katja von garnier | 80's Movie Guide

Temptation comes in many forms. Blood and Chocolate is based on Annette Curtis Klause's novel about a teenage werewolf who has spent her life trying to hide the fact that she is part wolf. She must choose between her love for a human and her family after her relationship with a visiting American threatens to expose her secret. "Blood and Chocolate" stars Agnes Bruckner ("24"), Hugh Dancy ("Basic Instinct 2,") and Olivier Martinez ("Taking Lives") and is directed by German independent film director Katja von Garnier ("Bandits"). The story takes place in modern day Bucharest and tells the tale of nineteen year old Vivian Gandillon (Bruckner), who has spent her life on the run from the truth... that she is a werewolf. When her affections for a visiting American artist threaten to expose her family's secret society, she must choose between her love for an outsider and betraying the secret vows of her family. Ten years ago, in the remote mountains of Colorado, a young girl watched helplessly as her family was murdered by a pack of angry men for the secret they carried in their blood. She survived by running into the woods, and changing into something the hunters could never find... a wolf. Now, though she lives half a world away, Vivian Gandillon (Agnes Bruckner) is still running. Living in relative safety in Bucharest, Vivian spends her days working at a chocolate shop and nights trawling the city's underground clubs, fending off the reckless antics of her cousin Rafe (Bryan Dick) and his gang of delinquents he calls "The Five." But only when she's running through the woods around the city does Vivian feel truly free... though whatever she's chasing seems continually to elude her. Aiden Galvin (Hugh Dancy) is an artist researching Bucharest's ancient art and relics for his next graphic novel based on the mythology of the loup garoux - shapeshifters whose power to change effortlessly into the forms of both human and wolf was once considered holy among men. Wrestling demons of his own, Aiden hopes to explore the inner lives of these outsiders that he believes were persecuted to extinction - labeled monsters, murderers, werewolves. They achieved what he lacks - transcendence, the ability to change what they are. What he doesn't know is that the loup garoux are not only very real, they're far from extinct. Others may have secrets but none as extraordinary as hers, for Vivian is among the last of her kind, leading a tenuous existence under the protection and control of Gabriel (Olivier Martinez), the powerful and enigmatic leader of one of the last packs of loux garoux on earth. After their brief exchange in the church, Aiden can't get Vivian out of his mind, nor can she forget him. He pursues her until she relents and begins to see him, but she can't bring herself to tell him the truth - and lives in fear of showing him what she really is. If she bleeds, her eyes will betray her as a loup garoux. And what's worse: her future, and who she falls in love with, is already predetermined. Blood and Chocolate Starring: Agnes Bruckner, Hugh Dancy, Olivier Martinez, Katja Riemann, Bryan Dick, Chris Geere, Tom Harper, John Kerr, Jack Wilson, Vitalie Ursu, Kata Dobó Directed by: Katja von Garnier Screenplay by: Ehren Kruger Release Date: January 26th, 2007 MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence / terror, some sexuality and substance abuse. Box Office: $3,526,847 (US total) Studio: Metro Goldwyn Mayer Related Link: View the Full Production Notes for Blood and Chocolate

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Blood and Chocolate: Temptation comes in many forms