Lancelot of the Lake

Dazzlingly severe and beautiful.

The whole film is shot in compellingly austere colors and a rapt gaze sweeping downward from the sky and ending, horrifyingly fixed on armored bodies lying in the mud.

It's stunningly beautiful, mesmerising, exhausting, uplifting, amazing -- all the things you could possibly expect from a masterpiece.

The style is intact but the content is missing.

Cuts to the heart of the Arthurian tragedy… strips away the early grandeur of Camelot, leaving only the demoralized foundering in the wake of the failed Grail quest.

One suspects that Bresson wanted to interpret Arthurian legend in a way that would emphasize its petty emotions and physicalities.

...a different, far more minimalist approach to the Arthurian story than Hollywood ever took…

The gestures are too stylized, the actors too preciously frozen. But it's the very sense of crystallization the close-shot provides that makes Lancelot work.

The unique vision of [Bresson] has been slow in reaching American audiences, but his treatment of the legend of Sir Lancelot may be the widest door yet into the hermetic beauty of his special world.

Sitting through the 83 minutes is a formidable task but ultimately worth the effort.