''Time of the Wolf'' (french: Le temps du loup) is a 2003 French

dystopia A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astro ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written and directed by Austrian filmmaker

Michael Haneke Michael Haneke (; born 23 March 1942) is an Austrian film director and screenwriter. His work often examines social issues and depicts the feelings of estrangement experienced by individuals in modern society. Haneke has made films in French, G ...

. Set in France at an undisclosed time, the plot follows the story of a family: Georges (

Daniel Duval Daniel Duval (28 November 1944 – 10 October 2013) was a French film actor, director and writer. Best known as an actor, Duval has credits in over 70 television and film productions. As a filmmaker, Duval was awarded the Silver Prize at the 1 ...

), Anne (

Isabelle Huppert Isabelle Anne Madeleine Huppert (; born 16 March 1953) is a French actress. Described as "one of the best actresses in the world", she is known for her portrayals of cold and disdainful characters devoid of morality. She is the recipient of sev ...

), and their two children, Eva (

Anaïs Demoustier Anaïs Demoustier (; born Anaïs Aude Marie Michèle Demoustier; 29 September 1987) is a French actress. She has appeared in more than fifty films since 2000. Personal life During the filming of ''Marguerite & Julien'', Demoustier began dating ...

) and Ben (Lucas Biscombe). The film also stars

Olivier Gourmet Olivier Gourmet (born 22 July 1963) is a Belgian actor. Gourmet was born in Namur. He won the Best Actor award at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival for his role in '' Le Fils'' by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. He also appeared in ''La Promesse'' ...

and

Serge Riaboukine Serge Riaboukine (born 29 December 1957) is a French actor. Theatre Filmography References External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Riaboukine, Serge 1957 births Living people French male film actors French male television actors French pe ...

. The film takes its title from ''

Völuspá ''Vǫluspá'' (also ''Völuspá'', ''Vǫlospá'' or ''Vǫluspǫ́''; Old Norse: 'Prophecy of the völva, a seeress'; reconstructed Old Norse: ) is the best known poem of the ''Poetic Edda''. It tells the story of the creation of the world and ...

'', an ancient Norse poem which describes the time before the

Ragnarök In Norse mythology, (; non, Ragnarǫk) is a series of events, including a great battle, foretelling the death of numerous great figures (including the gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdallr, and Loki), natural disasters, and the submers ...

. It received positive reviews.

Plot

A disaster of some type has occurred, of which the audience only knows that uncontaminated water is scarce, and livestock has to be burned. Having fled Paris, the Laurent family arrives at their country home, hoping to find refuge and security, only to discover that it is already occupied by strangers. The family is assaulted by the strangers and forced to leave, with no supplies or transport. As they seek help from people they have known in the village, they are repeatedly turned away. The family makes its way to a train station where they wait with other survivors, in the hope that a train will stop for them and take them back to the city.

Cast

as Anne Laurent *

as Georges Laurent *

Béatrice Dalle Béatrice Dalle (née Cabarrou; December 19, 1964) is a French actress. Biography Dalle was born in Brest, Finistère, France, as Béatrice Cabarrou. In 1985, she married the painter Jean-François Dalle, whom she divorced in 1988. Working as ...

as Lise Brandt *

Patrice Chéreau Patrice Chéreau (; 2 November 1944 – 7 October 2013) was a French opera and theatre director, filmmaker, actor and producer. In France he is best known for his work for the theatre, internationally for his films '' La Reine Margot'' and ...

as Thomas Brandt *

Rona Hartner Rona Hartner (born 9 March 1973, Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the bank ...

as Arina *

Maurice Bénichou Maurice Bénichou (23 January 1943 in Tlemcen, French Algeria – 14 June 2019) was a French actor. His best known roles include three collaborations with director Michael Haneke ('' Code inconnu'', ''Le Temps du Loup'', and '' Caché''), and a ...

as M. Azoulay *

as Koslowski * Brigitte Roüan as Béa *

as Eva *

as The leader *Lucas Biscombe as Ben *Marilyne Even as Mme Azoulay *

Florence Loiret Caille Florence Loiret Caille (born 26 June 1975) is a French actress. She has appeared in more than sixty films since 1996. Filmography References External links * 1975 births Living people French film actresses {{France-actor-st ...

as Nathalie Azoulay *

Michaël Abiteboul Michaël Abiteboul is a French actor. Filmography Theatre References External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Abiteboul, Michael French male film actors Living people 21st-century French male actors Year of birth missing (living peop ...

as The Armed man

Release

''Time of the Wolf'' was screened in the

2003 Cannes Film Festival The 56th Cannes Film Festival started on 14 May and ran until 25 May 2003. French opera and theatre director, filmmaker, actor and producer Patrice Chéreau was the President of the Jury. The Palme d'Or went to the American film ''Elephant'' by G ...

, out of competition.

, a member of that year's jury, stars in the film, which made the film ineligible for any award. The film also screened at the

Sitges Film Festival The Sitges Film Festival ( ca, Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya, links=no) is an annual film festival held in Sitges, Spain, specialized in fantasy and horror films, of which it is considered one of the world's foremost in ...

where it won Best Screenplay and was in the running for Best Film. The film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

in 2004, and included a film trailer and brief biographies of the lead cast, besides the film.

Critical response

On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, ''Time of the Wolf'' holds an approval rating of 64%, based on 56 reviews, and an average rating of 6.2/10. Its consensus reads, "A lean and thriller." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "Generally favorable reviews". Peter Bradshaw of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' gave ''Time of the Wolf'' 4 out of 5, while Ed Gonzalez of ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

'' gave it 3 out of 4. Desson Thomson of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' commented that " ewould rather have a more interesting group of desperate people to spend my post-apocalyptic time with" while A.O. Scott of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' said that "You can feel frightened and disturbed by this movie without being especially moved by it". According to Scott Foundas of the ''

Variety Magazine ''Variety'' is an American media company owned by Penske Media Corporation. The company was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933 it added ''Daily Variety'', based ...

'', "Haneke demonstrates profound insight into the essence of human behavior when all humility is pared away, raw panic and despair are the order of the day, and man becomes more like wolf than man." William Thomas of the Empire Online gave the film 2 out of 5, saying in his closing comments that "A superb European cast is wasted on a portrait of social breakdown that really has very little to say for itself".

References

External links

* (France) * (US) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Time Of The Wolf 2000s science fiction drama films German science fiction drama films German post-apocalyptic films 2000s French-language films French science fiction drama films 2000s Romanian-language films Films directed by Michael Haneke Dystopian films Films set in France Films shot in Austria Films shot in Vienna French post-apocalyptic films Films produced by Margaret Ménégoz Austrian science fiction drama films 2003 drama films 2003 films 2000s French films 2000s German films 2003 multilingual films Austrian multilingual films French multilingual films German multilingual films