Kaamelott (2004– )

In this off beat account of King Arthur's quest for the Grail, virtually every journey, battle or adventure is stopped dead in its tracks by the knights of the round table's most worldly ... See full summary »

Creator:

Alexandre Astier

Stars:

Alexandre Astier, Lionnel Astier, Franck Pitiot

Cast

Series cast summary:
Alexandre Astier	...	Arthur, roi de Bretagne (446 episodes, 2004-2009)
Lionnel Astier	...	Léodagan, roi de Carmélide (228 episodes, 2004-2009)
Franck Pitiot	...	Perceval, chevalier du Pays de Galles (194 episodes, 2004-2009)

Storyline

In this off beat account of King Arthur's quest for the Grail, virtually every journey, battle or adventure is stopped dead in its tracks by the knights of the round table's most worldly traits : cowardice, greed, idiocy or misplaced chivalry. As a consequence, instead of epic adventures we are treated with the characters' pragmatic and anachronistic take on each and every event in the Grail legend, true to the purest sitcom tradition.

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Plot Keywords:

king | camelot | cult tv | queen | sword | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Adventure | Fantasy

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Details

Official Sites:

M6 [fr]

Country:

France

Language:

French

Company Credits

Production Co:

CALT Productions, Dies Irae, Shortcom

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The director, Alexandre Astier, cast his parents, Lionnel Astier and Joëlle Sevilla, as Guinièvre's parents. He cast his half-brother Simon Astier as Guinièvre's brother (so that Lionnel and Simon, who are father and son, play father and son). He cast Simon's mother, Josée Drevon, as Arthur's mother Ygerne. Since Alexandre Astier plays Arthur, he is thus surrounded by his own family. He and his father look so much alike that the comic book artist Steven Dupré had to make Léodagan (Lionnel's character) look fatter so that he would not be confused with King Arthur.

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Quotes

Arthur, roi de Bretagne: It's not an option, you note down everything. I never asked for letters 15 feet high and decorated with flowers and angels though.
Karadoc, chevalier de Vannes: Don't take out the pictures, it's the only bit I understand.

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Connections

Follows Dies irae (2003)

User Reviews

Addictive comedy

This is one of the best comedies I've ever seen. As a translator, I'd be hard-pressed to put this into English - it pushes the envelope to the limit in its own language. The wordplay is amazing.

Each episode is about 3.5 minutes (!), over 6 seasons. In the first three seasons, the episodes are stand-alone, with a few seeds planted for the story arcs that arise in the 4th and 5th, which take a serious turn while remaining funny. I haven't yet seen season 6. Every episode, very intelligently written, has us coming back for the next (for the time being, they can be seen on YouTube).

A humorous take on Arthurian legend, other than Père Blaise, the Roman-educated Arthur is the only erudite person in Kaamelott. He's surrounded by a bunch of "billes", "marteaux", "clodos" and what not, who exasperate him with primitive values and general ineptness, a misuse of the language, and misunderstanding of the simplest instructions.

Each character is distinct from the others. Perceval, for example, is an idiot-savant who simply can't get an instruction right. Leodagan, Arthur's father-in-law, is the irascible knee-jerk rule-by-force male member of the "couple infernal" in which he's married to the shrew Dame Seli. Their battles are legendary. Their daughter, Guenevièvre, is the twit who's married to Arthur. Their son Yvain is a lazy oaf whose best friend, Gavain, is not much better. Bohort is a febrile coward whose face is always contorted with tension, Merlin is addle-pated, the Lady of the Lake is visible only to Arthur, which Arthur can't get others to understand, and so on.

Despite all this, it's quite faithful to the actual legend and the story manages to build up a lot of tension as well as tenderness through season 5. It has earned an ardent following in France and Canada. If you have any understanding of French, you gotta see it, otherwise, you might find some episodes with English subtitles on YouTube.