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Blood & Chocolate (film)

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Blood & Chocolate
Directed by Katja von Garnier
Produced by Wolfgang Esenwein
Hawk Koch
Gary Lucchesi
Tom Rosenberg
Richard S. Wright
Written by Ehren Kruger
Christopher B. Landon
Annette Curtis Klause
(book)
Starring Agnes Bruckner
Hugh Dancy
Olivier Martinez
Katja Riemann
Bryan Dick
Music by Reinhold Heil
Johnny Klimek
Cinematography Brendan Galvin
Editing by David Gamble
Emma E. Hickox
Studio Lakeshore Entertainment
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer
Release date(s)
  • January 26, 2007
Running time 98 minutes
Country United States
Romania
Germany
United Kingdom
Language English
Budget $15 million
Box office $6,311,117
Blood & Chocolate is a 2007 film directed by Katja von Garnier, produced by Lakeshore Entertainment and distributed by MGM. It is very loosely based on the young-adult novel of the same name by Annette Curtis Klause, which was adapted into a screenplay by Ehren Kruger. The movie was released on DVD on June 13, 2007 in the USA.

Contents

Plot

 This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (September 2011)
Vivian is a nineteen-year-old werewolf. She was born in Bucharest, Romania to American parents who then moved back to America. When Vivian was nine years old, her parents and siblings were killed by two hunters and she moved back to Bucharest to live with her aunt Astrid, then the mate of the pack's leader, Gabriel (Olivier Martinez). To Astrid's distress, Gabriel left her after seven years in accordance with pack law to choose a new mate. The culmination of another seven years is only a few months away and Gabriel wants the reluctant Vivian as his mate.
Gabriel and Astrid have a son, Rafe, with whom Vivian has an uneasy relationship. Rafe, considering himself the future pack leader, has hunted and killed a human girl on his own in violation of his father's law which allows the loup-garou to hunt only as a pack. Every full moon the pack hunt a human prey who is either a danger to the pack or has offended one of its members (the first victim witnessed being a drug dealer). After having been cut to leave a blood scent, the human is sent to flee through the woods and if he manages to cross the river, is spared. However, no one has ever managed to reach the river.
One night, Vivian breaks into an abandoned church containing loup-garou iconography. There she meets Aiden (Hugh Dancy), a graphic novel artist who also broke in for inspiration. Aiden is instantly smitten and pursues her for several days before she finally agrees to start seeing him. They meet in secret and fall in love. They are soon discovered by Rafe, and his four friends. Rafe informs Gabriel about the relationship between Vivian and Aiden and is ordered to do whatever is necessary to get Aiden out of the city, either by bribing or by threatening. Following a note from Vivian, Aiden goes to a chapel outside the city, where he is apprehended and threatened by Rafe (who actually sent the note). During the altercation, Rafe is revealed as a loup-garou and tries to kill Aiden, who manages to kill his attacker with the help of his silver medallion (silver being poisonous when entering a loup-garou's blood stream).
Gabriel and Astrid are devastated at the death of their son. Aiden is caught at the train station and is chosen as prey for the monthly full moon hunt. Running for his life, Aiden spreads his blood around on the trees to confuse his pursuers and stabs two wolves with a silver knife. He finally crosses the river but a furious Gabriel attacks him nonetheless. Vivian, in her wolf-shape, jumps in and pushes Gabriel into the river. Not recognizing her in her wolf-shape, Aiden slashes her arm with the knife. When she changes back into her human shape, he is stricken with guilt and tries to help her. They flee to a deserted film company which the loup-garou would not dare enter as it is riddled with silver dust. After a few tender moments, Astrid appears and confronts them with a gun. Vivian pleads for Aiden's life, appealing to Astrid's unhappy love for Gabriel, and Astrid lets them go. The two retrieve an antidote for Vivian from a human pharmacist working for Gabriel. However, the pharmacist alerts the pack to their presence and Vivian is captured while Aiden escapes.
Vivian is imprisoned and confronted by Gabriel, who disparages humans and relates to her a prophecy about a female loup-garou leading her people into an "age of hope". He had hoped her to fulfill the prophecy but now decides that the two must decide the conflict by hunting each other. Before the hunt can begin, Gabriel is shot by Aiden, who had been watching from a skylight. In the ensuing battle, Aiden blinds some of Gabriel's henchmen with silver dust, traps some and sets the building on fire. Gabriel attacks Aiden but before he can strike a possibly fatal blow, Vivian aims a gun at Gabriel. He taunts her that by shooting him she would become the hunter that once killed her family and shifts into his wolf-shape. Aiden pleads with Vivian to shoot Gabriel but she repeatedly refuses. However, when Gabriel sets out to kill Aiden, she shoots and kills Gabriel. This means that Vivian is now the pack's Alpha. Feeling guilty, she strokes Gabriel's fur. As the building explodes, she frees the trapped loup-garou and runs away with Aiden. The two escape the city in Gabriel's car (with several people in the street saluting the car by baring their throats as submissive wolves do when faced with their Alpha). They discuss two destinations, either the "age of hope" or Paris, and drive through Bucharest's Arcul de Triumf.

Cast

Production

Since 1997, five directors were in talks to film Blood and Chocolate, namely Larry Williams and his wife Leslie Libman, Po-Chih Leong, Sanji Senaka and Rupert Wainwright, before Katja von Garnier finally signed in January 2005 to direct the film. The book was originally adapted into a script by Christopher Landon whose father Michael Landon had a leading role in the film I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957).[1]
Author Annette Curtis Klause was not kept up to date by the producers of the film. She had to find the information about the filming on the Web.[2]
Filming was set in Bucharest historic part of the city and at MediaPro Studios in Buftea. However, as many of the American movies based in Bucharest, the movie failed to be accurate in presenting the real places in city, for example the Piata Romana (Romana Square) is actually the Curtea Veche yard (Old Court, a destroyed old palace), or Biserica Silvestru (Silvestru Church, in downtown Bucharest) is actually a church in Stirbey Palace, Buftea, a few tens of kilometres west of Bucharest.

Release

The movie was a box office bomb, taking in only $2.1 million in the United States on its opening weekend and dropping out of the top 20 grossing movies in only its second week of release. The film holds a 11% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with 8 out of 63 critics giving it an approving rating.[3]

Soundtrack

Blood & Chocolate: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released on 23 January 2007 by Lakeshore Records.

Footnotes

  1. ^ ""Blood and Chocolate" at director's site (German)".
  2. ^ "Interview with author Annette Curtis Klause".
  3. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blood_and_chocolate/ Rotten Tomatoes

External links

Pictures






 
Poster

Blood and Chocolate Imdb



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