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Brotherhood of the Wolf
Directed by Christophe Gans
with Samuel Le Bihan, Mark Dacascos, Vincent Cassel
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Karl Marx once noted that history happens first as tragedy, and then repeats itself as farce. This bon mot fits the history of "camp." At the turn of the previous century, Oscar Wilde and other-- mostly gay-- writers invented the ironic style that would come to be labeled "camp." While ostensibly funny, "camp" was indeed a radical way to evaluate and reexamine civilization's accepted norms. It was a lens, a method of social and cultural critique, usually exposing follies and foibles to show the nearly unavoidable tragedy of human action. But in the past hundred years the idea of "camp" has been debased so far that if something is simply terrible-- i.e. movies by Ed Wood such as Plan Nine From Outer Space-- they are called camp.

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One recent film has been garnering praise as "camp," but never manifests anything close. The Brotherhood of the Wolf (Le Pacte des Loups) is a bizarre French semi-horror, sort of political intrigue, buddy, kick-boxing, historical, action, faux werewolf movie. Directed by Christophe Gans, it takes its inspiration from a true-life event of a beast that terrorized the pre-Revolutionary French countryside killing hundreds of people. At its best, the film features the aristocratic Grégoire de Fronsac (Samuel Le Bihan) and his native-American sidekick Mani (Mark Dacascos)-- fresh from the Indian wars in the Americas-- kick-boxing their way through hordes of stupid French solders and peasants as they try to uncover the secret of the beast.

Needless to say, the real villains are the local gentry and clergy-- including the sinister one-armed explorer Jean-François de Morangias (Vincent Cassel)-- who are not only behind the murderous beast (which turns out to be a lion in a suit of armor) but also a right-wing plot to overthrow the king and restore morality and decency to France.

The film is shameless in piling on scenes of female nudity, sexy men, wild forest hunts, and brutal killings so as to continually notch up the visceral excitement. The let-it-all-out visuals are matched by an over-the-top narrative-- it turns out that the Pope has sent an Italian whore to France as an undercover agent to stop the crazed far-right clergy from tampering with the monarchy. Gans earnestly hammers away at how the political right uses religion and fear to terrorize a population. True enough. And he doubtless intended his film to display a pastiche of styles and ideas-- a hallmark of camp sensibility. But he's lost any clear, ironic political message. Had he been successful, The Brotherhood of the Wolf might have been a loony masterpiece of insightful social satire: camp at its best.

Author Profile:  Michael Bronski
	Michael Bronski is the author of Culture Clash: The Making of Gay Sensibility and The Pleasure Principle: Sex, Backlash, and the Struggle for Gay Freedom. He writes frequently on sex, books, movies, and culture, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
	Email:	mabronski@aol.com