BEAU TRAVAIL

 

 

Create your own review

This is a beautiful film that trusts the audience to understand connections between the characters that are not explained in typical narrative and conversational scenes. Even though I would argue that Moby Dick is the Great American Novel, I felt that Melville's overwrought novella, Billy Budd, was so drearily overwritten that ultimately Melville's meagre psychogical insight evaporated from the overegged prose. This film does just the opposite: the scenes of the African landscape and the legionaires' bodies are not there for simple aesthetic enjoyment (although they are gorgeously rendered), but are expressionistic land- and body-scapes, the tableaux upon which the story is written. As such, it's a film that isn't about words (quite the opposite of Melville's dire verbosity in Billy Budd), but about a vocabulary of desire (that transcends, although it also reflects, such categories as colonialism and homosexuality). The film is Claire Denis' masterpiece to date, the best adaptation of any book I've seen, and has the most beautiful ending of any film I've seen. I'd keep on writing and gushing hyperbolic about the film, but I think you get the point; it's one of my favourites.

Even though I've seen quite a few French films this seems to be one of better ones. Is this movie slow pace?, yes but it's done for a reason. While viewing this you can tell that director Claire Denis had a tight budget and limited technical resources when this film was shot, but her fecund imagination and masterful directorial skills don't let those constraints appear on the screen. Visually, Beau Travail is rich in telling imagery, stunning settings, and powerful contrasts. Narrated in voiceover by the central character, Sergeant Galoup (Denis Lavant), Beau Travail uses minimal dialogue in telling a story that is simply plotted, but complicated in overtones and undertones, much of which is provided by subtle suggestion and richly ambiguous imagery. Running throughout like a leitmotif are shots of the squad of legionnaires in rigorous exercise and military training exercises, as well as attending to the daily rituals of laundry, bathing, and shaving.

The exercise sequences are highly choreographed. Whether engaged in yoga-like movements, or crawling under barbed wire, or traversing rope like high wire artists against the tropical blue sky, Denis mines the images of these lean, hard, half-naked men to make her points. Accompanying much of this footage with music from Britten's Billy Budd adds intensity and a further ritualistic strangeness to the mix.Into the status quo enters a newcomer, Sentain (Gregoire Colin), who proves to be popular with the other men and with the commander, Bruno Forestier (Michel Subor). Galoup's jealousy is aroused, and with the inevitability of Greek myth, the events unfold. The script throws in a passing line to the effect that Subor has been dogged by rumors, but the rumors are unspecified. His admiration for Sentain is expressed indirectly, verbally, but nothing happens between them. Still, through it all, the subtext of homoerotic love is palpably present, a given of the situation which remains unarticulated.

There are sequences, as well, of the men in town, largely nighttime scenes in a local discotheque, where the men mix with local black women. The music and dancing are charged, but the sexuality is largely implied. A brief scene nicely establishes Galoup's tender relationship with his woman. The relationship of blacks to whites and the place of blacks in the colonial setting is otherwise left unexplored, aside from a variety of images of the natives quietly going through their day-to-day lives in the austere environment. The latter strongly contrasts with the legionnaires' style of defying the same environment, with their grueling exercise under the hot sun, their fitted and primly creased uniforms challenging the heat and humidity.

In telling her story, Denis, through incidents and imagery, offers more to think about in her disciplined ninety minutes than other directors manage in twice the time. The former Russian soldier who has joined the Legion complains of having fought for an ideal that kept changing, while Subor, the ultimate professional soldier, claims no ideals at all. He, though, is addicted to kat, the narcotic leaf that the natives chew. The idea of the Legion as family, variations on themes of competitiveness (combat, games of chess and billiards) and the ever present questions of life, death, and mortality are offered in a rich mix, an object lesson in thoughtful filmmaking. Highly recommended.

Beau Travail is a modern-day update of Billy Budd, although the plot is much changed and the characters more ambiguous. Directed by French director Claire Denis (best known for 1988's "Chocolat"), Beau Travail stars Denis Lavant as a Foreign Legion officer in Africa. Lavant is the perfect officer, but he finds himself largely ignored by his commandant (Michel Subor), whom he greatly admires. His jealousy is piqued when he sees his commandant drawn to a new recruit, Sentain (played by Grégoire Colin).

The movie has some simple and beautiful scenery of barren Africa; accordingly it won several awards for its cinematography, including a Cesar (the equivalent of the French Oscar). The tone of the film is mesmerizingly aloof, with little dialogue and character development (most are nameless and credited simply as "legionnaire"). However, the movie is glacier paced, relying on repeated imagery and stark narration. There are also far too many scenes in which the camera lingers on the legionnaires training or ironing their clothes. Despite the languid pace, the movie is rarely boring, as it manages to maintain a sense of intrigue. In addition, the ending is amusingly peculiar and bewildering.

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 18 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

 

1.0 out of 5 stars Box cover is the most intriguing part...
Do you ever catch yourself watching a movie that hasn't been worth your time, but stick to it through the end 'just in case' and thinking to yourself.... Read more

Published on Jun 12 2004 by Stephen G.

1.0 out of 5 stars See this before you buy it
Beau Travail is Claire Denis's reductionist take on Melville's tragic tale of Billy Budd. While Melville gives us all we need to understand the plight of the beautiful and tragic... Read more

Published on April 16 2004 by Ned K. Wynn

2.0 out of 5 stars AH, SWEAT MYSTERY OF LIFE....... [!]
and oodles simply oodles of body-odor!

TWO STARS and that only for the pounding disco [?] sequences. Read more

Published on Nov 16 2003

3.0 out of 5 stars Elegant but Insubstantial
Introspective and subtle, Claire Denis' BEAU TRAVAIL offers a modern retelling of Herman Melville's BILLY BUDD, transposing the tale of an officer who self-destructs through his... Read more

Published on Nov 11 2003 by Gary F. Taylor

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Movie -- Terrible DVD
I saw *Beau Travail* at the theatres and thought it was excellent. And purchasing the DVD, I still think it's an incredibly good film. Read more

Published on April 25 2003 by D. Bonner

5.0 out of 5 stars The Majestic Long Shot
Beay Travial (beautiful work) is Denis' best film yet. The story is of a Legionare Sergeant who is consumed by jealousy over a talented recruit, but, don't be fooled, the... Read more

Published on April 23 2003 by 24fps

1.0 out of 5 stars Profound -profoundly bad!
The only thing I enjoyed about this movie is the laugh I got out of reading the good reviews. It reminds me of a scene from the play "Art". Read more

Published on Feb 25 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars not for idiots
Those reviewers who gave this film low ratings should stick to watching Braveheart and Sleepless in Seattle. Read more

Published on Feb 10 2003 by RICH B

5.0 out of 5 stars Different? Yes. Way under-rated at 3 stars? Yes, yes, yes!
This film moves me. It IS different from so many other movies ( that, in all fairness, are striving to send a message far different from "Beau Travail"). Read more

Published on Jan 20 2003 by Patricio Duran

2.0 out of 5 stars Beau Travail is bogus
French movie directors never feel compelled to follow a narrative arc. In this movie, there's no coherent narrative at all. Read more

Published on Dec 23 2002 by David Robinson

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 18 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

Search Listmania!