Lancelot is back, and Camelot is tired. The famed knight of legend wants to put an end to his affair with Queen Guinevere whilst crushing any rumors of improper behavior on her part... and Richard Gere is nowhere in sight!
A look at the other reviews on this sight will have clued you in to the fact that this is as far from a Hollywood take as you can get on an old story of myth. Lancelot - and Bresson's filmmaking in general - can be described as minimal, clinical, cold, slow-burn... It is all those things, and yet it isn't. The very mannered, almost robotic performances, have a transe-like nature about them, and when a powerful emotion finally is allowed to burst forth, as with a sad look of hopelessness from Lancelot, or yearning from his Queen... It hits all the harder for it. Bresson strips back the elements we'd expect from such a story, but chooses instead to focus on gestures, repeated nearly to the point of a Buddhist mantra, until they either break the viewer or plunge them into a cathartic realm.
I still don't know whether I "liked" this film, whether I enjoyed it... but it was nearly impossible to look away, and the precision of the craft on display made the experience rather unique.
If this sounds like something you'd enjoy, consider deferring your gratification (or frustration) and check out the superior and more approachable Au Hasard Balthazar or A Man Escaped first, then come back here.
This was one hell of a strange ride!
A look at the other reviews on this sight will have clued you in to the fact that this is as far from a Hollywood take as you can get on an old story of myth. Lancelot - and Bresson's filmmaking in general - can be described as minimal, clinical, cold, slow-burn... It is all those things, and yet it isn't. The very mannered, almost robotic performances, have a transe-like nature about them, and when a powerful emotion finally is allowed to burst forth, as with a sad look of hopelessness from Lancelot, or yearning from his Queen... It hits all the harder for it. Bresson strips back the elements we'd expect from such a story, but chooses instead to focus on gestures, repeated nearly to the point of a Buddhist mantra, until they either break the viewer or plunge them into a cathartic realm.
I still don't know whether I "liked" this film, whether I enjoyed it... but it was nearly impossible to look away, and the precision of the craft on display made the experience rather unique.
If this sounds like something you'd enjoy, consider deferring your gratification (or frustration) and check out the superior and more approachable Au Hasard Balthazar or A Man Escaped first, then come back here.
This was one hell of a strange ride!