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CGAA Unit 1 Anatomy: Shapeshifters 4: The Company of Wolves 27/09/2011


Summary:
A warped retelling of the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. Co-written by novelist Angela Carter and Irish director Neil Jordan, the film takes place within the dreams of a young girl. Told through a number of individual stories, the various characters and creatures create a mystical landscape full of symbolic meaning. The film tackles the theme of burgeoning female sexuality - the onset of adolescence, the end of childhood and the loss of innocence.

Analysis:
“Carter’s original stories, “The Werewolf,” “The Company of Wolves,” and, to a lesser extent, “Wolf-Alice,” are patched together in the script to explore issues of female sexuality and desire within a patriarchal universe, using images of the wolf and werewolf to represent the power, seduction, and threat of sexuality. Both tales and film thus infuse Charles Perrault’s “Little Red Riding Hood” with psychological depth, Freudian significance, and a heighted sense of erotic menace.” (Haase, 2008:228)

Haase, D. (2008) The Greenwood encyclopaedia of folktales and fairy tales. Connecticut:Greenwood Press

Release:
1984

Director:
Neil Jordan

Screenplay by:
Neil Jordan, Angela Carter

Produced by:
Chris Brown, Stephen Wooley

Genre/subgenre:
Horror, Fantasy, Fairy tale, Gothic

Country:
United Kingdom

Cast:
Sarah Patterson, Angela Lansbury, Stephen Rea, David Warner

Selected Director Filmography:

Related Films:

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