Lancelot du Lac is a 1974 French fantasy drama film written and directed by Robert Bresson.

It is based on Arthurian legend and medieval romances, especially the Lancelot-Grail cycle, and the works of Chrétien de Troyes.

Bresson's direction demanded a purposeful lack of emotion in the acting style, and reduced or eliminated the fantastical elements of the Grail legend.

While much of the production is intentionally stylised as Medieval "Romance", the film is punctuated with moments of graphic violence.

After many bloody adventures, King Arthur sends his knights, who have been pledged by the late magician Merlin, to retrieve the Holy Grail, which is believed to be hidden somewhere in Brittany.

His original choice to play Guinevere twenty years previously had been the artist Niki de Saint Phalle, the mother of Laura Duke Condominas, but the project had been delayed again and again.

His final selection of Laura came about by chance when he came across a photograph of the daughter with no prior information about who she was or that she was in fact the direct descendant of his first choice.

[2] The 1996 issue of Positif reports that in 1964 Bresson wrote to George Cukor, saying he would like to make the film in English, with Natalie Wood and Burt Lancaster.

[5] The film was well-received among critics, currently holding a 95% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 16 reviews.

[6] It was Michael Haneke's second-place choice in the 2002 Sight & Sound poll of the greatest films ever made.