Kaamelott
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kaamelott is a French comedy television series which parodies the Arthurian legend. Broadcast on M6 in France since 2005 in prime time (8:30PM to 8:40PM), on TSR2 in Switzerland and on Club RTL in Belgium, each season it has attracted more viewers, with records reaching about 5 millions viewers each evening.
While the series takes place in the 5th century, it uses a lot of modern languages and references to create an humorous view of the Arthurian legend, even in the last chapters, when the mood keeps on being darker and more dramatic as Arthur's kingdom begins to disintegrate.
The series is derived from a short movie, Dies iræ, that the show creator also wrote and directed. The short movie featured mostly the same cast as the TV series and followed the same concept. It was used to pitch the idea of the series to the M6 television network, at a time when M6 was looking to replace another successful short TV series, Caméra Café. However, Kaamelott exceeded Caméra Café's audience only three weeks after broadcasting started.
Contents |
[edit] Episodes
The episode format for Kaamelott is very short. Unaired pilot episodes attempted a six-minute format that was rejected by the television network. Broadcast episodes from season 1 to 4 lasted about three and a half minutes. Starting with season 5, episodes were seven minutes long. A season is made up of a hundred episodes. A season is referred to as a "livre", which means "book", in the promotional material and DVD covers.
The episodes were aired two by two for seasons 1-4, and one at a time starting with season 5, five days a week from Monday to Friday. The week's full ten episodes are aired on the Saturday of that same week. This makes a season one hundred episodes, but only ten weeks long. A week's worth of episodes is about 35 minutes, which is comparable to the American one-hour network format of 44 minutes or to the British half-hour format of 30 minutes. Each episode features a teaser, opening titles, three acts, closing titles and a tag, like an American 22 minute sitcom episode. Season one aired in Spring 2005. From then on, there are two seasons planned per year for a total of seven seasons. If the series is still successful by then, television and three theatrical movies will follow.
As the series goes, there are more and more exteriors, all of which are filmed near Lyon, in France. Most of the early episodes were one-offs, but starting with the second season, more and more importance is given to story arcs.
[edit] Content
The show is first a comedy and made to look like a satire. But, in many ways, it follows the old Arthurian legends very faithfully. The whole series is written and directed by Alexandre Astier, who also acts as King Arthur and composes all the music for the show. The stories sometimes include serious reflections on themes like war, patriarchy, capital punishment and bureaucracy, among many others.
The main comical device of the series is to explore the distance between the Arthurian legend, and their actual day-to-day operations, as they seek to find the holy Grail. Arthur is surrounded by incompetent, lazy, stupid knights, that fail most of their missions, or end up finding and discarding invaluable artefacts, not understanding their importance for their quest.
The lead character, King Arthur of Britain, has very progressist ideas, including having banned slavery and advocating to suppress death penalty. His ideas often clash with his father-in-law and minister of justice, Leodagan, played by Alexandre Astier's real-life father, Lionnel Astier.
All of the idiotic characters are however given redeeming qualities that explain Arthur's patience with them, and make them more likeable to the viewer. For instance, Perceval of Wales, the less intelligent of all knights in the series, who fails every single mission he is trusted to undertake, and has serious challenges with vocabulary, is also extremely faithful to his king. For instance, in Book 5, Arthur puts Excalibur back into the stone as a way of showing challengers to the throne, coming from all over the country to try to take the magical sword back out again, that only he is the rightful king. Perceval is the only knight to refuse to try his luck out of respect for the king, and convinces his fellow knight Karadoc to skip his attempt as well. Perceval has a genius for numbers which parallels a common stereotype of an [autistic savant]: he knows the number of stones in the castle walls, but cannot understand basic date or day of the week arithmetic. He is also the only character besides Arthur for whom Excalibur glows when he picks it up.
The series also gives humorous (but always possible) explanations to historical facts. For instance, Kaamelott explains the creation of the national attire of Scotland, the kilt, by a misfortune of the king of Caledonia (which is to become the land know as Scotland today), whose armor's legs rusted by falling in water. Being forced to wear more than underpants to be allowed to sit at the round table, and having to wear either full body armor or the national attire, the king of Caledonia wraps a cloth around his waist and declares it his country's official attire.
[edit] Casting
- Alexandre Astier: Arthur, King of Britain
- Lionnel Astier: Léodagan, King of Carmeliard
- Simon Astier: Yvain, Knight of the Lion, Guenièvre's brother
- Guillaume Briart: Burgundes king
- Carlo Brandt: Méléagant, the man in black
- Christian Bujeau: the weaponmaster
- Antoine de Caunes: Dagonet, knight
- Jacques Chambon: Merlin, wizard
- Luc Chambon: Nathair, spy
- Alain Chapuis: the innkeeper
- Thomas Cousseau: Lancelot, Knight of the Lake
- Julien Dutel: Kay, horn blower
- José Drevon: Ygerne of Tintagel, Arthur's mother
- Caroline Ferrus: Mevanwi, Karadoc's wife
- Audrey Fleurot: the Lady of the Lake (she played Angharad in the pilot episodes)
- Bruno Fontaine: Elias of Kelliwic'h, wizard
- Brice Fournier: Kadoc, Karadoc's brother
- Nicolas Gabion: Bohort, King of Gaunnes
- Anne Girouard: Guenièvre, Arthur's wife
- Gilles Graveleau: Roparzh, peasant
- Vanessa Guedj: Angharad, Guinevere's maid (she played Guinevere herself in the pilot episodes)
- Jean-Christophe Hembert : Karadoc, Knight of Vannes
- Alexis Hénon: Galessin, Duke of Orkney
- Valérie Keruzoré: Nessa, maid
- Alban Lenoir: Ferghus, Lancelot's aide-de-camp
- Jean-Robert Lombard: Father Blaise, priest of Kaamelott
- Stéphane Margot: Calogrenant, King of Caledonia
- Serge Papagalli: Guethenoc, peasant
- Caroline Pascal: Demetra, Arthur's mistress
- Franck Pitiot: Perceval, Knight of Wales
- Aurélien Portehaut: Gauvain, knight, Arthur's nephew
- François Rollin: Loth, King of Orkney
- Thibault Roux: Grüdü, bodyguard of the King
- Alexandra Saadoun: Tumet, Arthur's mistress
- Magali Saadoun: Aziliz, Arthur's mistress
- Tony Saba: Hervé of Rinel, knight
- Bruno Salomone: Caius Camillus, Roman centurion
- Joëlle Sevilla: Séli, Léodagan's wife, Guenièvre's mother
- Anne-Valérie Soler: Aelis, Arthur's mistress
- Loïc Varraut: Venec, slave trader
Most of them are friends or family of Alexandre Astier, and have already worked with him. The few persons coming from a cast session are Anne Girouard (Guenièvre), Vanessa Guedj (Angharad) and Guillaume Briart (Burgundes king).
[edit] Guest stars
Various guest stars have made appearances on the show, including Guy Bedos, Didier Bénureau, Emma de Caunes, Alain Chabat, Christian Clavier, Émilie Dequenne, Léa Drucker, François Morel, Claire Nadeau, Philippe Nahon, Barbara Schulz and Élie Semoun.
[edit] Release date
The series premiered on M6 on January 3, 2005.
[edit] Spin-off
A comic book series inspired by Kaamelott started in November 2006, with story by Alexandre Astier and art by Steven Dupré. Two books (out of three) have been published so far:
- L’Armée du Nécromant (The Necromancer’s Army)
- Les Sièges de Transport (The Transport Seats)
[edit] Links
