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.
Plot
Vivian is a nineteen-year-old werewolf loup-garou girl. 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 a hunter and she moved back to Bucharest to live with her aunt Astrid, then the mate of the pack's leader, Gabriel. 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 a only 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, 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 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, Vivian is captured while Aiden escapes.
Vivian is caged 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. Feeling guilty, she strokes Gabriel's fur. As the building explodes, she frees the trapped loup-garou and runs away together 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). The two discuss two destinations, either the "age of hope" or Paris, as they drive through Bucharest's Arcul de Triumf.
Cast
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- Helga Racz as Young Vivian
- Lia Bugnar as Young Vivian's Mother
- Mihai Calin as Young Vivian's Father
- Sofia Vladu as Vivian's Sister
- David Finti as Vivian's Brother
- Anatole Taubman as Bartender
- Pete Lee-Wilson aa Krall
- Maria Dinulescu as Sexy Redhead
- Raluca Aprodu as Girlfriend #1
- Simona Cuciurianu as Girlfriend #2
- Alexandru Barba as Little Boy
- Romeo Raicu as Truck Driver
- Iulian Pana as Club Bouncer
- Tudor Istodor as Tesk Man
- Mihai Dinvale as Maitre’d
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- Jasmin Tabatabai as Nightclub Singer
- Silviu Sanda as Band Player (Bass)
- Cristian Anca as Band Player (Guitar)
- Razvan Gorcinski as Band Player (Drums)
- Dan Mihai Leompescu as Band Player (Keyboards)
- Cristi Dimitriu as Band Player (Percussion)
- Samela A. Beasom as Choir
- Susan Judy as Choir
- Christen Herman as Choir
- Daniel C. Plaster as Choir
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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]
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]
Differences between book and film
- In the book, Vivian is said to be age 16, while in the film, she is age 19.
- In the book, all characters are American and the story takes place in Maryland. In the film it takes place in Romania and some characters have English, French or Romanian accents. Vivian and Aiden are the only characters with American accents.
- In the novel, none of the wolves' eyes change to gold when they smell the scent of blood.
- Vivian's mother Esme is alive and her father dies in the novel; in the film both her parents are dead. In the book Vivian is an only child, but in the film it is shown that she had siblings, who were killed along with her parents.
- In the film Vivian blames herself for her family's death; she explains to Aiden that her paw prints were found by the enemy, leading them to her family. In the book, only her father dies and it was caused, albeit indirectly, by the Five.
- Rafe and the rest of the Five romantically pursue Vivan in the novel, and she and Rafe had dated at some point before the story takes place. This is not mentioned in the film.
- Rafe and Astrid are lovers in the novel; in the film they are mother and son.
- In the film there is no Ordeal between the male loup-garoux, and no Ordeal between the female loup-garoux. Gabriel is the leader from the start, instead of participating in the Ordeal as he did in the book. In the film leadership of the pack is based on bloodline rather than triumph.
- In the novel, it was Axel, and not Rafe, who murdered a girl because she rejected him.
- Vivian has an Uncle Rudy, Esme's brother, in the novel. In the film, she has no uncle.
- Vivian works at a chocolate and sweets shop in the film; she has no such job in the book.
- In the novel, when the pack leader takes a mate, she is his mate for life unless another female loup-garoux challenges and defeats her. In the film, the leader takes a new mate every seven years.
- Vivian is presumably a gray and brown loup-garou in the book. However, in the film a white wolf was chosen to depict Vivian in her wolf-form.
- In the book, there is no prophecy.
- The book mentions an elderly female loup-garou, Aunt Persia, who cures every ailment the loup-garoux may have including Vivian's silver poisoning. In the film, she is not mentioned and an old pharmacist gives Vivian an antidote.
- In the book, Aiden gives Vivian a silver pentagram, which he later melts down into the bullets he shot Vivian and Rafe with. In the film, Aiden owns a pentagram necklace that he uses to kill Rafe.
- In the book, silver can only kill a loup-garou if it enters his blood stream. In the film, a loup-garou need only touch it for poisoning to occur.
- In the book, Vivian's parents had been the leaders of the pack before Gabriel, but the film never mentions this.
- When Vivian reveals her secret to Aiden in the book, he is terrified and wants nothing to do with her. In the film, Aiden initially feels that Vivian betrayed him and leaves her, but he reconciles with her after she saves him from the other loup-garoux.
- In the novel, the pack members shape-shift into their alternative forms. In the film, the transformation is much more spiritual, depicting Vivian and the others as humans who almost seem to ascend into a higher (or at least different) state of spiritual being, glowing mystically as they transform into wolves.
- In the book, Vivian enjoys changing into her wolf form, and does so frequently. In the film, she struggles to prevent the change and only does so when necessary to save Aiden from the hunt.
- Gabriel is twenty-four in the novel; in the film he is of indeterminate age, though clearly old enough to have fathered Rafe with Astrid.
- In the book Gabriel truly loves Vivian, but in the film he wants to marry her to fulfill the prophecy.
- In the book, Vivian does realise in the end that you have to love your own kind, and falls in love with Gabriel. In the film, she chooses Aiden.
Soundtrack
Over Lakeshore Records was the Official Soundtrack released on 23 January 2007.
External links
Pictures
