Lancelot du Lac (1974)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Lancelot du Lac (1974) – R. Bresson

Puzzling (in a good way).  Bresson’s style is, as usual, almost immediately off-putting.  The viewer struggles to figure out his directorial choices (often coming up empty-handed).  Why on Earth would you show the famous jousting tournament (where Lancelot arrives in disguise) with the camera aimed only at the horses’ midsections (that is, missing the jousting action entirely)? Non-professional actors speak their lines expressionlessly and the King Arthur legend as we know it has been shorn of most of its action.  Instead, Bresson focuses in on Lancelot’s predicament – his adultery with Guinivere conflicts with his loyalty to Arthur and his vow to God to end it.  The persistence of this illicit affair brings the couple into conflict with Mordred and other knights but Bresson asks us to infer any deeper psychology ourselves from the surfaces he depicts. Yet the film is not boring. The medieval setting is wrought simply but effectively and the soundtrack is a wonder (with offscreen horses neighing and suits of armor clanking at what must be carefully timed moments). Whether Lancelot achieves salvation through suffering (a perennial theme for Bresson) is another mystery that the viewer can ponder.  Figuring things out (or failing to do so) is half the fun.