Cheap Perceval (DVD) (Eric Rohmer) Price

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Customer Reviews of Perceval

Wonderful film for medieval music lovers
Interesting everyone here seems either to hate this film or love it. Little in between. I found the "fake" sets fascinating because they were very effectively evocative of medieval manuscript illuminations -- in fact the whole film seemed like a manuscript motion. The way the musicians stand in consort, the way the ladies hold their hands, etc., resemble countless examples seen in paintings and manuscripts of the 15th century and before. The music is unfailingly authentic: any that is not sung to actual 13th century French melodies is stylistically perfect. Then there are the occasional snippets of actual well-known pieces, such as the lament of Richard the Lion-Hearted that appears briefly in purely instrumental form. I recommend it, but if you would tend to be turned off by the things the negative reviewers harp on, see something else. The things people have written here are factually correct; whether it strikes you as fabulous or unconscionable will depend entirely on your personal sensibilities and taste.

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"I want your love as a reward."
Eric Rohmer's film "Perceval" is the story of the Arthurian knight. The script is based on the 12th century novel by Chretien de Troyes. The role of Perceval is played by a very young Fabrice Luchini. When the film begins, Perceval is a callow youth who lives with his widowed mother. He encounters some knights, and he's so fascinated by them, he decides he wants to be one too. This film retells Perceval's adventures.

The sets are very amateurish--no doubt deliberately so. The castles appear to be made of cardboard and many of the distant scenes are paintings. The sets are more fitting for a stage play. Throughout the film, musicians play medieval-style instruments, and honestly, this was one of the best parts of the film. The jousting scenes are ridiculously simple, and the sword fights--awful.

Some of the characters are just downright bizarre. One actress looks as though she has a starched octopus stuck on her head, and one of the musicians looks like a deranged jester. Fabrice Luchini is one of my favourite actors, but his talent did not shine through in this role. Perceval is selfish and shallow. Another knight says of Perceval "this lad hasn't much wit, but he's well born." And that sums it up. Rohmer's Perceval is not noble or good--in fact, he's a bit thick. The portrayal of King Arthur is no better. The film seemed to make an effort when portraying courtly love, and that is to be commended.

One of the most annoying things about this film is the manner in which characters stop talking to each other and begin to narrate in the third person. For example, a damsel spoke directly to Perceval and then faced the camera and announced "she led him to her room." This sort of shift to third person was distracting and frequent.

Eric Rohmer is one of my favourite directors. His films are intellectual feasts, yet this film did absolutely nothing for me--displacedhuman

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CHRETIEN DE TROYES' ORIGINAL GRAIL FANTASY
Eric Rohmer's French adaptation of Chretien de Troyes' 12th-century story of the Grail Quest is a unique, highly experimental film that alternates between hypnotic allure and apathetic disenchantment. Filmed on blatantly artificial but picturesque sets more reminiscent of a play than a film, Rohmer's episodic tale of the naive Perceval and his quest for knightly glory never quite lives up to its literary pedigree. The cast, which comes complete with a prominent chorus, is for the most part excellent, though Fabrici Luchini as the title character is outdone by Pascale de Boysson's much smaller but more convincing performance as Gauvin. The biggest problem with Rohmer's film is that he and Luchini set Perceval up less as the raw, untutored but essentially noble youth of Chretien's book than as a truly stupid, selfish boor, thereby undercutting much of the story's age-old appeal. Rohmer's Perceval is too callow to engender much viewer sympathy, and only begins to show signs of growth near the very end of the film, when it's too late (for the viewer, anyway!). Moreover, while the surreal set design is usually one of the movie's assets, the lack of realism definitely affects the several fight scenes, which fail to ever be more than cartoonish. Some may also resent the movie's lack of a real ending, but in fact that's part of the original story's enigmatic charm: Chretien didn't finish the book, so Rohmer is just beeing faithful to his source material. Overall, Rohmer's Perceval is an earnest, largely admirable production that gets high marks for sincerity and originality. But the movie's inability to capture the original book's character and spirit is an undeniably major flaw. Because of this drawback, and the film's sheer unconventionality, I only recommend Perceval to die-hard Arthurian fans (like myself). Others may be better off with the likes of Excalibur and Knights of the Round Table, more conventional American films that are both more accessible than Rohmer's piece and moreover provide versions of Perceval more in line with this reviewer's opinion of how the character should be realized.