Eric Rohmer has created a problematic Perceval, a rather intransigently autonomous work with many of the advantages of autonomy, and nonetheless a certain static delight in the Christology which is his topic. Rohmer has adapted the Chrétien de Troyes and maintained an almost didactically insistent rhyme-scheme throughout as part of the narration and dialogue. The sets are beautifully reduced, almost Kabuki versions of the real, as Rohmer insists on distancing us from any pathetic sense of mimesis. He is faithful to his form, committed, as Adorno has it, to the materiality of his art, and that paradoxically, is the political in Rohmer.

Perceval is "played" by a Buster Keatonish Fabrice Luchini. As a matter of fact, Rohmer has always displayed a particular affection for the master-comedian Keaton, and a certain expansive melancholy reigns over the work and sometimes mars its tone and at most moments induces both...