Lancelot of the Lake on AllMovie

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 sympathetic terms. Expectedly, the dream of "Camelot" is dashed to bits; Bresson argues that Camelot was never any more than a dream--or rather, a delusion. The mudcaked cinematography of Pasqualino de Santis adds to the iconoclastic flavor of Lancelot of the Lake.