Coming up with ideas for our French club activities, I discovered this series alongside my fellow officer Emily Nienhueser. We’ve come to absolutely love it in spite of our at-best moderate French speaking abilities, and I’d like to share it with you all today.
Exploring Kaamelott
Kaamelott Main Cast Photo and Logo (3)
Introduction:
Kaamelott is a French comedy series created by French writer, composer, and filmmaker Alexander Asiter, alongside Alain Kappauf and Jean-Yves Robin. All with a comedic spin, the show covers everything under the Arthurian umbrella (though not entirely chronologically): from King Arthur’s childhood, the metaphorical (and very literal) construction of The Round Table, the quintissential yet neverending plans to find the Holy Grail, as well as the iconic love triangle between Lancelot and Guenivere. Of course, as a comedy series, this is all presented to the viewer in a hilarious and unserious manner– much different from the texts we have been exploring in class (though those are certainly humorous in their own ways).
Book I Box Cover (1)
Premiering on Métropole Télévision (M6) in 2005, the series has spanned an immense spread of nearly five-hundred episodes, sticking around approximately three minutes for the majority of the series. Though it is important to note that as its popularity grew, the show shifted towards a more dramatic and cohesive storyline– as a result, its final sixth season has only nine episodes of 45 minutes each. With all of this in mind (and for your sanity and mine), I’ll be focusing more on the general production of Kaamelott before delving into a few of its most relevant episodes and characters from its more comedic beginnings (Book I and Book II specifically).
Radio Télévision Suisse’s Sarah Olivier explains that while Alexander Astier (who also plays King Arthur) and crew wanted to stay as close to the “Arthurian tradition” as possible, the leniency and multiplicity thanks to all the various interpretations of the legends allowed for a writing style “that respond[s] to a contemporary expectation” (RTV). The brief, episodic nature of Kaamelott is able to capture the same feel of a rotating, recurring set of knight characters as Medieval adaptations have done– Mallory’s for example, though with much more brevity in mind. While a great number of episodes reference specific moments and arcs within Arthurian literature, a similar number avoid them all together in lieu of more simple, comedic vignettes. We’ll dive deeper into this right now, with links to episodes mentioned. I've made sure the English captions are at the very least accurate (to my knowledge) and also not 30~ seconds behind. Make sure to turn them on for the best viewing experience!
Exploring Some Episodes
As mentioned previously, Kaamelott starts off at the very beginning of King Arthur’s court– the subject matter in episode #3 (“La Table de Breccan”) is, in fact, the literal building of The Round Table. Like most comedic interpretations of Arthurian Legend, this takes a humorous spin on what was/is a pre-existing issue for King Arthur: he must construct a crew of trustable knights to find the Holy Grail. Of course, in this comedic version, what takes precedence instead are the real questions: what’s the material of the table? Can the carpenter Breccan sign his initials on it for advertising purposes? And hey, what are you even going to be using this table for? The Lady of The Lake also appears here (as she does on many occasions), giving Arthur counsel and witty banter. You can watch the episode here:
Episode #3 (“La Table de Breccan”)
Episodes like #48 in book II (“La Vigilance d’Arthur”), directly address the growing love triangle between Guenivere and Lancelot, with Arthur calling Lancelot in for a private meeting to discuss the matter. King Arthur’s rocky relationship with Guenivere is amplified within Kaamelott for further comedic possibilities, with Arthur and Lancelot arguing over the smallest of complications (like making sure absolutely everyone is out of the room, even the guards). Once again to lighten the more tense nature of these relationships like we see in Mallory’s version, here the situation is played for laughs. (Link here). This dynamic shows up periodically throughout the course of the series, though King Arthur’s own relationship escapades with characters such as “Dementra” are also just as seen. With this in mind, this results in a somewhat different relationship between King Arthur and Queen Guenivere: more-or-less knowingly equal in their infidelity, they are often at peace with it for more than "saving face" within the court. Oftentimes, episodes of Kaamelott begin and end with King Arthur and Guenivere in bed together at the end of the day, providing eachother counsel for episode-related issues.
Arthur cheeses the audience (4)
Excalibur makes a variety of appearances as well, though of course not in the way we would expect it. Often treated as little more than a toy, the poor sword is lost and misused a multitude of times throughout the series. Another great example is in episode #99 of Book II (“L’Orateur”), in which King Arthur finds no other way to calm down his peasant community from recent political tensions but to pull out Excalibur and flash it around like jingling keys in front of a toddler. Considering the very serious manner in which the grand sword has been built up in Arthurian legend, this is a refreshing change of pace! (Link here)
Other more humorous episodes not particularly related to the legends, instead present a bit of real-world logic to questions otherwise unanswered (or unasked, really). Take episode #35 of Book II for example (“Merlin l'Archaïque”). The situation here is that Arthur plans on awarding his court with gold equaling their birth dates, but this of course poses a problem when it's revealed that Merlin is, in fact, 884 years old. (Link here)
Of course, the setting for all these episodes is unquestionably Arthurian and considerably well-done. If someone were to present a screenshot of an episode with no other context, one could easily mistake it for another Arthurian drama series. On the other hand, I believe this enhances the humor factor even more when we see these well-known characters act in the manners that they do.
The Knights
Headshot of King Arthur (2)
Instead of King Arthur simply being the guiding force behind a kingdom, Kaamelott’s Arthur is presented in the midst of the action and actively fighting beside his fellow knights, developing his character from what was once a benevolent king surveying his court to being a bonafide “one of us”. In addition, he has a much more extensive and visible hand in the activities of his kingdom, and a great number of episodes focus on interactions with other kingdoms and the cunning ways he is able to talk himself out of them, as seen in the “L’orateur” episode.
In addition, all the knight’s we’ve come to know make an appearance at one point or another within the series, though their names differ considerably as this is a production from France. Since through time their names have taken on a multitude of variations, I will be directly comparing them with only Mallory’s version to avoid confusion.
The recurring character Sir Bors de Ganis for example, here is named “Sir Bohort de Gaunes”. Sir Borhot in this adaptation, like many of the Knights represented here, are still in-training: being portrayed as witless and always on the nerves of King Arthur for comedic purposes.
"Do you mind if I vomit?" (5)
Take episode #14 of Book II (“Les Classes de Bohort”) for example, in which a frustrated Arthur sets him up with training in order to help him handle himself in battle without running away in fear (which he is depicted as always doing, without fail). This creates a humorous scene with the semi-unstable Arms Master. (Link here)
Other recurring knights include Sir Yvain and Sir Gawain (spelt here as Gauain), who even though already established as Knights of The Round Table, are still just as ridiculous. Entirely absent are the knights who we’ve come to know as accumulating impressive amounts of prowess for their feats. In episode #82 (“Trois Cent Soixante Degrés”), they mistake Arthur’s simple advice of doing a “360” check around a new room once entered quite extensively. Not only mistaking it for checking the temperature of the room, they also decide upon spinning around multiple times (to multiply their safety, of course!) until they literally throw up, as well as attempting (and failing) at math to make sure their spins do not cancel out the “safety” of the room. Referring to our coursework, suddenly Yvain’s mental breakdown in the forest is starting to make sense– and perhaps this is one of the quests Yvain and Gwain go on in Knight of the Lion by Chrétien de Troyes? And no, they don’t do the math correctly either. If you were to check out any episode in this blog, it has to be this one:
Episode #82 (“Trois Cent Soixante Degrés”)
Headshot of Sir Perceval (6)
Arguably the worst for the wear is surprisingly Sir Percival (spelt “Perceval”), even though he is considered in high regard by Merlin in Mallory’s text. Perceval is instead depicted as being constantly confused and out-of-sorts here, creating ridiculous situations for the other knights to deal with. A first example is in his first notable appearance, episode #4 (“le Chevalier mystère”). Perceval has apparently done a rather impressive knightly feat, and has been overall building up a grand reputation– but somehow, he has happened to give the wrong name when taking credit, and nobody has seen him perform these feats to back him up either (Link here). A very extreme example is in episode #50 (“Always”), in which an ill Perceval decides to send a message announcing his death to the court “just in case” despite not being dead at all. Expected chaos ensues until he shows up entirely unbothered at the end of the episode (Link here). Oh Perceval.
With some of these examples in mind, the viewer is presented with rather unique versions of their beloved knightly characters– especially as this depicts a newly formed Round Table prior to some of the tales we have read in class. In a sense, this attemps to “expand” the grander Arthurian lore. What I mean by this is (and following the Sir Yvain and Gawain example): Sir Percival is one of the only knights to properly achieve the Holy Grail and quite literally ascend to a higher plane of existence as a result. As such, Sir Percevial’s eventual destiny to achieve the grail is tested here in the most extreme sense, and he achieves it nonetheless. As such, as Kaamelott the series continues, Percevial's character eventually becomes much more serious and more in-line with what we would expect out of his character. Nonetheless, us media-goers now have the option of adding in these ridiculous escapades into our personal “canon libraries”, before he ultimately becomes one of the greatest knights in Arthurian legend.
Une Comédie ou Une Drame? Ending Thoughts
In 2017, Kaamelott made a return much welcomed by the people of France by way of a film. I mention this because creator Alexander Astier discussed in an interview that, since Kaamelott later evolved into a much more serious and dramatic retelling of the Arthurian tales, he had hoped to once again “reconnect with the nonsense” (Ouest France). I believe this concept of trying to balance light-hearted comedy against earnest representation comes from a very interesting place. As people grow to love and appreciate these characters, and in the same vein as why people write fanfiction, we want to see these knights in all kinds of situations. I’ve come to learn through exploring Kaamelott that there is a special kind of universality with these characters, one that we might find just the same in other beloved works that have been similarly (but lovingly) parodied into oblivion.
Works Cited
“Kaamelott - Alexandre Astier et les sources.” Youtube, uploaded by RTS - Radio Télévision Suisse, 8 Nov. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TUhCcB0Cm8
“Kaamelott. Le tournage du film tiré de la série commencera en 2017.” Ouest-France, 6 Jun. 2016, www.ouest-france.fr/culture/kaamelot-avec-le-film-inspire-astier-entend-renouer-avec-la-deconne-4280199
Thank you for sharking your discovery of Kaamelott and your thoughts on the series, as well as its unique take on the Arthurian legend. It's always exciting to find hidden gems like this in the world of entertainment, especially when they offer a fresh and comedic perspective on well-known stories. Your overview of the show's evolution from its early comedic episodes to more dramatic narrative is insightful, and its fascinating how the creators found a way to balance both aspects.
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Thank you for sharking your discovery of Kaamelott and your thoughts on the series, as well as its unique take on the Arthurian legend. It's always exciting to find hidden gems like this in the world of entertainment, especially when they offer a fresh and comedic perspective on well-known stories. Your overview of the show's evolution from its early comedic episodes to more dramatic narrative is insightful, and its fascinating how the creators found a way to balance both aspects.
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