Le temps du loup (2003)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Michael Haneke

Writer:

Michael Haneke (writer)

Release Date:

8 October 2003 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

When Anna and her family arrive at their holiday home, they find it occupied by strangers. This confrontation is just the beginning of a painful learning process.

Plot Keywords:

Barn | Bike | Gun Fire | Immigrant | Sociology

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Isabelle Huppert	...	Anne Laurent
Béatrice Dalle	...	Lise Brandt
Patrice Chéreau	...	Thomas Brandt
Rona Hartner	...	Arina
Maurice Bénichou	...	M. Azoulay
Olivier Gourmet	...	Koslowski
Brigitte Roüan	...	Béa
Lucas Biscombe	...	Ben
Hakim Taleb	...	Young runaway
Anaïs Demoustier	...	Eva
Serge Riaboukine	...	The leader
Marilyne Even	...	Mme Azoulay
Florence Loiret	...	Nathalie Azoulay (as Florence Loiret-Caille)
Branko Samarovski	...	Policeman
Daniel Duval	...	Georges Laurent

Also Known As:

The Time of the Wolf (UK)
Wolfzeit (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence, language and sexuality/nudity.

Runtime:

France:113 min (Cannes Film Festival) | Hong Kong:113 min (Hong Kong International Film Festival) | Argentina:114 min (Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente) | USA:114 min

Country:

France | Austria | Germany

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby SR

Certification:

New Zealand:R16 | Argentina:16 | Finland:K-15 | Germany:12 | Italy:T | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | Australia:MA

Filming Locations:

Großmittel, Ebenfurth, Lower Austria, Austria

Company:

Bavaria Film

Movie Connections:

References Andrey Rublyov (1966)

Haneke and Hobbes

It is funny to me how a lot of people react to this movie. It seems they feel that this movie shows us decadent westerners what living in more impoverished and exploited parts of the globe is like. Well, it's a very fine film, but that certainly not what it's about. To reduce every artistic expression to world affairs is a rather shameless exposition of western self-guilt and political correctness. Now, there is enough to be ashamed about, but why should that always be connected to artistic expressions of western artists. Please stop politicizing everything. Le Temps du Loup is not about the third world, anyone who thinks that third world countries look any thing like what is happening in Haneke's film is out of his/her mind. News flash, people in the third world actually life daily, relatively stable lives, notwithstanding rampant poverty and high levels of violence and unsafety. What we see in Le Temps du Loup is what Hobbes means by "State of Nature", a lawless, non-dominated society. What Haneke shows in minute detail (and in that lies his greatest accomplishment) is that human connection, trust and intimacy is always in some senses based on dominating practices that stabilize the uncertainties and risks of interacting and competing with others in a shared social environment. The ambiguous status of the Koslowski character is a case in point, are his actions justifiable or is he just an exploitative oppressor? Same for the horse, but now in a more confronting way, because the line between fact and fiction is crossed. So Temps du Loup is an analysis of human co-habitation of any human society. Art is not political, what we do with it is.