Wolf

Beautiful cinematography, nice story. Great wolves. A modern fairy tale, not realistic off course, but poetic, seductive and accepted as reasonable. The basic problem - maybe the language . Yes, a French movie but , real, can you imagine as fair the characters as French speakers ?

We saw it in the original French and the soundtrack was far from easy - I could imagine it would have been worse in dubbed Californian! But the photography is superb. It was fascinating to reflect how such natural shots of wolves in the wild had been obtained. We saw it in a village festival in the east of France, an area in which shepherds are having increasing problems with wolves killing sheep, so it was a potentially sensitive subject in the community, and the exploration of the relationship between humans and wolves, and our need for dogs in parallel, is interestingly explored. Difficult to see how you can avoid sentimentality when you find humans getting near to sweet little wolf cubs!

Going through all my recorded movies I had a little trouble remembering the story and what language it was in ...Reading reviews here I saw how some people were upset about the use of Californian dubbing. So I played my taped version (with commercials!) and realise mine was dubbed in French (My native language) Now I do remember this beautiful story 'docofilm' would you say? I also remember resenting the use of non original language although French is definitely the language of my heart even if I don't use it anymore. Through the years my hearing has much decline and I much rely on subtitle these days so I was also very lucky to have them in English.

I tend to agree with the person who also made an observation about the French language adding that he felt Californian dubbing would have been even worse. But it is not a reason either way to give it a miss. It is a beautiful contact with mother nature despite is necessary cruelty.

The photography is magnificent. The story is interesting and the scenery stunningly beautiful.

The wolves are delightful and the shooting of them quite amazing.

I'd love to love the film altogether.

Sadly, though, it is dubbed horribly into Californian. Hearing Siberian tribesmen talking in valley slang is just so unsympathetic. Besides, the dialogue is hopelessly PC.

If only they could have given us the choice of the original soundtrack and sub-titles, the film would be a delight.

Why spoil something excellent by making it seem as low-life and trashy as Los Angeles???

You'd have though that somebody with the sensitivity to make such a good film would sense that it jars so cruelly. I've considered stopping the film and giving up many times, just because of this perverse language.

I hate dubbed movies. It just doesn't sound natural. Unfortunately I couldn't find the film in its original French language. Its unfair to judge a movie this way, but sadly it has a big impact on the entertainment value of a film.

But lets forget about that for a moment and focus on the premise. The film's protagonist is Sergei, who has been chosen to guard the reindeer. To protect the clan's reindeer from prowling wolves is a great honour. However, when Sergei stumbles upon wolf pups, and sees how protective their mother is of them, he can't bring himself to hurting them. Instead, he starts visiting them every day until they become familiar with him. In the process, he neglects his duties as guardian of the reindeer, and becomes annoyed with the rest of his clan.

When he falls in love with Nastazya and shows her the wolves, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to keep their secret, and protect the herd at the same time. There's plenty of action and adventure, and beautiful cinematography. The wolves are absolutely adorable!

I've yet been unable to verify whether the entire film was shot on location, or in front of blue screens. Either way, it looks really good on screen - especially the winter scenes, which are magnificent. While there's much to love about the film, the dubbing ruined most of it for me. I would love to see this film in French!

Having seen 'Wolf Totem' recently, 'Loup' felt like a Disney family movie. It is a well made film and worth the watch, but I doubt I'll watch it again.