived.
I like post apocalyptic themes as much as the next guy, but i did not entirely enjoy the follow through of Time of the Wolf.Giving a synopsis sounds great.
the director shows us a post-apocalyptic world where everyone tries to survive no matter what, but there is no explanation as for what happened to why are characters put through such ordain.
it seems as the director was hoping the shock caused by the gory details would prevent viewers from asking qyuuestions.30 minutes into the movie you can feel that somehow the cast have lost their heart for the project - and this is the sentiment the audience come to share very quickly.
Nothing continues to happen for the remainder of the film, save for a few events that are confusing due to the fact that I don't really know or care who any of these people are.
However, this movie promises to showcase the "terrifying...danger" of the new world, and last time i checked, overlong shots of nothing happening coupled with occasional histrionic shrieking do not a good film make.
People are mean, racist, xenophobic, and greedy, without social structures to guide them, but maybe, just maybe, if they cling to their humanity and mercy, things could get better, the world can be reborn, etc.The little boy character was trite, running away, at just the right moment when the paced lagged, cus thats what traumatized little boys in these kinds of movies do.
Time of the Wolf (TotW) is stylistically recognizable as Haneke's work, and is certainly a well-made film.
Most of the characters are very convincing, and the film's greatest strength is the horror it creates in showing normal people break under the stress.A difficulty with making a post-apocalyptic story is that there are only so many things one can do with it.
Often loudly.Add to all this the fact that the director goes out of his way to make sure that we "Americains stupides" are faced with as many grim realities (like burning horses or dead, maggoty sheep) as possible, and you've got yourself a heck of a fun time.Anyway, this movie is technically lacking, cinematically lacking, and boring.
This without mentioning the cast, especially Isabelle Huppert, who once more proved to be the finest actress alive.If only Hollywood paid more attention to other countries movie industry...And I am sure this film is going to win 2003 São Paulo Film Festival, in case you don't know, the third biggest independent film festival in the world.10/10.
At the end of it's evening screening there was a standing ovation and at the same time a concert of booing from the crowd.Le Temps du loup is a fantastic movie that puts us white westerners suddenly in the situation of black people in a the third world country.Imagine not having any food, nor any water, you cannot trust other people cause they could kill you for taking over whatever provisions you may have.Isabelle Huppert and her children are desperately looking for something to eat, their clothes are getting dirty, at night it is dark!
The train will not stop for them waving at it.If you like Michael Haneke previous film (La Pianiste), you will possibly love Le Temps du loup.
But whatever it was, people were getting down to the bare essentials of what it means to be a human being and it did not seem like much time had gone by since the event occurred, so it must have been pretty bad.
Where The Time of the Wolf (Le Temps du loup) differs from its many sci-fi cousins (which it externally resembles but somehow doesn't feel like at all) is in its minimalism and the rawness of the experiences it depicts, the sense of shock and confusion.
Haneke is a risk-taking director and this is a movie that's willing to appear disorganized and boring: that's the only way he can capture the true chaos of a world where the social order is breaking down, where there is no communication, no government, no sense of what will happen next.
The sheer chaos of civil disorder is conveyed in the film's structure by the way Isabelle Huppert (Anne) and her son and daughter Ben (Lucas Biscombe) and Eva (Anais Demoustier) merge into the crowd that gathers in a depot where people (including Béatrice Dalle, Patrice Chéreau and Maurice Bénichou) wait for a train to come and rescue them and no longer seem central any more.
In the course of the daily comings and goings of people at the depot the man who shot Huppert's husband at the beginning of the film appears, and in the absence of witnesses or judges, nothing can be done.
Because so many of the encounters are sudden and inarticulate, ideas aren't developed as fluently in The Time of the Wolf as in Haneke's last two films, Code Unknown and La Pianiste (2001).
But The Time of the Wolf is equally powerful and thought provoking and this stunning trilogy confirms the Austrian who makes films in French as one of the world's most brilliant and provocative directors.
I really liked this film, especially Isabelle Huppert, whose role as an average Parisian boheme-bourgeoise wife and mother is so totally different from her Piano Teacher, another great Haneke film.
Like in his film "Code Inconnu," Haneke gives us his version of the nightmares that are happening in the world.
However, the beauty of this film was, it somehow managed to let hope and warmth shone through.I think the reason some people didn't like it was because it forced you to face the truth.
This defies description in a lot of ways, sure it is set after the sewers of France have stopped working and all the water supplies have been polluted and I assume most of the world's population has died or failed to show up for filming but this seemed a little self indulgent for me, sure I like a thinking movie but this gave no reasons for anything, it seems a bit too open for me, I like a bit of a journey but this picked me up in the middle of nowhere, drove me through the middle of nowhere and you know where it dropped me off.
I certainly didn't and don't know how I stuck with this film until the end!By the way, if you are tender-hearted, PLEASE DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE.
Yes, they are cerebral, and a welcome change from the mindless movies with frat boys and fart jokes.Any chance to see Isabelle Huppert (8 Women, The Piano Player) is a good thing.It is a post apocalyptic world.
I'll be looking up the others.I do have a few remarks to make in the light of some of the negative comments posted here.If your benchmark for movie greatness is the pace of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, or you require buckets of explicit gore, or explosions at five minute intervals, or you cannot survive in a cinema without a rock soundtrack, or you are not prepared to engage with credibly complex characters, simply don't bother to see this film - you will find it unbearably slow, quiet and boring.
This is not a movie made with a teenage dating audience in mind.I suspect that that this film will be more resonant for European than for American audiences, but if you want to see a director and a great ensemble cast try to convey the disorientating reality of social breakdown - and the necessity of acts of imaginative reintegration - with slow-burning intensity but without resort to melodrama, this is well worth your time..
I have seen two other Haneke films, La Pianiste and Funny Games, and being a fan of those I thought I'd give this one a look.
This was director Michael Haneke and star Isabelle Huppert's reunion, and it's a good film, but one that takes too long and isn't as good as it thinks it is.
"Time of the Wolf" is a pessimist and depressive view by Michael Haneke of a society without rules, basically the end of the civilization.
Hope that the world never comes to this point, probably is what many viewers will think watching this movie.
The interesting thing is that this is not hammered home by corny plotlines but comes out of the way the film is shot - no all-too-obvious lighting effects: we squint to see what's going on, as much in the dark as the characters.
Fire is to become a very important motif in the film.Haneke does not dwell on the reason for the "end of the world" because the theme of the film is to question how and why people our humanity makes us cling onto civil society and morals even when all appears to be lost.
Either way, almost uniquely for Haneke, what is an otherwise bleak film appears to end on a note of hope.A terrifying and un-sensationalized vision of how modern man, without the embellishments of modern day society, quickly reverts to a primeval hierarchy, barter and mythology but that we can saved by the essential humanity that lies within us all..
He looked like a reasonable guy who was able to keep his family together until the end of the movie.
I loved how Haneke had crafted a "quiet" film about the end of the world, the apocalypse.
But in the end it doesn't really matter as the cause of the catastrophe is not what TIME OF THE WOLF examines, it is how people deal with the end of the way things used to be.The performances are brilliant all around and I thought the film was very visually beautiful not despite but because Haneke shot it like a Dogme 95 film with only natural light and no fancy camera tricks.
Michael Haneke's films, though being sort of surreal at moments, never really dip into the world of fantasy.
A sort of practice that has been forgotten in the world of CGI.Speaking of characters, this film has plenty but don't spend time trying to get to know them.