Blood and Chocolate

Directed by Katja von Garnier

Fans of Annette Curtis Krause’s novel Blood and Chocolate are grumbling that the screen adaptation takes liberties with the plot. For one thing, the story’s set in Eastern Europe, where Vivian (Agnes Bruckner), the attractive loup garoux (werewolf), has lived with a pack of relatives since her parents (also werewolves) were slaughtered in the American West.

Substituting Bucharest for Colorado certainly gives Blood and Chocolate a different flavor (bonbons and dark alleys, instead of fast food and trailer parks), but the essential theme (loyalty to pack versus free will and true love) is the drama’s centerpiece.

German director Katja von Garnier says the relocation was set before she signed on, but she found it fit her interpretation of the story as a mythic romance.

“We were set to shoot in Prague, but Bucharest turned out to be the better location. Did you know that Romania’s symbol is the wolf? I found that amazing—the place has so much of the mythology and legend,” says Garnier. “And it was perfect for locations—like the old church where Vivian first meets [love interest] Aiden [Hugh Dancy] and the metal alley where the young pack are jumping overhead—which was part of one of the projects Ceausescu began and abandoned.”

“The feel of the city was right, too. It’s a place where people—the loup garoux—who have hidden identities could live among others without being discovered. I wanted it to feel true. Of course, we know it’s fiction, but I want the film to give you that little mind space where you wonder if it’s true.”

That’s part of it. But Vivian has that ability to transfigure, yet she doesn’t kill; she just loves to run. She loves to feel free—like a wolf. That was another thing that attracted me to this film: I really like the idea of working with wolves. They’re very different creatures than most people think. Very shy, not at all aggressive. And very difficult to train. We were advised to use hybrids—part dog. I wanted purebred wolves, and we were lucky; we found Zoltan (Horkai), a Hungarian animal trainer, with 23 wolves. They never run in packs that large, so the hunt scene—which, to my mind is the highlight of the film—is very unusual. It was incredibly challenging and gratifying. They’re very spirited animals. Sometimes just watching them on the set, I was so moved I’d just well up.

It was a combination of factors. First, the actors went to what we called wolf camp, where they spent a lot of time observing Zoltan’s wolves and adopting their behavior. Then we wanted all the movement to be beautiful—to keep the idea that they have an extra ability—and that gives them extra grace. So, we trained with the parkour style, which emphasizes the beauty and grace of movement in all sport—so it’s almost like a dance. And we had one of the parkour instructors do stunts, too. He actually took the leap without wires, but most of the stunts did wear wires for safety.

That came from working with my storyboard artist. When I came to the project, I made the hunt scene my priority. I wanted it to be visually amazing. We sat for hours listening to music for inspiration and getting ideas and sketching out how it could be. We got the idea of leaping—and thought that was a nice mindset, like it’s the choice they want to make for the transfiguration, so they literally make a leap of faith and it’s sort of that if they don’t believe they’ll land as a wolf on the other side, they’ll break their hand.

I thought it was really cool, and I see it as an element of beauty in the film. Knowing that wolves are so misunderstood, I really wanted to show their grace and beauty, to give this element to the loup garoux, a moment of running free before they hunt. I want people to be open to seeing that about wolves.