Variations on a Transcultural Phenomenon: The Potion Scene in Four Film Versions of the Legend of Tristan and Iseult

Abstract

The legend of Tristan and Iseult has had widespread and enduring appeal from the twelfth century all the way through to the twenty-first. There have been at least thirteen film versions, starting almost with the birth of cinema. The French have produced the most versions, no doubt owing to the combined influence of Joseph Bédier’s Romance of Tristan and Iseut (published in 1900) and of Wagner’s opera (first performed in 1865), which had a huge impact on them. Italy has contributed two film versions, and various other countries—Spain, Ireland, Germany, Iceland, Denmark, and finally the United States—have each made one. Great Britain is not represented: the British are more attracted to King Arthur as a topic, and if they were to single out one love story, it would be that of Lancelot and Guenevere, rather than Tristan and Iseult. The Tristan films reflect a variety of approaches that critics have taken toward the legend in modern times. One of the most telling ways in which these films distinguish themselves is their treatment of the central motif of the love potion. In this chapter, I explore this aspect specifically in four film versions of the legend shaped by four different cultures: Jean Delannoy/Jean Cocteau’s L’Éternel Retour (France,1943), Tom Donovan’s Lovespell (Ireland, 1979), Hrafn Gunnlaugsson’s I Skugga Hrafnsina (The Shadow of the Raven—Iceland,1988), and Kevin Reynolds’s Tristan and Isolde (United States, 2006).

Appendix: Film Versions of the Legend of Tristan and Iseult

1909	France	Tristan et Yseult (Albert Capellani)
1911	Italy	Tristano e Isotta (Ugo Falena)
1920	France	Tristan et Yseut (Maurice Mariaud)
1943	France	L’Éternel retour/The Eternal Return (Jean Delannoy; sc. Jean Cocteau)
1970	Spain	Tristana (Luis Buñuel; based on novel by Galdós)
1972	France	Tristan et Yseult (Yvan Legrange)
1979	Ireland	Lovespell or Tristan and Isolt (Tom Donovan)
1981	Germany	Feuer und Schwert (Veith von Fürstenberg)
a1981	France	La Femme d’à côté (François Truffaut)
1988	Iceland	I Skugga Hrafnsina/The Shadow of the Raven (Hrafn Gunnlaugsson)
1989	Denmark	Isolde (Jytte Rex)
1989	France	Connemara (Louis Grospierre)
1998	Italy	Il Cuore e la spada (Fabrizio Costa)
2006	U.S.A.	Tristan and Isolde (Kevin Reynolds)
aUnlike many scholars, I do not believe that Truffaut had the Tristan legend in mind when he conceived of this modern love story. See my essay, “Truffaut’s La Femme d’à côté (1981): Attenuating a Romantic Archetype—Tristan and Iseult?” in Kevin J. Harty, ed., King Arthur on Film. New Essays on Arthurian Cinema, Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1999, pp. 183–201