The Empire of the Wolves (Empire des Loups, L') (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Trailer-The Cave, Stealth, The Fog, The Exorcism Of Emily Rose Trailer-Thumbsucker
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	123:00
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Chris Nahon
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Jean Reno Arly Jover Jocelyn Quivrin Laura Morante Philippe Bas David Kammenos Didier Sauvegrain Patrick Floersheim Etienne Chicot Albert Dray Vernon Dobtcheff Elodie Navarre Philippe Du Janerand
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Len Arran Olivia Bouyssou Grégory Fougeres

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

L' Empire des loups (2005) is directed by Chris Nahon and is based on a novel by Jean-Christophe Grangé, who was also responsible for the novel and screenplay of Les Rivières pourpres (2000) and the characters of the sequel Les Rivières pourpres II - Les anges de l'apocalypse, which was written by Luc Besson.

First and foremost L' Empire des loups (2005) is not directly related to the narrative of Les Rivières pourpres (2000) and its sequel, as Jean Reno embodies a completely different role, that of tainted anarchic police officer Jean-Louis Schiffer. Reno has physically altered his appearance for this film, further distancing himself from the character of police officer Pierre Niemans of Les Rivières pourpres (2000) and its sequel by dyeing his hair blonde and looking tired and weathered.

The connection between these films is Jean-Christophe Grangé, whose complex screenplay for Les Rivières pourpres (2000) proved to be an engaging violent thriller under the direction of Mathieu Kassovitz. Director Chris Nahon, who is a noted music video and commercial director who also directed Kiss of the Dragon (2000) from the Luc Besson screenplay, directs Jean-Christophe Grangé’s screenplay for L' Empire des loups (2005) in the genre of big-budgeted action films.

The plot of L’ Empire des loups (2005) is incredibly convoluted - unsurprising as four individuals including Jean-Christophe Grangé were involved in the writing of the screenplay; additional writing credits go to Christian Clavier, Franck Ollivier and director Chris Nahon.

The film opens with Anna Heymes (Arly Jover), a young Parisian woman who is suffering from severe demonic hallucinations and nightmares. Traumatized Anna also suffers from a special case of amnesia in which she can remember historical events but is unable to recall her own past; as a result she is a stranger to her husband. As she distances herself from everything she is told, she begins to investigate her past with the aid of psychologist Mathilde Wilcrau (Laura Morante).

Simultaneously a series of gruesome murders of young illegal Turkish immigrants are investigated by young police detective Paul Nerteaux (Jocelyn Quivrin). Nerteaux, overwhelmed by his responsibility, turns to Jean-Louis Schiffer (Jean Reno), a retired police detective with a sordid past. Schiffer navigates through the seedy Parisian streets and underground clubs without hesitation to interrogate the usual suspects and his unorthodox violent methods distress the morally grounded Nerteaux.

Both these storylines and these characters will merge to reveal a conspiracy.

Shot on location in Paris and Istanbul this is a visually pleasant film. The action scenes are frequent and impressive but are nothing new to the genre. Chris Nahon utilises his locations well and the production is particularly dark and grim

Overall, the film is a vacant action film but for fans of the genre and fans of Jean Reno, L' Empire des loups (2005) is recommended.

Video

The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and the transfer is 16x9 enhanced.

The transfer is particularly clean with good black levels. Shadow detail is also good.

As mentioned the film is dark and metallic, utilising the colour blue very effectively.

Unfortunately there are minor compression issues as this is a single-layered disc with an average bitrate of only 3.29 Mb/s.

Subtitles are clear and true to the onscreen dialogue.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

As mentioned this film is largely atmospheric and the French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) soundtrack is noticeably aggressive with no audio sync issues.

Throughout the course of the film small details are relevant such as the sound of rain.

The music ranges from upbeat to atmospheric and is well suited to the on-screen action.

During the action scenes the subwoofer is aggressively used.

I would most certainly recommended the French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) track over the optional English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) one as it is poorly dubbed.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Trailer

The DVD is presented with 5 trailers including The Cave, Stealth, The Fog, The Exorcism Of Emily Rose and Thumbsucker.

The R4 and R1 are identical but R2 has a 3 Disc Collector’s Edition.

Disc 1 includes:

The film with French DTS 5.1 and French Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks.

Optional English or French subtitles.

Disc 2 includes:

A 28 minute portrait of scriptwriter Jean-Christophe Grangé, “Jean-Christophe Grangé : l'atelier de l'angoisse”

Preproduction storyboards.

A 20 minute production documentary.

A 54 minute feature focusing on special effects.

Disc 3 (Dual Disc) includes:

A 40 minute documentary titled “Une bande originale"

A 20 Minute making-of

CD Soundtrack

A vacant action film, suitable for fans of the genre and fans of Jean Reno, with relatively good sound and vision. The disc is bare-bones.

The R2 presentation is better than the local release but I am unaware if the special features have English subtitles.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall