lancelot du lac (1974)

lancelot du lac (translated to mean "lancelot of the lake'') represents new territory for robert bresson. the film is borderline fantastically, or at least it bases itself in the realm of fantasy, as a vivid retelling of the legend of king arthur. what is especially interesting about this concept is that it is a distictively french take on a distictly british tale.

the film opens, rather unusually for bresson, with an action scene. its decidely bresson in the choice of angles used to portray the flow of the action, as well as in the pace of the editing. its a rather odd way to open the picture, as it is soon followed by an opening scroll explaining the story up to this point. this opening scroll contains the first of many witty asides presumably aimed at the british origins of the story at hand, with the overuse of the word ''heroic'' et al. post-scroll we cut to a new scenario, one of which is perhaps most familiar with bresson's previous work. a peasent family are disturbed by a lost knight of the realm, in a scene which echoes ''au hasard balthazar''.

bresson's usual use (some would say overuse) of religious iconography is especially prevailant in "lancelot du lac". presumably the premise of the film (the war occurs as it is said to be "gods will") is intended to be a comment on the notion that all wars are a product of religion. alongside this the film deals with ancient superstitions throughout, and much in the same way that paranoia rises in his other films ("a man escaped" and "pickpocket" especially), the woe caused by the superstitions rises. in terms of the different types of faith explored in the film, there are parallels between those of guinevere and lancelot's love for each other and that of jeanne in "pickpocket". the same could be said of balthazar in "au hasard balthazar also.

the scenes of conflict, be they in the sense of practice, the tournament or indeed genuine battle, carry the heavy characteristics with which you would usually expect of bresson. tight panning close ups, fastened to a particular item (joust stick, boot spur) are prevailent throughout, with the emphasis on feet throughout the entire tournament especially noticeable. in fact, throughout this entire sequence we never see above the protagonists waist. its a similiar technique to that of the way in which the pickpocketing sequence from the eponymous film were shot. we, as the viewer are left contemplating the result of the scenario for far longer than we would usually expect to be. as a result this adds an extra layer of tension to the situation. as well as this, bresson uses basic techniques such as laying an upcoming scenes soundtrack over the preceeding ones visuals to great dramatic effect. the scene early on in the picture, wherein lancelot and guinevere are first discovered together by the other knights, uses this technique wonderfully.