LANCELOT OF THE LAKE

(1974) Riderless horses gallop through dark woods, limbs are hacked, the knights have failed to find the Grail, and Lancelot adulterously loves Guinevere, but otherwise this is a ruthless deconstruction of the legend, with a tournament shot almost entirely of horses’ legs and flags being raised and lowered, the knights always in full, clanking plate armor, all leading up to a devastating final hecatomb.

REVIEWS

top

“The Arthurian legend stripped bare... Stunningly beautiful, mesmerizing, exhausting, uplifting, amazing — all the things you could possibly expect from a masterpiece.”
– Geoff Brown, Time Out (London)

"Belongs with Pickpocket and Au hasard Balthazar at the highest level of Bresson's achievement."
– Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

"As ravishingly stylized as a painting by Uccello, but hooves and lances suggest gears in a dreamlike machine that generates spurting blood and charred bodies."
– Kristin M. Jones, The Wall Street Journal

"Bresson's style in full flower... A masterpiece of minimalist aggression."
– Jesse Cataldo, Slant Magazine