Perceval le Gallois

Though the aesthetic is part of a specific agenda, the variety/richness of its pleasures prompt a pang for the near-absence of hist. films risking anything like it. How nice to feast your eyes on action & handmade sets for their cultivated fakeness rather than avert your eyes from CG equivalents' standardized fakeness. Rohmer's remarks that true modernity involves fidelity to the past find an echo in Wendell Berry: if using a computer is a new choice, then choosing not to use one is even newer.

Perceval is the polar opposite of Bresson's Lancelot, which is perhaps guilty of imposing modern psychology on the long distant past: it's affirmative of the world it has recreated rather than critical, and the use of blatantly artificial sets is too warm and colourful to be labelled 'Brechtian'. It makes the viewer feel like they are witnessing a dramatic representation of this time from the people who lived it, which is only reinforced by the superb use of diagetic sound in the form of song.

Setting himself the crazy task of representing the Middle Ages cosmos as they would have filmed it, which is not identical to how they painted it, Rohmer pursues the education of a young boy into the codes of chivalry and beyond. The attention paid to all aspects of the aesthetic and historical dilemmas of representing Chrétien de Troyes cinematically today is astonishing, yet, despite the alien world and the constant artifice, the film remains so warm and inviting. Watched it on Good Friday!

Ridiculous and sublime and almost singularly unique, not just compared to the rest of Rohmer's oeuvre but to cinema as a whole. To call it an "atypical" Rohmer film would be a nearly absurd understatement, but at the same time (and perhaps just a bit perversely) it might very well be his most singularly impressive (albeit somewhat perplexing) work, and almost certainly his most ambitious, both on a formal level and as the purest expression of the religious philosophies underlying all his films.

Stands out as an oddity in Rohmer's oeuvre. He transfers De Troyes' epic to film and to modern French, but seeks to preserve its 12th century naivety and rhymes, and complement with primitively stagey sets. The dramaturgy seems to converse with Bresson. You sort of get a sense that in some possible time of yore, this is kind of what an Arthurian stage-play would have looked like - a refreshing experience, if not particularly sweeping.

A play. A dull play. Beautiful trees on stage though, I hope they made good money selling them to sesamestreet or some other big studio afterwards.

A bit dreary for me, which is exactly what I might have expected of a medieval period piece by Rohmer. Lots of people talking in stockings.

Sure, I respect the experiment, but once you get the point I just don't feel motivated to watch it to the end. It's way too long, to tell the truth. I guess I'm just not a 12th century guy. Also Fabrice Luchini seems to be the only one actually acting in this movie, and he must be quite effective because only 40 min into the film I could not think of anything else except slapping hard this dumbhead (pardon my Old French). I don't think I have ever hated a movie character so much.

fun, but prolly more fun if u parle le french

I see something like this and find it hard to believe the French weren't at least aware of Ozu. Of course, Rohmer builds on him and creates his own completely different and unique cinematic language here. Very few films have juggled humor with something as deeply personal and sincere as the final scene here. It's stunningly gorgeous in all its artifice.

Lyrical and poetic dialogue tell a classic tale with stunningly unique visuals. The stylistic choices take some getting used to, but overall it's a very charming film.

Nice Movie