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

Product Information

An ACES colour-managed workflow was implemented for the Dolby Vision grade with Bigueur, then completing a scene by scene trim pass.

Currently, the only Blu-ray release with the Director's Cut of the film is the one French distributors Studio Canal produced in 2008). Unfortunately, I have to report that different areas of the Director's Cut of Brotherhood of the Wolf are regraded. A stunning new restoration of the director’s cut of the thrilling 2001 cult classic BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF by director Christophe Gans, starring Samuel Le Bihan, Mark Dacascos, Jérémie Renier, Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci. There's some surround enveloping going on here, drawing you into the atmospheric piece, allowing caves to echo, or minute nuances in the silence to creep out at you. In a rural province of France, a mysterious creature is leaving a trail of mutilated corpses across the countryside, savagely killing scores of women and children.

The Not So Good/Bad - The new 4K makeover gives the film a very different appearance because it is graded differently. I was expecting a drawn out fiasco to get some resolution but instead found instant refund with this more than fair top seller. This is enhanced by more behind-the-scenes footage, including rehearsals of the action scenes, which are a pleasure to watch. The box set has a Blu-ray disc with the shorter Theatrical Cut of Brotherhood of the Wolf, but this is an ancient presentation of it from the DVD era. I don’t whether it’s just the fact that I’ve seen an awful lot more martial arts movies since I last saw Brotherhood of the Wolf or that I wasn’t in the right frame of mind when I rewatched it recently, but the film didn’t quite live up to my memory of it.

La Legend’ is a fascinating piece too, which has an expert explore the history and facts of the actual Beast of Gévaudan. Gans is clearly a devoted cinephile (which is backed up by his contributions to the extra features) who puts a lot of thought into his mis-en-scene, referencing a wide range of influences to create stunningly cinematic imagery. On the other hand, the new 4K makeover alters color values that were not impressive on the old master and makes some sections look more convincing. If The Matrix broke new ground for movies everywhere, The Brotherhood of the Wolf picked up the pieces and found fun, reflexive ways to play with them all the while telling a good story.

The flames pop with vibrance and bright yellow primary tones, rich around the edges with wonderful intensity, lighting up the background to reveal shadow detail that was likely hitherto unseen on previous incarnations of this movie.