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Blood & Chocolate (film)

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Blood & Chocolate
Theatrical release poster
Directed byKatja von Garnier
Screenplay by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyBrendan Galvin
Edited by
Music by
Distributed by
Release dates
  • January 26, 2007 (2007-01-26) (USA)
  • February 9, 2007 (2007-02-09) (UK)
  • November 11, 2007 (2007-11-11) (Germany)
Running time
98 minutes[1]
Countries
  • United States
  • Germany
  • Romania
  • United Kingdom
Languages
  • English
  • German
  • Romanian
Budget$15 million
Box office$6.3 million[2]

Blood & Chocolate is a 2007 fantasy-horror film directed by Katja von Garnier. Written by Ehren Kruger and Christopher Landon, their screenplay is very loosely based on Annette Curtis Klause's 1997 young adult novel of the same name.

An international co-production between the United States, Germany, Romania, and the United Kingdom, Blood & Chocolate was both a commercial and critical failure.

Plot

Vivian (Agnes Bruckner) is a nineteen-year-old werewolf born in Bucharest, Romania to American parents who then moved back to America. When Vivian was nine years old, her parents and two siblings were killed by two hunters who then proceeded to burn down their house. She then moved back to Bucharest to live with her aunt Astrid (Katja Riemann), who was the mate of the pack's leader, Gabriel (Olivier Martinez) at that time. 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.

This is not, however, what she wants. She begins a romance with a graphic novelist Aiden (Hugh Dancy) who is researching for his latest book. Though he is human, he knows much about her kind, the Loups-Garoux (werewolves). Their romance is closely watched by her cousin Rafe (Bryan Dick) and his friends Ulf (Chris Geere), Gregor (Tom Harper), Finn (John Kerr), and Willem (Jack Wilson), together known as The Five. Believing that she is telling him all their secrets- as seen by a drawing he did of her and wolves because he knew her as "The Wolf Girl"- and may grow to be a danger to their pack, Rafe tells Gabriel of them. Gabriel then tells Rafe that Aiden must leave or he must be dealt with.

Rafe lures Aiden to an abandoned church with the ruse that Vivian wanting to reconnect and attempts to scare him away. When this doesn't work, Rafe attacks and underestimates Aiden who defends himself and forces him back into a table where he cuts himself. Aiden, who did not know prior what Vivian and her friends were, sees the golden glow of the Loups-Garoux and realizes what he's been dating. The two fight, with Aiden attacking Rafe with a silver pendant and Rafe turning to a wolf, until Aiden eventually gains the upper hand and sends both over the rail, killing Rafe.

Afterwards, Aiden confronts Vivian about what she is, tempting her with his blood. She does not give in but is hurt that Aiden would think she was such a monster. Not long after, Aiden is captured by the pack to answer for killing Rafe, Gabriel's son. He is made to run through the forest while being chased by the pack. If the pack catches him, he dies. If he makes it to the river and crosses it, he lives. Vivian is scared for him and changes into her wolf form, a white wolf, to save him from the rest of the pack. Aiden makes it to the river by confusing the pack, using his blood to spread his scent and make it harder for the pack to track him. Gabriel, however, is angry that Aiden made it to the river and attempts to follow him anyway, to kill him. Vivian helps to protect Aiden by throwing Gabriel off. Aiden, not realizing that the white wolf is Vivian, strikes her with a silver knife causing her to slowly die unless she gets an antidote.

After hiding from the pack, Aiden and Vivian find the pharmacist who has the antidote for the silver poisoning and steals it from him, but not before he calls the rest of the pack. After being chased, Vivian tells Aiden to save himself and is captured by the pack. She is held in a cage and taunted by the rest of the five while Gabriel attempts to curve her to his way of thinking. Aiden comes to Vivian's rescue and in the end Vivian has to kill Gabriel.

Aiden and Vivian go towards the age of hope. Driving past other Loups-Garous, the wolves are shown to bare their necks in respect to Vivian and Aiden, showing Vivian to possibly be the new leader of the pack.

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).[3]

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.[4]

Principal photography was set in Bucharest historic part of the city and at MediaPro Studios in Buftea. However, as many of the American films based in Bucharest, the film 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.

Music

Main article: Blood & Chocolate: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

The film's score was composed by Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek. The soundtrack consists of fifteen songs, none of which are featured in the film.

Songs featured in the film
  1. "Garab" - Rachid Taha
  2. "Let Yourself Go Wild" - Jasmin Tabatabai
  3. "Velvet Hills" - Katja Riemann
  4. "You Know the Truth" - Aurah
  5. "Cash Machine" - Hard-Fi
  6. "Amor Fati" - Aurah
  7. "Silence Summons You" - The Sofa Club
  8. "Eu Te Iubesc Prea Mult" - Nicolae Guta
  9. "Stand My Ground" - Within Temptation

Release

Box office

Blood & Chocolate opened on January 26, 2007 in 1,200 theaters and earned $2,074,300 in its opening weekend, ranking number 16 in the domestic box office.[5] By the end of its run, a little over two months later, the film had grossed $3,526,847 domestically and $2,784,270 overseas for a worldwide total of $6,311,117.[2]

Critical reception

The film was panned by critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an 11% rating based on 63 reviews.[6] On Metacritic, the film has a 33 out of 100 rating from 16 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[7]

Footnotes

  1. ^ "BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. January 30, 2007. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Blood and Chocolate (2007)". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. March 30, 2007. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  3. ^ "Blood and Chocolate at director's site (de icon)".
  4. ^ "Interview with author Annette Curtis Klause".
  5. ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for January 26-28, 2007". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. January 29, 2007. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  6. ^ "Blood & Chocolate". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved July 2, 2013.
  7. ^ "Blood and Chocolate". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
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