"Bresson has used the background and characters of Arthurian legend as the basis for an original story, systematically eliminating all the fantastic elements. The magic of Merlin and the Lady of the Lake are totally absent, and all we see of the Grail is an image that appears behind an early title which sketches the story's background. This is a distinctly modern Lancelot: the central focus is on the adulterous affair between Lancelot and Guinevere, seen within the wider context of the unsuccessful Grail quest and the dissolution of Arthur's kingdom. The absence of any psychology, the elliptical exposition of the characters' feelings, and the degree to which Bresson isolates them from their environments and defines them in relation to each other, all serve to give them unmistakable contemporary reverberations. And the anonymous scenes of war and carnage that enclose their story register with an effect that is even more timely, exposing a dark terrain where blood is being spilled today." --Jonathan Rosenbaum, Sight & Sound