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	Time Of The Wolf
	Michael Haneke Isabelle Huppert, Béatrice Dalle, Patrice Chéreau, Rona Hartner, Maurice Bénichou, Olivier Gourmet, Brigitte Roüan, Lucas Biscombe, Hakim Taleb, Anaïs Demoustier, Daniel Duval 2003		The title alone suggests that "Time of the Wolf" is some stark, woebegone study of human anguish from Ingmar Bergman. When the tone of this well-forged post-apocalyptic drama from France turns out to be as hopeless and tragic as Bergman at his darkest, it's just as it should be. Writer/director Michael Haneke and actress Isabelle Huppert have already plumbed the depths of a single demented psyche in the superbly distressing 2001 film "The Piano Teacher." In the brutal "Time of the Wolf," they take on nothing less than total societal breakdown. Haneke's script traces the calamitous, increasingly disheartening odyssey of Anna (Huppert), a woman fleeing with her husband and two children to the family's country home in the midst of an overwhelming catastrophe, the nature of which is left hazy. As the slim narrative plays out in the deceptively benign-looking countryside, the only certainties are potentially lethal shortages of food and water and a decided absence of charity on the part of those who wish to survive. Things go from worse to wretched for Anna and her loved ones as she struggles and schemes to weather the devastation. Various pockets of people band together in the countryside. A near-feral teenage boy shows interest in Anna's daughter, but his intentions are in question. Watching "Time of the Wolf," with all of its unremitting despair, is almost like being there.


	Wednesday, November 13, 2024





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