"Brotherhood of the Wolf": Two gay-subtext romances in 18th Century France, with sleaze, blood, Satanism, Catholics, and cocks

For movie night this week we saw The Brotherhood of the Wolf, which actually came out in 2000, but it resembles the sleazy second-features they used to show at the drive in, when you were falling asleep and couldn't pay much attention to the plot, or try to distinguish the charaters.  These movies have an unnaturally bright color pallette and unnervingly loud noises to keep you awake, impenetrable dialogue because no one's really listening, lots of fake blood, and lots of sex, with women who act like they're in a Hai Karate commercial

Hai Karate was an old cologne advertised as making you so attractive that you have to use karate to fight off the hoardes of clawing, screaming women desperate to get ahold of your goods - and this was a good thing?  I got a bottle for Christmas one year, but was afraid to use it. 

I was wide awake (for most of it, anyway), but I still didn't get the plot.  I know that it's the 1750s, and a wolf is terrorizing the people of Gévaudan, France, the modern department of Lozère, a thinly populated, mountainous region about 250 km from Marseilles.  

Grégoire de Fronsac (Samuel le Bihan, left), the king's naturalist, and his Iroquois "companion" Mani (Mark Dascascos, top photo) are dispatched to track down and kill the wolf.  They have a gay-subtext relationship:

Left: Fronsac cock.

Host: "Let me show your servant to his quarters."

Fronsac: "He's not my servant.  He'll be staying in the room with me."

Host: "But there's only one bed...never mind."

 

A gay-coded young Marquis (Jérémie Renier, right) is also interested in Fronsac: "Tell me about Paris.  What are the latest fashions?  What's going on in the theater season?"

There are 200 wikipedia pages devoted to 18th century French playwrights, but the only ones I recognize are Dennis Diderot, Voltaire, and Pierre Beaumarchais, who wrote operas later in the century.  

After examining some victims, Fronsac declares that the Beast is much too big to be a wolf, but they don't believe him, and go on a wolf hunt (corpses piled high).  He insists, and is fired and sent home.  But the Marquis believes him, so they go on their own Beast-hunt.

Meanwhile Fronsac gets three girlfriends: the winsome daughter of his host; a middle-aged lady at the brothel, who reads Tarot cards; and a young woman in male drag who participates in the hunts.  But Bob said that it was just two; the male drag lady is also either the daughter of the host or the Tarot card lady.  He didn't know which.   

The beast turns out to be an African creature in a stegasaurus suit. It appears to be controlled by an evil guy (Vincent Cassell) who has a shriveled arm with long fingernails, making him look like half a drag queen.  He may be the brother of Fronsac's first girlfriend, but also wants to have sex with her. 

More after the break

The Testament of Ann Lee: The origin of the Shakers, with a female Christ, energetic dancing, gay guys, and a lot of male nudity

In high school I read Escape to Utopia by Everett Webber, about Icaria, New Harmony, and the many other attempts to create a perfect society that sprang up in 19th century America. They were usually founded by a reincarnated Jesus Christ, or God himself (or herself).  Most were communal, sexually adventurous, and, at least according to Webber, wacky.

The Koreshans believed that "we live inside," on the concave surface of the cosmic egg, even after the Messiah Cyrus Teed failed to come back to life three days after his death.

Thomas Lake Harris and the Brotherhood of the New Life worshipped Lady Pink Ears, queen of the rabbit fairies.

The Shakers practiced a radical separation of the sexes (men and women could never touch each other) and regulated everything (climb out of bed on the left side, with your right foot hitting the floor first).  Their energetic dance-worship drew the attention of many ghosts, iincluding Founding Fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who chatted with them and recited poetry.

Could we go back to the "never touch a woman" rule?  

I read more about the Shakers later, and visited one of the restored Shaker Villages, Sabbathday Lake in Maine.  And last night I saw The Testament of Ann Lee (2025), a sort of musical biopic about the founder of the Shakers.

Yes, it has gay interest.

Ann Lee was born in Manchester, England in 1735, and went to work in the cotton factory when she was five years old.  She had seven siblings, but she was only close to her younger brother William, who followed her everywhere.

She longed to be close to God, but didn't know how.  The rituals in the Anglican Church were meaningless.  Women were not permitted to learn to read, so she couldn't consult the Bible.  All she knew was that a barrier of some sort kept her broken, unable to experience Divine Love.

One night Ann saw her father (Willem van der Vegt, left) having carnal relations with her mother.Points for showing all of Dad's body and none of the wife's.  

 It was a sordid, bestial act; she imagined the Serpent tempting Adam in the Garden of Eden.  The next morning, when Ann called him out on his sin, he beat her.  

Years passed, and  the young adult Ann took a job as a cook in an infirmary, where she was overwhelmed by human suffering.  But she also heard about the Shaking Quakers or Shakers, a radical group that believed that God was male and female,so men and women had equal access to the Divine. 

One night she and her brother William attended a meeting.  The Shakers trembled uncontrollably as they confessed their sins to the group, and then as they were overwhelmed by the joy of God's forgiveness.  They also performed energetic, intricately-choreographed dances.  I imagine that these were not historically accurate, but they are worth the price of admission.

Ann and William had found a home.

  

More after the break