THE TIME OF THE WOLF

France/Austria, 2003, 105 minutes, Colour.
Isabel Huppert.
Directed by Michael Haneke.

Dark nights of the screen: doomsday and doomsnight dark. After Benny's Video, Funny Games, Code Inconnu and The Piano Teacher, a Michael Haneke film is an event. Perhaps The Time of the Wolf is an event, but for me... This is a very subjective review.

I found it very difficult to become involved with the film, although the opening moments were full of promise. I needed more information. In fact, the characters had more information than we did. They knew where they came from, something of the crisis that was causing the social chaos. While so much of the film was in helpless darkness, characters moved in and out without sufficient sketching of who they were and why they were doing what they did. The exception was Isabelle Huppert's daughter and the enigmatic young stranger. Had the others had some of this definition, I might have been drawn into their plight. While I can appreciate the fears, the bewilderment, the uncertainties, the numbness of such a crisis, it was difficult to engage emotionally with them. This meant that behaviour become irritating, situations confusing and a great desire for the film to end. In fact, even though the train was moving at the end, the film just stopped.

1. The work of Michael Haneke? Strong and demanding? His view of Europe? The future?

2. The European locations, the countryside, the railway station? Musical score?

3. The title and its being a time of Doomsday, apocalyptic? In the European context? The unknown causes of the chaos?

4. The prologue: the family arriving, an ordinary film, taking their supplies for the holidays? Strangers in the house, the confrontation, the shooting?

5. The context of the action: the reference to the Polish people, the language being French? Somewhere in Europe? Sufficient information about the Doomsday for audience participation? The cause of the chaos, who was in control, the trains running, stopping, the supplies, the black market?

6. The Jewish tradition of the thirty-six Just Men and the end of the world? The mystery of who the thirty-six were? The nature of self-sacrifice, immolation by fire - and the young boy prepared to do this at the end?

7. The focus on the family, fleeing the house, the neighbours refusing them but giving some supplies? Travelling through the night, the bicycle, the barn? The need for food? The bird getting free and the children squabbling about it? The boy disappearing, the mother and the daughter keeping the fire alight, the barn burning? The boy returning with the young man?

8. The family and the continued travels, along the roads, fine weather, trains? Finding the group at the station? The man in charge and his control, wanting rules? His imposing them? The sexual favours? The couple and their squabbling? The old man and his daughter? The woman who was praying and her being attacked? Communication, survival - but with no answers?

9. The growing tension, the fear, the unknown? The mother caring for the children? The girl finding the paper and writing the letter to her dead father? Her mother reading it later?

10. The black market, people selling their goods, the need for water, the goat and the milk? The young man killing the goat to avoid detection?

11. The countryside, the dead animals?

12. So much of the film happening at night, the darkness, no electricity, the lanterns? The ineffectual feelings, being able to do nothing at night?

13. The finding of the crowd, of the management, the guards, the accusation against the Poles for stealing? The young man and his keeping on the outskirts, the girl and her friendship with him? Finding the killer, the confrontation by the mother, the dispute and arbitration?

14. The young boy, taking his clothes off, going to the fire, prepared to step in and sacrifice himself? The man and his kindly speech after saving the boy? Giving meaning to what was happening to them?

15. The final sequence, the view from the train passing - and simply stopping?

16. An effective allegory of the future, disaster, the helplessness of human beings, the different ways in which they coped, well and badly?