Tuesday 5 October 2010

The Company of Wolves Review

My Review on The Company of Wolves


This film takes elements from the children's story Little Red Riding Hood and makes it a more darker film that's full of horror. 'It is not a children's film and it is not an exploitation film; it is a disturbing and stylish attempt to collect some of the nightmares that lie beneath the surface of Little Red Riding Hood.' (Chicago Sun-Times) The transformation from man into a wolf is a violent bloody mess where the werewolf rips of his skin and face, the bones start changing shape, its as if he sheds his flesh to become a wolf.

The story is about a girl who wheres a red hood like red riding hood and is on her way to grandmas where she meets a man in the forest on her way. 'Thirteen-year-old Rosaleen (Sarah Patterson) is on her way to visit Granny (Angela Lansbury) when she's waylaid in the woods by a snarling, seductive werewolf.' (TV Guide) He seduces her and says he will meet her at her grandmas. He reaches grandmas before she does and kills granny. When the girl gets there, she wants to know what happened to granny and attempts to kill him. After he turns into a wolf she explains how sorry she feels for the wolves outside and tells him a story and after that he leaves through the window followed by another wolf, did red riding hood become a wolf too?

The whole story is in a dream state with many strange symbols shown like the baby figure hatching out an egg. 'The central Red Riding Hood story as played out here appears to be taken fairly straight from the Brothers Grimm. The film makers, however, have more than fleshed out the character of Grandmother, who is full of esoteric advice, such as ''Beware of windfallen apples and of men whose eyebrows meet.'' She also knows a thing or two about wolves.' (The New York Times) The whole story of the girl in the red hood and the wolves is all dreamt up by a girl in her bed.



3 comments:

  1. Anatomy: Interim Online Review 05/10/2010

    Hey Katy,

    As highlighted in this week’s ‘Post with the Most’, your hybrid hand studies are nicely executed; they feel properly monstrous somehow. Your blog is conscientious and you’re keeping on top of your various tasks; that said, I’d like to see you go ‘off road’ a little more, and by that I mean be more exploratory and encompassing of research and alternative design ideas. I’d certainly like to see more sketches, as you work out the way to approach your self-portrait; and no doubt, in preparation for your essay subject, you’ve been looking at the recurrent motif of the horned goat and its part in demonology – and yet, there are no visual references accompanied by your thoughts and reflections. As I think I communicated to you once before, reading around your subject and reflecting that in your creative development is essential to your growth on this course. Remember, the list of things ‘your blog must have’ is only a list of the key areas; it’s a guide; you could – and should – go further. And, just a general note about the appearance of your blog; you want your work to be the centre of attention – not the blog template. I’d suggest that the solar system background is too dominant and sets the tone for the content, which is inappropriate; consider something smart, professional, but largely neutral.

    Visit 2nd year Leo Tsang’s unit 1 blog from last year for an example of what a great ‘creative development’ blog can look like; the brief was a little different then, but the expectation of what a student can produce in 5 weeks was not. Take the time to work backwards through his posts. This is what a creative project at degree level looks like…

    http://ltsang.blogspot.com/2009/10/final-portrait.html

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  2. Regarding your essay; it’s great that you’ve got so far with it, but one thing that does worry me slightly is the very broad scope of the essay. It is far better to say something real and insightful about one thing, than lots of superficial stuff about many things. I wonder if ‘The Goat form in Demonology’ would be a tighter title; after all, you may allude to mythology (because the goat motif derives from it), but your focus is demonology (with mythology as a reference point). Mythology is a HUGE subject and would serve an assignment all by itself. It’s an issue of balance. I’d suggest this tighter focus should be reflected in your introduction; for instance; “The figure of the half-man half goat has long been associated with demonology. This essay will explore the cultural origins of the goat, beginning with… and including…, with specific attention given to Pan’s Labyrinth…”

    From a style point of view, avoid using the first person. “I will be looking at this” etc. If you look at your brief, you’ll see a whole section dedicated to the sort of language we expect to see in an academic assignment. I encourage you to adopt a more formal, less personal style.

    A general reminder that, alongside everything else you need to have ready for crit day, you also need to submit an offline archive of your creative development blog. There is a way of exporting your blog as PDF via Blogger – which would be ideal for this purpose. Incase you missed the original post, Alan gives details here:

    http://ucarochester-cgartsandanimation.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-turn-your-blog-into-pdf-document.html

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  3. And finally – now is the time to return to the brief; time and again, students fail to submit what they’ve been asked to produce – and how; usually because they haven’t looked properly at the brief, or haven’t done so since week one. Trust me on this; just take a few minutes with a highlighter pen to identify what is required, when, and how. Remember – non-submissions are dumb!

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