Whether you like it or not Kaamelott, you will love The Green Knight by David Lowery, available this Monday on Amazon Prime. The director of A Ghost Story and The Lovers of Texas, trains Dev Patel (discovered with Slumdog Millionaire) in a cheeky re-reading of Arthurian legend.
Nothing to do with the erudite and eccentric vision of Alexandre Astier. David Lowery dares to make a beautiful but arid work, a journey into a hostile Middle Ages between chivalrous gesture and philosophical tale. Gauvain, King Arthur’s nephew, has a year to prove his worth to the Green Knight he beheaded and who challenged him by leaving with his head under his arm. His magical quest takes the hero, along with the viewer, into a world populated by thieves, giants, talking animals, rest-seeking specters and all manner of amazing creatures.
A philosophical tale
Alicia Vikander and Joel Edgerton have joined the cast of this film which dares to give time to time to better captivate its audience. “I wanted to find the rhythm of the original poem Gauvain and the Green Knight, explains David Lowery to the site
Indiewire. A text which gives Nature the possibility of taking back from men what she has given them. His hero will meet humanity in all its forms, benevolent or abject, in the hope of creating his own legend. To achieve this, he will have to choose between bravery and cowardice, facing his demons or running away from them. David Lowery is not afraid to turn his story into a philosophical reflection, even if it may confuse or lose some viewers.
In the midst of rowdy productions, The Green Knight manages to make the epic intimate and vice versa by taking the form of a dreamlike work. The beauty of the image by Drew Roz Palermo (to whom we already owe the photo of A Ghost Story) and exceptional work on the soundtrack have an immersive virtue for those who accept to get carried away. While it is unfortunate that the film does not come out on the big screen in France to magnify the experience, its qualities and its originality make it possible to impose David Lowery’s powerful vision whatever the medium which welcomes it. We all have a “Green Knight” to face.
“The Lovers of Texas”: David Lowery signs a slow-motion western