Since the release of this King Arthur pastiche in January 2005 on the M6, Alexandre Astier has created, modeled – diligently? – itself a world, recognizable among a thousand, followed closely by a community of experienced Kaamelottians or Kaamelottists.
Broadcast between 2005 and 2009, its two hundred and sixteen episodes attracted up to five million fans in the early 2000s, and its broadcasts continue to attract up to 288,000 viewers. kaamelott It is now available in a trilogy of films and continues with the same success.
The first part, released at the end of confinement, in July 2021, accumulated more than 2.6 million viewers according to the CBO, becoming the first French film of the year at the box office. The second work is divided into two parts. The first, with a budget of almost 20 million euros, premiered on October 22, while the second, filmed after the KV2-1will hit theaters on November 11, 2026. The opportunity, therefore, to better understand this pop culture phenomenon.
Astier, total artist
The figure of Alexandre Astier floats almost everywhere behind kaamelott. And with good reason he is at the same time director, producer, screenwriter, editor, composer and protagonist: King Arthur. Elegant.
“I don’t know very well how to introduce myself, it’s very difficult to choose just one profession, maybe a handyman…”, admits the person interested in Ma Vie Pro, Samuel Étienne’s program broadcast a few days ago on Twitch.
when he does kaamelott“Music precedes many things, including filming,” continues the man who plays keyboard, double bass and drums. “Normally, the composer works during post-production, in editing,” he explains after 20 minutes. “Since I do all that, I wouldn’t have time to compose during the post-production of a film, the music has to be ready beforehand.”
Alexandre Astier also confided that he wrote his lines as if they were music. He then brings them to life by editing them using overlays, white space, and speed variations. “I edit the sound, that is the most important thing for me, I even accept false connections with the image,” he said into Samuel Étienne’s microphone. “That bothers me a lot less than the pacing problems.”
But if Alexandre Astier is a total artist, who loves to experiment above all else, he is far from being alone behind the camera. “We are an entire army to do kaamelott (…) I am very happy to collaborate, to work with costume designers, with lighting, sound, image, hair, set design people. I love it, he says. But I maintain the scenarios that are rhythmic, that is, that play with rhythm and speed.”
Result: “Yes kaamelott “I don’t like you, actually it’s me who doesn’t like you,” the interested party laughs. Could it be a little control monster? Maybe so. “I work until the end, for example I add music at the last minute,” explains the 51-year-old artist. And rightly so, a week before its release, the first part of the second was not yet complete. The mixing and some compositions were still missing.
Alexandre Astier also likes to control communication around the saga, filtering information – often transmitted by story X of the fiction – and cultivating as much mystery as possible to reserve surprises for fans.
Very (very) strong community
Behind kaamelottThere are also his fans. The latter, rather masculine, addicted and very active on social networks, they have created numerous groups on Facebook where they exchange quotes, phrases, memes, montages and other ingredients that add spice to fiction. A website and an X account especially dedicated to kaamelott They were also created. Without forgetting the online store, dedicated to the universe.
“A lot [d’adorateurs] They grew and developed with the series during their adolescence or even their childhood. It has marked generations and we see it in the references that arise periodically,” analyzes Justine Breton, professor of medievalism at the University of Lorraine, who has studied the link between kaamelott and the Middle Ages.
Humor aside
But the saga would be nothing without its own humor, absurd, eccentric, anachronistic, ironic, sarcastic. And he never takes himself seriously. “It’s systematically stupid, but always unexpected,” summarizes one Internet user on Reddit. Interspersed with gags, nonsense, characters who are not bad, but not intelligent either.
To which must be added a very different vocabulary, a mix of slang, colorful expressions and terms that are at once familiar, flowery and sophisticated, even downright medieval. The goal? Create a gap between historical context and contemporary language. For example, we do not say “soup” but “soupette”, cheese “fromdu”, nor “goujat”, but “pignouf”.
Among the most famous phrases, let’s quote “Fat is life”, “I didn’t say ‘yes’, I said ‘okay'”, “You’re not a bit of an idiot, are you?”, “Hunger can’t be controlled. It can be fought!”, “We have to put an end to this shit from the north and the south!”. And the most cultured, “It is not false” and “We have great ones.”
Luxury family and cameos
The last ingredient for success kaamelottits gallery of endearing, excessive, stupid characters, some would say broken arms, who follow one another at a frenetic pace in multiple scenes.
Both are played by essential faces of the French cinema (in the credits of this new part, Guillaume Gallienne, Christian Clavier, Audrey Fleurot, Alain Chabat, Thomas VDB and even Haroun) and even international ones, like Sting.
And others less known, in any case, before the series. Alexandre Astier, who writes each line thinking about very specific actors, likes to work as a family. Therefore, in the series and in the films, he is surrounded by his father (Lionnel), his brother (Simon, although absent in this new work) or his children (Ethan, James, Ariane and Jeanne, who have grown throughout the saga). These actors became famous for their longevity in the saga.
“I like that we all age between episodes,” the director tells Samuel Étienne. I hope one day I do part 3. [de Kaamelott] with the good face of an old king. But I’m not in a hurry, I have other things to do first.”
However, one of them, Franck Pitiot, the emblematic Perceval of the franchise, is missing in this second part, much to the dismay of the fans. “He’s not here because he hasn’t returned,” Alexandre Astier explained in a sigh. And to clarify: “Franck Pitiot is not in the film, but for Perceval it is a little more complicated. In any case, he has changed the script a little.”
“It’s not a war. It’s just an artistic disagreement between a character,” said Franck Pitiot in an interview with Geek Magazine. “It’s just the character of Perceval that I can’t find. Everything is fine, let Mr. Astier do it.” We would not dare to contradict him.
Source: BFM TV
