Matt experiences Time Of The Wolf (Le Temps du Loup)

Time of the Wolf / Le Temps du Loup (15)
Dir. Michael Haneke

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

This just in from France…

A naked boy prepares to leap into a roaring fire – hoping that he is one of the 36 ‘Justs’.

A mother and her children struggle to come to terms with the brutal slaying of their husband / father at the hands of a rifle toting stranger they find in their holiday home.

The water supply across the land has become tainted leading to social breakdown and anarchic behaviour as the populace turn on each other in a starkly pessimistic future.

Meanwhile a young man watches the developments at makeshift refugee camp where a small band of hopeful people have set up a mini community and wait for the coming of a train…

Yes France eh? Great place!! And I’m maybe just saying that in the light of a wicked summer holiday at Le Pas Opton (Spring Harvest Holiday’s finest English enclave – in the wild Vendée not far from the superb beaches of St. Gilles Croix-De-Vie…) slurping chilled rose and munching rare burger galettes in the French sunshine with my family…

But enough happiness, Time of the Wolf or Le Temps du Loup if you’re that way inclined is an enigmatic audience splitter of sombre social dislocation in the near future by Michael ‘Hidden / Cache’ Haneke.

It isn’t an easy night’s viewing - think a much more culturally obscure 28 Days Later without the zombies and you might be close. There is very little action, some seriously kooky dialogue and for every ‘cool’ shot or set up it feels like you have to wade through half an hour of exposition and art house flights of distraction.

I think the always funky Ed Gonzalez who writes for the excellent Slant Magazine summed it up best when he said: “Haneke's austere images depict terrified citizens of the world clinging to the feckless logic of the modern world even as the film's unspecified darkness pummels them into a lawless vortex.” – so now you know…

Darkmatters rating system (out of 5):

Action öö – Plodding but beguiling
Laughs ö – Unless you find grim French people funny?
Horror ööö – Death and what looks like live horse slaughter
Babes öö – All a grimy and in need of a bath!

Overall ööö (a better experience than the sum of its parts)

Darkmatters: H O M E