The Song of Roland (1978)
"La chanson de Roland" (original title)

Director:

Frank Cassenti

Writers:

Michèle-Anne Mercier, Thierry Joly,

Stars:

Klaus Kinski, Alain Cuny, Dominique Sanda

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Klaus Kinski	...	Roland / Klaus
Alain Cuny	...	Turpin / Le moine
Dominique Sanda	...	Anna
Pierre Clémenti	...	Olivier / Le clerc
Jean-Pierre Kalfon	...	Marsile / Turold / Charlemagne
Monique Mercure	...	Marie
Niels Arestrup	...	Le commerçant / Oton
Serge Merlin	...	Pair Marsile / Ganelon / Thierry
László Szabó	...	Duc Naimes / Chevalier hongrois
Mario Gonzales	...	Blancandrin / Jeannot, le voleur
Yvan Labejoff	...	Turgis / L'esclave noir (as Yvan Labejof)
Isabelle Mercanton	...	Femme commercant
Dominique Valentin	...	La fille du seigneur
Marilu Marini	...	La femme du seigneur
Jean-Claude Brialy	...	Le Seigneur

Storyline

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Mystery

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Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

4 October 1978 (France)

Also Known As:

The Song of Roland

Company Credits

Production Co:

Z Productions, France 3 (FR 3), Aviva Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

User Reviews

A great, clearly underrated film.

First of all, "La chanson de Roland" is a great film. But, unfortunately, it's quite an unknown one. Unlike other "medieval" films (e.g. Anthony Mann's "El Cid") there's no "sword-battle-american-pulp-shit" stuff, but a hard intellectual effort in order to offer us a realistic version of the European Middle Ages. And also an extraordinary respect for the text it is based on, which proves that there's an exact point between plain translation into images and "commercial" or "updating" stupidness (but you must be clever enough to find it!). The director seems to know this ancient French literary masterpiece as deeply as sir Lawrence Olivier knew Shakespeare's greatest plays. Last but not least, Kinski is superb, either as the poor "jongleur" who's traveling to Santiago de Compostela with his mates, or Roland, the hero from the story he tells during their pilgrimage. I'd recommend this film to any viewer, and specially to teachers who'd like to find an easy, powerful way to show their students how "different" and fascinating the Middle Ages can be.