Alexandre Astier Lionnel Astier Joëlle Sevilla Thomas Cousseau Anne Girouard Franck Pitiot Jean-Christophe Hembert Simon Astier Nicolas Gabion Jacques Chambon Audrey Fleurot
January 3, 2005(2005-01-03)– October 31, 2009(2009-10-31)
Kaamelott is a French comedymedieval fantasytelevision series created, directed, written, scored, and edited by Alexandre Astier, who also starred as the main character.[1] Based on the Arthurian legends, it followed the daily lives of King Arthur (Alexandre Astier) and his Knights of the Round Table in Camelot.[2] The series, which originally ran for six seasons (referred to as "books"), ran from 2005 to 2009, on the network M6.
The series was preceded in 2003 by a short film, Dies iræ, with mostly the same cast and concept, which was used to pitch the idea of the series to the network, which at a time was looking to replace another successful short TV series, Caméra Café. However, Kaamelott exceeded Caméra Café's audience only three weeks after broadcasting started. It is widely regarded as one of the best, most iconic, and most popular French TV series of all time.[3][4] It has also been praised for its fidelity as, outside of comedic and linguistic liberties, it stays faithful to the mythology and historic context.[5]
While the series takes place in the 5th century, it uses modern language and situations to create a humorous view of the Arthurian legend. However, in latter seasons, the mood becomes darker and more dramatic as Arthur's kingdom begins to disintegrate.[6] The cast includes regular Astier collaborator Jean-Christophe Hembert (Karadoc), who directed his two subsequent one-man shows, and Astier's father Lionnel (Leodegrance), his mother Joëlle Sevilla (Dame Séli) and his half-brother Simon (Yvain).
After the end of the series in 2009, Astier started working on a film trilogy meant to conclude the story of the series. First announced in 2012 and planned for a shooting in 2013, production for the first film, Kaamelott: The First Chapter, was suspended and then repeatedly postponed due to various issues; filming eventually begun in January 2019, and it was released on July 21, 2021.[7]
Episodes
Format and broadcast
The episode format for Kaamelott was at first very short. Unaired pilot episodes attempted a six-minute format that was rejected by the television network. Broadcast episodes from season 1 to 4 lasted about three and a half minutes, the same as Caméra Café. These seasons are made up of a hundred of these short episodes, and originally seven such seasons were planned by Astier and M6. A season is referred to as a "livre", which means "book", in the promotional material and DVD covers.
The episodes were broadcast on M6 in France starting in 2005 in prime time (8:30PM to 8:40PM), two every weeknight evening for seasons 1–4. The week's full ten episodes were aired on the Saturday of that same week. Each such season lasted ten weeks. A week's worth of episodes is about 35 minutes, which is comparable to the American one-hour network format of ca. 44 minutes or to the British half-hour format of 30 minutes. Each episode features a teaser, opening titles, three acts, closing titles and a tag, like an American sitcom episode. Season 1 aired early in 2005, 2 in fall 2005, 3 early in 2006, and 4 in fall 2006.
Each season attracted more viewers, with records reaching about 5 million viewers each evening.
The first half of Season 5 aired in spring 2007 as two 52-minute episodes, followed by 5 weeks of 7-minute episodes (telling the same story, but with additional material) presented on the same schedule as the earlier seasons. The second half followed the same format in the fall of 2007.
Season 4 was the first season to have an overall story arc. Whereas in the earlier seasons one could watch the short episodes in any order, in Season 4 more than half the episodes were connected to a plot (and episodes 99 and 100 form a single episode with no break).
Season 5 has several intertwining plots which are presented chronologically through the whole season. This presented storytelling and editing problems which were incompatible with the old 3½-minute format, and has resulted in at least 3 different versions of Season 5: 3 52-minute episodes as televised, 50 7-minute episodes as televised, 8 52-minutes episodes in the DVD "director's cut." In the interview of the DVD, Alexandre Astier explains that is in the director's cut version that season 5 must be seen.
Season 6 was always, from the time shooting began, conceived of as a series of 40-minute episodes which would be presented as a miniseries, not cut up into shorter episodes.
Around the time that shooting began on Season 6, Astier announced that there would be no Season 7. Season 6 consists of a prequel (how Arthur became king of Britain) followed by an episode which is a sequel to Season 5.
Season 6 had a theatrical premiere as part of the "Paris fait sa comédie" festival, with a showing of seven episodes at the Grand Rex theater on March 25, 2009. The Livre was shown on M6 in October and November 2009, as a series of nine 40-minute episodes, three each Saturday night. The ratings for Livre 6 were relatively low (2.2-2.65 million), perhaps because the DVD was expected to hit the market almost immediately afterwards.
Astier hopes to follow the television series with a trilogy of films about Arthur. He has said that the last episode of Season 6 prepares the audience for the movie series.
Production
From the beginning, the series was shot in a widescreen format and the photography was comparable to movie quality. Thus in appearance the film is a drama rather than a sitcom.
As the series goes on, there are more and more exteriors. Seasons 1-4 take place almost entirely in or near the fortress of Kaamelott. For the first two seasons, the interiors were shot in Paris, but production moved to Lyon for the third season (entailing changes in some sets, particularly Merlin's Laboratory). The castle exteriors are filmed at Montmelas-Saint-Sorlin a medieval castle near Lyon. Parts of Seasons 5 and 6 were filmed in Brittany, and some of Season 6 was filmed in Rome at the Cinecittà Studios on the sets built for HBO's Rome.
The shooting schedule for 100 episodes was 50 days in the early seasons, expanding later to 60 days; Astier prepares the scenarios for the entire season ahead of time.[8] In order to shoot as economically and quickly as possible, all the scenes using a particular set (especially exteriors) are shot consecutively. This gives each season an individual texture, since an exterior setting will always have the same weather, more or less, and characters wear the same clothing in a particular setting when it reappears in various episodes.[9] The last 12 episodes of Season 2 were shot at the same time as the Season 3 episodes.[10]
Costuming continuity is achieved in the first seasons simply by having the principal characters dressed the same in nearly every episode. Knights seated at the Round Table wear armor in the first four seasons, and in the first season they also wear armor in battle exteriors. Through the first five seasons, though new costumes are introduced, Karadoc usually wears red, Perceval blue, Lancelot off-white, and Bohort green (in a few episodes, Sir Herve appears in a yellow costume). Arthur wears blacks with deep reds and purples; Leodagan gray or gray-blue and black.
Astier usually writes the actual dialogue the night before a scene is shot.[11] Thus if a three-minute episode includes an exterior scene, a scene in a bedroom, and a scene in the hallway, the actors would be learning their lines for the episode (along with the lines for other bits of episodes using that set) on three different days.
The series title refers of course to Arthur's fortress Camelot; the peculiar spelling may come from the Old French Kamaalot, a spelling which can be found in the 13th-century French Lancelot-Grail cyclical romances.[12] The double A forms the monogram of the show's creator, and the title generates puns based on the French word camelote ("cheap junk").
Genre
The short format of the first four seasons demanded a comic structure, with each episode ending on an ironic note of some kind which would twist the situation presented into a memorable whole. Thus the series was perceived as pure comedy—parody, satire, sitcom, or “so British,” meaning a straight-faced historical send-up in the style of Rowan Atkinson's Blackadder or Monty Python and the Holy Grail.[13] Astier had a lot of explaining to do when Season 5 turned out to have a very dark plot, full of terrible obsessions and passions.[14] Season 5 also involved a move towards a different format; it was broadcast both in short format and in longer sections, and the DVD cut resembled a dramatic miniseries. Season 6 was conceived and edited only in a miniseries format, with long episodes telling a story that is primarily dramatic, with incidental comic elements.
Fantasy elements have been limited, undoubtedly to some extent by the budget. However, a few episodes suggest the possibility of an intersection of the traditional Arthurian world of fairies and wizards with science fiction (see the description of Perceval's character below).
Historical and traditional content
Although the show was at first perceived as pure comedy, in many ways it follows the medieval Arthurian legends, including such traditional characters as Lancelot, Guenièvre, Bohort (Bors), Perceval, Merlin, and the Lady of the Lake, as well as the Holy Grail and the sword Excalibur. The early seasons often include twists on traditional Arthurian or medieval themes which might delight scholars; historians Eric Le Nabour and Martin Aurell have published two books based on the series, and a number of distinguished medievalists are interviewed in the 5-part documentary "Aux sources de Kaamelott" by Christophe Chabert, which accompanies the DVD sets.
Like other 21st-century Arthurian versions such as King Arthur and The Last Legion, this one emphasizes Arthur's ties with Rome and its empire. In Season 1 of Kaamelott, several characters speak of adventures in Rome, but Arthur does not seem to like Roman art, food, etc.; however, in subsequent seasons his Roman connections become important to his character and history. Season 6 tells the story of how Arthur, a policeman in Rome, comes to understand his destiny and take the crown of Britain.
Traditionally Arthurian romance includes fantasy elements, but Astier may intend to connect these eventually to science fiction. He includes references to Stargate (Perceval travels through one in episodes in Livres 2 and 3) and Star Wars (in the Livre 3 Stargate episode, Perceval visits Tatooine and brings back a light-saber, which Arthur perceives as much like Excalibur; also, in Livre 1, Bohort, the minister of protocol, sometimes seems very much like C-3PO!).[15] The first episode entitled "Silbury Hill" suggests the operation of spiritual beings everywhere in Britain, but "Silbury Hill II" implies these are extraterrestrials and that this is known to Arthur and Léodagan. In Livre VI, we learn that Perceval was found as a baby in a crop circle, which, if these are made by space travellers from other planets, explains his affinity for stargates. Supernatural beings encountered by Arthur include Morgan Le Fay (not his sister, but involved with his eventual fate), Méléagant the emissary of gods who seem to want to destroy human rulers, and his guide the Lady of the Lake; at the beginning of Livre VI.2, a meeting of the gods whom the Lady of the Lake represents is depicted on Alpha Centauri, which implies that they at least are beings whose home is "the stars" rather than on earth. Thus, rather than recording relationships between humans and fairies, Kaamelott seems to posit relationships between Arthur and superior beings from other parts of the universe.
Like all Arthurian stories, Kaamelott twists history as well, and adds its own view of where Arthur came from and what his reign means.[16]Roman Britain had contributed armies, generals, and maybe an emperor to the Roman empire;[17] but in Kaamelott, Britain is an aggregate of kingdoms which perceives Rome as an occupying force and Arthur perhaps as a Pétain[18] for having made peace with the Romans. The enemies of the historical Britons in the 5th century were the Picts to the north, the Irish (aka the Scots), and the north-Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) who had originally been brought in as mercenaries to fight the Picts. Arthur enters history as the victor of twelve battles of the British against the Saxons[19] and is also often depicted fighting the Picts and the Scots in the north.[20] Astier's Arthur, by contrast, apparently stays close to his fortress Kaamelott, where he is attacked by Angles and Saxons but also by Attila and his Hun, Burgundians, Ostrogoths, Vandals, Vikings, Visigoths—just about every "barbarian" people that was on the move in Europe then (though Attila was active earlier and the Vikings later), except for the Franks, ancestors of the French (though a historically Frankish leader, Chlodoric, does lead "barbarians" against Arthur). The Picts, however, represented by Arthur's mother-in-law Séli, and the Irish, represented by a federated king, are Arthur's allies in Kaamelott. The geopolitics of Kaamelott resembles that of the comic book world of Asterix—a small, primitive "Celtic" society with its druid, warrior, and secret weapon, persisting on the edges of the Roman Empire—more than traditional English or American versions of the Arthur story.[21]
Comic devices
The main comical device of the series is to explore the distance between conventional "epic" presentations of Arthurian legend and the actual day-to-day operations of Arthur and his knights as they seek the holy Grail. Arthur is surrounded by incompetent, lazy knights, easily frightened or distracted, who fail most of their missions or who end up finding but then discarding invaluable artifacts, not understanding the nature of their quest. They speak an everyday language, full of slang and not very articulate; when someone does try to express a complex idea in a complex and exact way, he (usually Arthur, sometimes Bohort) is usually not understood and comes off as rather silly. Moreover, the characters all use the formal second person to address each other—a grammatical feature not present in English, but which produces a hilarious contrast between rude or slangy comments and the formality of expression: “Scram, sir,” or “Get in the tub with me, sir—you're filthy” or “Madam, you are a fish-faced trollop.” The verbal comedy is often pointed up by having the characters talking with their mouths full.
The series also uses slapstick for humor (e.g. a cream-cheese fight in Season 3 “La Grande Bataille”), and running gags, which may be verbal (“La Botte Secrète,” the use of the phrase “You're not wrong” to keep up one end of a conversation one does not understand), physical (“Unagi,” the completely absurd martial arts developed by Karadoc and Perceval; the silly caps the characters wear to bed), musical (the song "À la volette" which recurs through the first season), or character-specific (Merlin's conflict between his role as healer-scientist and the court's idea of a magician, Karadoc's truly Gargantuan need for food, Arthur interrupted in his bath by various incursions). There is little sexual romance; none of the knights seems very interested in women (or other men),[22] and Arthur's relations with his various mistresses is more a comic device than a matter of emotion. Guenièvre, for a reason left mysterious in the first 5 seasons, remains a virgin, and this too is a source of comedy as she tries to figure out, for example, why she can't get pregnant. As the characters become familiar, dramatic or emotional situations can arise from this kind of comedy.
The series occasionally gives humorous (but always possible) explanations for historical facts. For instance, Kaamelott explains the creation of the national attire of Scotland, the kilt, by a misfortune of the king of Caledonia (modern Scotland). His armor's legs rusted when he fell into some water. It turns out to be a rule that a knight of the Round Table must wear either full body armor or his national attire, so the king of Caledonia wraps a cloth around his waist and declares it his country's official attire.
Social and psychological problems
The comic skits sometimes include serious reflections on themes like war, capital punishment and bureaucracy, among many others. The lead character, King Arthur of Britain (or Logres), has very progressive ideas, and tries to abolish the slave trade, torture, and capital punishment. His ideas usually clash with those of his father-in-law and minister of war and justice, Léodagan "Le Sanguinaire"("the Bloodthirsty"). Arthur also clashes with Lancelot, his prime minister and chief of staff, who believes that the Round Table and the Grail Quest should be for an elite, not for the self-selected group of rather ordinary men who have answered Arthur's call. Both Léodagan and Lancelot are exasperated by the shenanigans of the so-called knights, and Arthur is torn between admitting they are pretty useless and insisting that they are worthy of the Grail.
Even the idiotic characters, however, are given qualities that explain Arthur's patience with them, and make them more likable and interesting to the viewer. For instance, Perceval of Wales first appears in medieval literature in the work of Chretien de Troyes as the destined Grail Knight, but also a clumsy and foolish boy. In Kaamelott, he is the only character besides Arthur for whom Excalibur glows when it is picked up.[23] But he is the least confident of the knights,[24] and for good reason. He is not sure of his own name.[25] He fails almost every mission he is trusted to undertake. He is illiterate, cannot understand the concept of a map, and insists North and South are relative concepts. On the other hand, he loves and is extremely faithful to Arthur.[26] In Book 5, Arthur puts Excalibur back into the stone as a way of showing challengers to the throne, coming from all over the country to try to take the magical sword back out again, that only he is the rightful king. Some of Arthur's knights and allies do try their luck with the sword, but Perceval refuses and convinces his fellow knight Karadoc to do the same. Astier has described Perceval as “naïve but lucid” and (provocatively) as “the most intelligent” of the knights in his analysis of the sword in the stone situation.[27] Perceval dreams of space travel and at one point tries to explain the theory of special relativity to Arthur. He also has the ability to count, at a glance, people or objects (such as the stones in the fortress of Kaamelott) and to grasp the "values" of cards or objects in complicated games. In Livre 6, we learn one possible explanation for Perceval's peculiarities: his parents found him in a crop circle; in Livre III.i.22, it is strongly implied that crop circles are made by visiting extraterrestrials. So he may not be human at all.
Plot
The plot of the series up through Season 5 involves a conflict between King Arthur and his best knight, Lancelot. This begins with a few episodes in Season 1 in which we see that Lancelot is in love with Arthur's queen, Guenièvre. In Season 2 Lancelot begins to challenge Arthur; he feels that if Arthur were an effective king, justice would have been established and the knights of the Round Table would be great warriors instead of the clowns ("pantins") they actually are. In Season 3 Lancelot decides to go live in the woods as a "chevalier errant" or wandering knight, and in Season 4 his hermitage becomes a fortress and he begins recruiting men. In Season 4, Guenièvre joins Lancelot and Arthur breaks various “laws” by trying to remarry with Mevanwi, Karadoc's wife; however, at the end he retrieves his wife, who has had enough of camping out, and Lancelot despairs. Season 5's main plots show Lancelot and Arthur separately voyaging into their own pasts and futures as their conflict builds to a real cliffhanger in the final episode. We learn that these two men have been in competition for the throne of Britain since they were born. In Season 5, also, Arthur resigns his kingship and Leodagan and Karadoc attempt to rule. Season 6 consists of a flashback to a period 15 years earlier, showing how Arthur came to power in Britain as a representative of the Roman Empire but also as the chosen of the gods, the only man who can wield Excalibur. We also see how he ended up with such an odd group of "knights" and with a wife with whom he cannot be intimate.
The final episode of Season 6 brings us back to the Season 5 cliffhanger with Arthur still alive but very ill. Lancelot, given power by Arthur based on the latter's enduring trust in him, ravages the island and destroys the Round Table, both physically and spiritually. The final words of the episode, projected over a recovering Arthur, leading up to the projected movie trilogy, are "Soon Arthur will once again be a hero".
King's Prime Minister, later knight errant and even regent during Arthur's absence. He thus starts as Arthur's most trusted friend to becoming his worst opponent.
Many of them are friends or family of Alexandre Astier, and have already worked with him. Family members include his father Lionnel, his half-brother Simon, his mother Joëlle Sevilla, and Simon's mother Josée Drevon. They, and many of the actors in the series, are part of the theater scene in the south of France.
Almost all the actors have been invited by Astier to directly join the show because he had previously worked with them or was familiar with their work. The few persons coming from a casting session are Anne Girouard (Guenièvre), Caroline Ferrus (Mevanwi), Vanessa Guedj (Angharad), Caroline Pascal (Demetra) and Guillaume Briat (King of the Burgundians).
Like Astier (Arthur / director and writer), some actors shared their acting duties with responsibilities in the technical crew. These are Jean-Christophe Hembert (Karadoc / art director), Emmanuel Meirieu (Appius Manilius / graphic designer), Stéphane Margot (Calogrenant / stunt coordinator) and Christian Bujeau (The Master of Arms / swordmaster).
Due to the large cast and the short format, many characters, even important ones, are present only in a limited number of episodes. The only characters to appear in more than 100 of the 458 episodes are King Arthur (446), Léodagan (228), Perceval (195), Karadoc (172), Lancelot (157), Guenièvre (154), Bohort (138) and Father Blaise (105).
Livres 1-3 were issued in two single-disc “tomes” to be purchased individually (each containing 50 episodes).
The 6 Livres have each been issued in a complete ("intégrale") “collector's edition” (3 discs each for Livres 1–4, 4 discs each for Livres 5–6) with bonus material including blooper reels (aka "bêtisier"), pilots, documentaries, previews of next season. This edition has a “bound-book” look (in the style of the Lord of the Rings collectors’ editions) and interior illustrations which include artwork by Jérome Jouvray.[28]
The bonus materials ("Addendum") in the collector's sets include: Livre 1, Dies irae and the pilots, bêtisier (i.e. blooper reel); Livre 2, documentary "Aux Sources de Kaamelott: Les Moeurs et les Femmes," bêtisier, teasers for Livres 1–3; Livre 3, documentary "Aux Sources de Kaamelott: La Magie et l'Eglise," bêtisier, trailer for Livre 4 and for the first comic book; Livre 4, documentary "Aux Sources de Kaamelott: L'Art de la Guerre," bêtisier, trailer for Livre 5 and for the second comic book; Livre 5, interview with Alexandre Astier (wandering around the Cinecitta Rome set), documentary "Aux Sources de Kaamelott: La Géopolitique du Royaume," bêtisier, trailer for Livre 6; Livre 6, documentary "Aux Sources de Kaamelott: Les Chevaliers de la Table Ronde," Making Of documentary, bêtisier
Livres 5 and 6 were released as a 3-disc Blu-ray set, at the same time as the regular (4-disc) DVD set. Since the entire series has been shot in HD, Blu-ray issues of previous Livres are possible.
All the collectors' editions have French subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing as an option for Kaamelott itself. Livres 4, 5, and 6 also have English subtitles. None of the Addendum films have subtitles.
Other editions
A Canadian (Region 1) edition of Livres 1 and 2 (similar to the French Collector's edition) has been released in 2009 by Alliance Vivafilm. The edition is in French (menus, episode titles, etc.) but the episodes have English subtitles. The Addendum episodes (Dies Irae, pilots) do not have subtitles. The artwork inside the case is different from the French edition.[29]
Spin-off
Alexandre Astier has begun publishing the scripts for the series with Éditions Télémaque:
Kaamelott Livre I Texte Intégral: Episodes 1 à 100 (2009). Includes some episodes that were not filmed.
Kaamelott Livre II Texte Intégral: Episodes 1 à 100 (2009)
Five comic books inspired by Kaamelott have been published, from November 2006 to November 2010, with stories by Alexandre Astier and art by Steven Dupré. They can be read in any order:
L'Armée du Nécromant (The Necromancer's Army)
Les Sièges de Transport (The Transporter Seats)
L'Enigme du Coffre (The Mystery of the Strongbox)
Perceval et le Dragon d'Airain (Perceval and the Iron Dragon)
Le Serpent Géant du Lac de l'Ombre (The Giant Snake of the Shadow Lake)
Eric Le Nabour and Martin Aurell have published two books which discuss the series in terms of medieval history and Arthurian legends.
Kaamelott: A la table du roi Arthur. Perrin, 2007 ( ISBN978-2262027094).
4 tie-in items (Arthur's Oghma amulet, a mug, a notebook, and a 2009 calendar) were premiums with the purchase of a "Menu Top" at the Quick hamburger chain in late 2008 and early 2009.[30]
On November 2, 2015, and after several years of conflict with the producer, Alexandre Astier announced the conflict over, and that his project of feature films - whose storyline would be following the sixth season - had started again.[31] The shooting started in January 2019.[32]
Notes
↑ In a TV interview on Dec. 1, 2008, Astier sums up his vision of Kaamelott as "Le médieval fantastique en comédie." ("comedy medieval fantasy") See Dailymotion video to present a new "realistic epic"
↑ See the M6 website for the specification of the 5th century M6 Season 1. This is the traditional period for Arthur's rise to power, though Kaamelott makes his reign a bit early--in the episode "Le Dernier Empereur" (Livre1) the Roman emperor Romulus Augustulus, who ruled in 476, is mentioned as a contemporary.
↑ SND Twitter account announcing the new release date of Kaamelott - Premier Volet
↑ This is particularly noticeable in the Season 2 episodes showing the Havre de Paix ("Haven of Peace"); in two of them, "Les Voeux" and "Always," it is raining.
↑ E.g. in the first sentence of the Queste del saint Graal, ed. Pauphilet (Paris: Champion, 1965)
↑ Two comments on the “British” humor of Seasons 1 and 2: “‘nonsense’ typiquement British,” Véronique Groussard “Alexandre Astier, le turlupin de la Table ronde,” in Le Nouvel Observateur (Télé obs), 14 April 2005; “L’humour British, décalé….” Odile Tessier, “Le phénomène “Kaamelott,’” Le Point, 10 November 2005; both online linked from the CALT website, http://www.robinandco.com/fr/icalt/programme.php?ID=797.769Archived 2008-10-09 at the Wayback Machine .
↑ Astier also refers to a vast number of Hollywood films (e.g. the very first episode is titled "Heat" and in episode 78 of Livre IV, a dialogue is based on the Pacino-De Niro confrontation in the 1995 film Heat).
↑ Astier's vision of Arthur as a dux bellorum is however close to the insight into the history of Britain which Marlow proposes at the beginning of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness: "I was thinking of very old times, when the Romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago -- the other day. . . . Light came out of this river since -- you say Knights? Yes; but it is like a running blaze on a plain, like a flash of lightning in the clouds. We live in the flicker -- may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday. Imagine the feelings of a commander of a fine -- what d'ye call 'em? -- trireme in the Mediterranean, ordered suddenly to the north; run overland across the Gauls in a hurry; put in charge of one of these craft the legionaries -- a wonderful lot of handy men they must have been, too -- used to build, apparently by the hundred, in a month or two, if we may believe what we read. Imagine him here -- the very end of the world, a sea the colour of lead, a sky the colour of smoke, a kind of ship about as rigid as a concertina -- and going up this river with stores, or orders, or what you like. Sand-banks, marshes, forests, savages, -- precious little to eat fit for a civilized man, nothing but Thames water to drink. No Falernian wine here, no going ashore. Here and there a military camp lost in a wilderness, like a needle in a bundle of hay -- cold, fog, tempests, disease, exile, and death -- death skulking in the air, in the water, in the bush."
↑ In the 4th century the usurper Magnus Maximus was acclaimed Emperor by his Roman army in Britain; Constantine the Great was said to have been born of a British mother.
↑ Astier refers to his Arthur as “une espèce de Pétain” in the first part of the documentary “Aux sources de Kaamelott,” on the Livre 2 Collector's DVD Set Addendum disk. Astier's version is somewhat supported by the Historia Brittonum, the earliest compilation of history for the British people, according to which the British took to killing Roman envoys in the early 5th century, though they continued to appeal to the Romans for help against the Picts.
↑ An Astérix-Kaamelott connection almost goes without saying. Near the end of Livre 2, Arthur has his hair cut in the Roman style ("La Coupe Romaine")--so that Astier, the actor, can play a Roman soldier in the film Astérix aux jeux olympiques (2008). Astier has also discussed the importance of Astérix as a model for the Kaamelott comic books; see this online interview. In the second episode of Livre 1, "La Table de Breccan," the artisan who is building the Round Table remarks to Arthur that he has “just delivered 400 dolmens to Winchester,” echoing Obélix's vocation as “menhir deliveryman”... and when, later in the season, Arthur stops by the tavern, he asks for a glass of goat's milk, a beverage which Astérix is known to enjoy (e.g. in Le Tour de Gaule).
↑ Bohort's affect is one that is easily interpreted as gay but in Livre 3, “Au Bonheur des Dames,” he is provided with a beautiful wife who, however, lives far away in Gaunes and is never seen by the court. Karadoc is also married, to the lovely Mevanwi, and has children; but he sees sex as a nasty business one has to go through in order to have children. Perceval has a long and amusing courtship with Guenièvre's maid Angharad, but it comes to nothing; he loves Arthur, as is made clear in Livre 4 “L’Habitué” and Livre 2 “Le Tourment II,” though this love does not seem to have a sexual component. Léodagan enjoys lusting after young women but apparently remains faithful to his termagant wife Séli. Lancelot loves Guenièvre but when they finally share a bed he can not figure out how to consummate the relationship. In Livre 5, Yvain has acquired one of Arthur's cast-off mistresses, but she tells Arthur she refuses to sleep with him because of his crude comments ("La Conspiratrice"). In Livre 4 “Anges et Demons” the enchanter Élias tells Arthur that most of the men in Kaamelott are impotent, but it is not clear who among them would actually want to use Élias's little blue pills. The only non-comic sexual relationship in the first 5 seasons is that between Arthur and Mevanwi in Livre 4.
↑ Livre 1, "Le Chevalier Mystère." Compare Chrétien de Troyes, Le Roman de Perceval, ed. Roach (Geneva: Droz, 1955), lines 3572 ff. "The man who did not know his own name made a guess and said he was called Perceval the Welshman, but he didn't actually know if he was telling the truth--but it was true."
↑ In "Le Tourment II" from Livre 2, Perceval works some emotional blackmail on Arthur to get him to tell him he loves him (the scene ends with a hug). Perceval hires a prostitute simply in order to have someone to whom he can explain how he feels about Arthur in Livre 4, "L'Habitué."
↑ Astier says this about Perceval in the interview on the Addendum disk of the Livre 5 Director's Cut DVD set.
↑ A new DVD issue of all seasons is proposed, to begin in 2009. According to the previews of the jacket, this series will have English subtitles for all the Livres, as well as new artwork and logos. This edition will consist of single disks each containing about an hour's worth of material; thus Livre 1 will have 6 separate DVD “chapters.” Information about this edition, to be sold in news kiosques—presumably, a different disk each week or month—was released to the Kaamelott fan forum On En A Gros, where versions of the proposed jackets for Livre 1 are displayed (NB. Chapter 2 has two different designs shown).
The Holy Grail is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenance in infinite abundance, often guarded in the custody of the Fisher King and located in the hidden Grail castle. By analogy, any elusive object or goal of great significance may be perceived as a "holy grail" by those seeking such.
Merlin is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a magician, with several other main roles. The familiar depiction of Merlin, based on an amalgamation of historic and legendary figures, was introduced by the 12th-century British pseudo-historical author Geoffrey of Monmouth and then built on by the French poet Robert de Boron and their prose successors in the 13th century.
Guinevere, also often written in Modern English as Guenevere or Guenever, was, according to Arthurian legend, an early-medieval queen of Great Britain and the wife of King Arthur. First mentioned in popular literature in the early 12th century, nearly 700 years after the purported times of Arthur, Guinevere has since been portrayed as everything from a fatally flawed, villainous and opportunistic traitor to a noble and virtuous lady. Many records of the legend also feature the variably recounted story of her abduction and rescue as a major part of the tale.
Gawain, also known in many other forms and spellings, is a character in Arthurian legend, in which he is King Arthur's nephew and one of the premier Knights of the Round Table. The prototype of Gawain is mentioned under the name Gwalchmei in the earliest Welsh sources. He has subsequently appeared in many Arthurian tales in Welsh, Latin, French, English, Scottish, Dutch, German, Spanish, and Italian, notably as the protagonist of the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Other works featuring Gawain as their central character include De Ortu Waluuanii, Diu Crône, Ywain and Gawain, Golagros and Gawane, Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle, L'âtre périlleux, La Mule sans frein, La Vengeance Raguidel, Le Chevalier à l'épée, Le Livre d'Artus, The Awntyrs off Arthure, The Greene Knight, and The Weddynge of Syr Gawen and Dame Ragnell.
The Knights of the Round Table are the legendary knights of the fellowship of King Arthur that first appeared in the Matter of Britain literature in the mid-12th century. The Knights are an order dedicated to ensuring the peace of Arthur's kingdom following an early warring period, entrusted in later years to undergo a mystical quest for the Holy Grail. The Round Table at which they meet is a symbol of the equality of its members, who range from sovereign royals to minor nobles.
Percival, alternatively called Peredur, is a figure in the legend of King Arthur, often appearing as one of the Knights of the Round Table. First mentioned by the French author Chrétien de Troyes in the tale Perceval, the Story of the Grail, he is best known for being the original hero in the quest for the Grail, before being replaced in later literature by Galahad.
The Fisher King is a figure in Arthurian legend, the last in a long line of British kings tasked with guarding the Holy Grail. The Fisher King is both the protector and physical embodiment of his lands, but a wound renders him impotent and his kingdom barren. Unable to walk or ride a horse, he is sometimes depicted as spending his time fishing while he awaits a "chosen one" who can heal him. Versions of the story vary widely, but the Fisher King is typically depicted as being wounded in the groin, legs, or thigh. The healing of these wounds always depends upon the completion of a hero-knight's task.
Maleagant is a villain from Arthurian legend. In a number of versions of a popular episode, Maleagant abducts King Arthur’s wife, Queen Guinevere, necessitating her rescue by Arthur and his knights. The earliest surviving version of this episode names the abductor Melwas; as Maleagant, he debuts as Lancelot's archenemy in Chrétien de Troyes' French romance Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart. However, all surviving versions seem to be later adaptations of a stock narrative of significantly earlier provenance.
Gaheris is a Knight of the Round Table in the chivalric romance tradition of Arthurian legend. A nephew of King Arthur, Gaheris is the third son of Arthur's sister or half-sister Morgause and her husband Lot, King of Orkney and Lothian. He is the younger brother of Gawain and Agravain, the older brother of Gareth, and half-brother of Mordred. His figure may have been originally derived from that of a brother of Gawain in the early Welsh tradition, and then later split into a separate character of another brother, today best known as Gareth. German poetry also described him as Gawain's cousin instead of brother.
Robert de Boron was a French poet active around the late 12th and early 13th centuries, notable as the reputed author of the poems Joseph d'Arimathie and Merlin. Although little is known of Robert apart from the poems he allegedly wrote, these works and subsequent prose redactions of them had a strong influence on later incarnations of the Arthurian legend and its prose cycles, in particular through their Christianisation and redefinition of the previously ambiguous Grail motif and the character of Merlin, as well as vastly increasing the prominence of the latter.
Agravain is a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend, whose first known appearance is in the works of Chrétien de Troyes. He is the second eldest son of King Lot of Orkney with one of King Arthur's sisters known as Anna or Morgause, thus nephew of King Arthur, and brother to Sir Gawain, Gaheris, and Gareth, as well as half-brother to Mordred. Agravain secretly makes attempts on the life of his hated brother Gaheris since the Vulgate Cycle, participates in the slayings of Lamorak and Palamedes in the Post-Vulgate Cycle, and murders Dinadan in the Prose Tristan. In the French prose cycle tradition included in Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, together with Mordred, he then plays a leading role by exposing his aunt Guinevere's affair with Lancelot, which leads to his death at Lancelot's hand.
This is a bibliography of works about King Arthur, his family, his friends or his enemies. This bibliography includes works that are notable or are by notable authors.
The Lancelot-Grail Cycle, also known as the Vulgate Cycle or the Pseudo-Map Cycle, is an early 13th-century French Arthurian literary cycle consisting of interconnected prose episodes of chivalric romance originally written in Old French. The work of unknown authorship, presenting itself as a chronicle of actual events, retells the legend of King Arthur by focusing on the love affair between Lancelot and Guinevere, the religious quest for the Holy Grail, and the life of Merlin. The highly influential cycle expands on Robert de Boron's "Little Grail Cycle" and the works of Chrétien de Troyes, previously unrelated to each other, by supplementing them with additional details and side stories, as well as lengthy continuations, while tying the entire narrative together into a coherent single tale. Its alternate titles include Philippe Walter's 21st-century edition Le Livre du Graal.
Perceval, the Story of the Grail is the unfinished fifth verse romance by Chrétien de Troyes, written by him in Old French in the late 12th century. Later authors added 54,000 more lines to the original 9,000 in what are known collectively as the Four Continuations, as well as other related texts. Perceval is the earliest recorded account of what was to become the Quest for the Holy Grail but describes only a golden grail in the central scene, does not call it "holy" and treats a lance, appearing at the same time, as equally significant. Besides the eponymous tale of the grail and the young knight Perceval, the poem and its continuations also tell of the adventures of Gawain and some other knights of King Arthur.
Perlesvaus, also called Li Hauz Livres du Graal, is an Old French Arthurian romance dating to the first decade of the 13th century. It purports to be a continuation of Chrétien de Troyes' unfinished Perceval, the Story of the Grail, but it has been called the least canonical Arthurian tale because of its striking differences from other versions.
Alexandre Astier is a French writer, director, editor, scriptwriter, humorist, actor and composer.
Merlin is a partly lost French epic poem written by Robert de Boron in Old French and dating from either the end of the 12th or beginning of the 13th century. The author reworked Geoffrey of Monmouth's material on the legendary Merlin, emphasising Merlin's power to prophesy and linking him to the Holy Grail. The poem tells of his origin and early life as a redeemed Antichrist, his role in the birth of Arthur, and how Arthur became King of Britain. Merlin's story relates to Robert's two other reputed Grail poems, Joseph d'Arimathie and Perceval. Its motifs became popular in medieval and later Arthuriana, notably the introduction of the sword in the stone, the redefinition of the Grail, and turning the previously peripheral Merlin into a key character in the legend of King Arthur.
Kaamelott: The First Chapter, also known as Kaamelott: First Installment is a French comedy-drama fantasy film written, directed, produced by and starring Alexandre Astier, and a sequel to the television series Kaamelott created by Astier.
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