The Company of Wolves
The Company of Wolves is a 1984 British Gothic fantasy horror film directed by Neil Jordan and starring Angela Lansbury, David Warner, Micha Bergese, and Sarah Patterson in her film debut. The screenplay by Angela Carter and Jordan was adapted from her 1979 short story of the same name.
Plot
In a present-day country house, Rosaleen, a young girl, dreams that she lives in a fairytale-like late 18th-century forest with her parents and sister Alice. There, wolves chase down Alice and kill her one night. While her parents are mourning, Rosaleen goes to stay with her grandmother, who knits a red shawl for her granddaughter to wear. The superstitious old woman gives Rosaleen an ominous warning, "Never stray from the path, never eat a windfall apple, and never trust a man whose eyebrows meet." Rosaleen returns to her village, but finds that she must deal with the advances of an amorous boy. Rosaleen and the boy walk through the forest, where he discovers that a wolf attacked the village's cattle. The villagers set out to hunt the wolf; but once caught and killed, the wolf's corpse transforms into that of a human being.Rosaleen later takes a basket of goods through the woods to her grandmother's cottage, but en route she encounters a huntsman whose eyebrows meet. He challenges her, saying that he can find his way to the cottage before she can, and the pair set off. The hunter reaches the cottage first, reveals his bestial nature and kills Rosaleen's grandmother. Rosaleen arrives later and discovers the carnage, but her need to protect herself is complicated by her desire for the hunter. In the ensuing exchange, Rosaleen accidentally injures the huntsman with his own rifle. The hunter contorts in pain and turns back into a wolf. Rosaleen apologizes and takes pity on the wounded beast, musing that his pack could leave him behind in his state. She sits down and begins petting the wolf, comforting him while telling him a story.
The villagers later arrive at the cottage, looking for a werewolf within. Instead, they discover that Rosaleen herself has become a wolf. Together, she and the huntsman, escape to the forest, joined by a growing pack. The wolves seem to stream into the real world, breaking into Rosaleen's house and gathering outside her bedroom. Rosaleen awakes with a scream as one leaps in through the window and sends her toys crashing to the floor.
Embedded stories
Stories are woven through the film, tales told within the main narrative that overlap with the central plot.- Granny's tale to Rosaleen: A young groom whose eyebrows meet is about to bed his new bride when a "call of nature" summons him outside. He disappears and his bride is terrified to see wolves howling outside. A search the following day yields a wolf pawprint only, and no sign of the groom; the bride furiously curses the wolves for taking away the man she loved. Years later, having since remarried and started a family, she is shocked to find her first husband at the door. Enraged at her having children with a new husband, the groom transforms into a werewolf, but is killed when the new husband returns.
- Granny's second tale to Rosaleen: A young man whose eyebrows meet, the bastard son of a priest, is walking through the enchanted forest when he encounters the Devil, anachronistically arriving in a Rolls-Royce chauffeured by a blonde-haired woman. The Devil offers the boy a transformative potion, which he rubs onto his chest, causing hair to sprout rapidly. The boy is pleased, but then vines grow from the ground, twining around his legs and trapping him. He wails in protest and fear, his face distorting with his cries. His anguished visage appears in Rosaleen's bedroom mirror at the end of that dream sequence.
- Rosaleen's story to her mother: A woman who lived in a valley "done a terrible wrong" by a rich, young nobleman turns up visibly pregnant at his wedding party "to put wrong to right". She calls out the nobleman and the rest of the nobles for their bigoted actions, and further denounces them by declaring "The wolves in the forest are more decent". She then reveals that she is an enchantress and magically transforms the groom, the bride, and all the other nobles into wolves. They flee into the forest as the enchantress laughs; but afterward, the enchantress commands that the wolves "serenade" her and her child each night.
- Rosaleen's story to the huntsman/wolf: A she-wolf from the world beneath arrives at a village. Despite meaning no harm, she is shot at and injured by a villager. She reveals herself in her human form to an old priest who takes her in and bandages her wound, seeing her innocence. Although touched by the priest's compassion and actions, she feels that she is not fit to stay. She eventually returns to her world through the village well.
Cast
- Sarah Patterson as Rosaleen
- Angela Lansbury as Granny
- David Warner as Father
- Tusse Silberg as Mother
- Micha Bergese as Huntsman
- Brian Glover as Amorous Boy's father
- Graham Crowden as Old Priest
- Kathryn Pogson as Young Bride
- Stephen Rea as Young Groom
- Georgia Slowe as Alice, Girl Killed by Wolves
- Susan Porrett as Amorous Boy's mother
- Shane Johnstone as Amorous Boy
- Dawn Archibald as Witch Woman
- Richard Morant as Wealthy Groom
- Danielle Dax as Wolfgirl
- Jim Carter as Second Husband
- Terence Stamp as The Devil
Production
Writing
Carter had previously adapted the story for a 1980 radio dramatization. She collaborated with director Neil Jordan on the film script, her first experience writing for the screen. Jordan had previously directed only one feature film. The two met in Dublin in 1982 to discuss expanding Carter's radio drama, which Jordan called "too short for a feature film".In an L.A. Weekly interview published to correspond with the film's US debut, Jordan said: "In a normal film you have a story with different movements that program, develop, go a little bit off the trunk, come back, and end. In this film, the different movements of the plot are actually separate stories. You start with an introduction and then move into different stories that relate to the main theme, all building to the fairy tale that everybody knows. The opening element of the dreamer gave us the freedom to move from story to story."
The script reached its third draft by July 1983. Carter's original screenplay of The Company of Wolves featured an additional story being told by the huntsman, a very different final tale by Rosaleen, and a scene set in a church with an animal congregation.
Jordan notes how Carter was "thrilled with the process" of making a film, as she "had never really been involved with one." After the film, Jordan and Carter looked for other projects which they could work on together. However, no others came to fruition, partly because of Carter's later illness. According to Jordan, he and Carter discussed a possible adaptation of Vampirella, Carter's radio play which served as the original version of her short story "The Lady of the House of Love" from The Bloody Chamber.
The budget was provided by ITC Distributors.
Principal photography
The Company of Wolves was filmed in Shepperton Studios in England. The film's cast was primarily made up of British actors. Sarah Patterson made her screen debut, despite being much younger than the kind of actress the casting director had been looking for, and likely too young to understand some of the film's more adult concepts. Her youth also meant having to make special arrangements with her school in order for her to be away for nine weeks while shooting took place. Northern Irish actor Stephen Rea had already worked with director Neil Jordan in Angel and would later work with him again in The Crying Game, Interview with the Vampire and Breakfast on Pluto, amongst others.Set design and visuals
Jordan worked for several weeks in pre-production with artist filmmakers Nichola Bruce and Michael Coulson to create hundreds of detailed storyboard drawings. Also involved with production was production designer Anton Furst and his draftsman Nigel Phelps, who would later go on to work on Tim Burton's Batman. The costumes were designed by Elizabeth Waller, an experienced designer who had worked on BBC period drama and fantasy films. The film's visuals were of particular importance, as Jordan explains:The visual design was an integral part of the script. It was written and imagined with a heightened sense of reality in mind.In the DVD commentary, Jordan notes the difficulty of having to create the look of the film on a limited budget, having to create a fairytale forest out of essentially "twelve trees". He nevertheless succeeded in creating a sunless, mystical, wondrous and claustrophobic setting saturated with fantastic elements and symbols. Jordan recalls;
I was retrying to eroticize this forest and he knew exactly what I was talking about. We built this set at Shepperton that had these vaginal propensities to them. We looked at a painter called Samuel Palmer. If you want to eroticize landscape, look at his paintings, they're beautiful. It was all about sensuality and beauty, really, but one was very aware that at the heart of it, is a cautionary tale, and bloody dark stuff going on.