L'imaginaire médiéval dans le cinéma occidental by François Amy de la Bretèque (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS83 The New Historians ofthe Twelfth-Century Renaissance (Woodbridge, 1999). In the light of this recent research, it is clear that Bakhtin's generic distinctions are not especially helpful for our understanding of the Brut, though his views on language prove to be more fruitful. The moral dimension to language and its importance in shaping our response to the theme of betrayal in La^amon's poem is perceptively analysed in chaptct 1, whilst the exploration of the possible interaction between preaching andwriting (chapter 3) makes a number ofcogent points that will certainly be revisited by other scholars. Also notewotthy is the discussion ofthe function of Merlin and his prophecies in the Brut. This is a well-researched, carefully produced and clearly written piece of scholarship, that all students ofLa^amon and ofArthurian literature will read with profit. And while it will not prove to be as controversial as Daniel Donoghue's 1990 article, it is to be hoped that it will spark new research into hithetto unexplored aspects of the Brut. FRANÇOISE LE SAUX University of Reading BRIEF NOTICE: François amy de la BRETÈQUE, L'imaginaire médiéval dans le cinéma occidental. Paris: Honoré Champion Editeur, 2004. Pp.1277. isbn: 2-7453-12064-x. $170 euros. The study of cinema arthuriana begins in France in the 1940s as patt of the more general study ofcinema medievalia. More recently, no one has been a more frequent commentator on cinema arthuriana and medievalia than Professor Amy de la Bretèque. In what will doubtless for some time remain the definitive study ofWestern 'medieval cinema,' he discusses in varying detail more than 500 films. Of special interest to Atthurian scholars will be chapters 10-14 and 16 in which Amy de la Bretèque turns his attention to films about the Round Table, Gawain, Lancelot and Guinevere, Parsifal/Perceval, Merlin, and Tristan and Isolde. Those interested in broadet range of cinema medievalia will also want to read what the author has to say about the cinematic traditions of Robin Hood, Joan ofArc, and the Crusades, as well as about individual films such as Alexander Nevsky, Le Miracle des loups, Le Moine et la sorcière, The Name ofthe Rose, The Nibelungenlied, La Passion Béatrice, The Seventh Seal, and Les Visiteurs du soir. KEVIN J. HARTY \? Salle University ...