Lancelot of the Lake (1974)
Average Rating: 8.3/10
Reviews Counted: 16
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 1
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 3
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 1
liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 1,241
My Rating
Movie Info
As with his earlier Trial of Joan of Arc, French-filmmaker Robert Bresson effectively casts unknowns in his interpretation of the Knights of the Round Table saga. Breaking with the standard romantic spin on this legend, Bresson offers us a selfish, ruthless Lancelot, no better than the other grubby "nobles" who seek but fail to find the Holy Grail. Returning from his futile mission, Lancelot callously renews his affair with King Arthur's Guenevere, who likewise is depicted in less than
Jan 1, 1974 Limited
May 25, 2004
Cast
-
Luc Simon
Lancelot -
Humbert Balsan
Gawain -
Vladmir Antolek-Oresk
King Arthur -
Patrick Bernhard
Modred -
Laura Duke Condominas
Guinevere -
Arthur De Montalembert
Lionel -
-
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All Critics (16) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (15) | Rotten (2) | DVD (4)
It's stunningly beautiful, mesmerising, exhausting, uplifting, amazing -- all the things you could possibly expect from a masterpiece.
Top CriticThe style is intact but the content is missing.
It belongs with Pickpocket and Au hasard Balthazar at the highest level of Bresson's achievement.
Bresson's stripped-to-the-bone adaptation eschews the traditionally heroic, spectacular, fabulous, and exaltedly romantic aspects of the legendary saga in order to lay bare the confusion and pain within the human soul.
Richly symbolic drama, endlessly inventive.
It's often characterized as a 'despairing' film in Bresson's late oeuvre, but in fact, it's an elegiac lamentation...beautifully rendered in loving, rhythmic care.
Cuts to the heart of the Arthurian tragedy… strips away the early grandeur of Camelot, leaving only the demoralized foundering in the wake of the failed Grail quest.
Bresson strips away frippery to such an extent that it should be a coma-inducing slog, but it's not.
It has a magnificence that creeps out a little at a time, especially over repeated viewings.
For Bresson fans, this is as good as it gets...for now at least.
Even with a well-known story as its backdrop, it is only upon the third or fourth viewing that one can even begin to contemplate the larger questions at work in the film.
One suspects that Bresson wanted to interpret Arthurian legend in a way that would emphasize its petty emotions and physicalities.
Having seen Bresson's filmography in full (including this film twice), I'm convinced that Lancelot of the Lake is on par with his very best and most transcendent work.
Casts a magical spell over an old legend and reinvents it.
A sublime masterpiece, at once majestic and accessible.
Bresson's knights are wanderers in the forest whose every move reverberates with the clang of chain mail.
Bresson's style may not be for everyone, but one has to respect his strength as an artist.
Audience Reviews for Lancelot of the Lake
Super Reviewer
To start, "Lancelot of the Lake" takes an intriguing approach to violence, with the only graphic detail in its opening sequence(if it looks familiar, it should be pointed out that "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" was made the following year), before pretty much avoiding it for the rest of the film, which speaks volumes to the knights' worthiness, considering their history of bloodshed and pillaging. This film is set during the downward slide of Arthur's rule, as he has no wish to replace any fallen knights. Otherwise, the movie can be talky, focusing more on relationships, which confirms the eternal power of this venerable tale.
Super Reviewer
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Foreign Titles
- Lancelot, Ritter der Königin (DE)
- Lancelot of the Lake (Lancelot Du Lac) (UK)
