Bresson's unique retelling of Arthurian legend opens with
cinematically conventional and bloody combat between armoured
knights, and progresses paradoxically to the most subdued of
climaxes, a final battle where the action takes place off-screen and we
see only the dead and the dying. The result is a haunting vision of
entropy, where the collapse of the Round Table seems to evolve
inevitably from the frailty of human nature, rather than from specific
circumstances. The meaning is intensified by Bresson's unique method
of composition, which focuses on parts of objects to deepen the sense of
division. On the other hand, the tournament is an intensely gripping
set piece of action cinema. Shattering.
