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Beau Travail

Denis Lavant (Actor), Gregoire Colin (Actor), Claire Denis (Director) Rated:
Unrated
Format: DVD
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 338 ratings
IMDb7.3/10.0
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September 15, 2020
Criterion Collection
1
$22.57
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DVD
October 8, 2002
DVD Video
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Beau Travail $3.59 $14.99
Format Multiple Formats, Widescreen, Color, Subtitled, NTSC
Contributor Michel Subor, Gregoire Colin, Denis Lavant, Claire Denis
Language French
Runtime 1 hour and 30 minutes
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Product Description

Product Description

Inspired by Herman Melville's Billy Budd, BEAU TRAVAIL is the most provocative and accomplished film yet by French director Claire Denis (CHOCOLAT, I CAN'T SLEEP, NENETTE AND BONI). This simple tale, distilled to the essence of a ballad or poem, is drenched with male eroticism and cast in the form of a languorous tropical dream.

Sergeant Galoup (Denis Lavant) seems the ideal Legionnaire: a brooding loner, cut off from his past. He runs the troupe like a well-oiled machine, until his jealousy for a promising young recruit, Sentain (Gregoire Colin), threatens the delicate balance of his life. With the haunting suspense of Greek tragedy, Galoup's uncontrollable urge to destroy Sentain ultimately leads to his own downfall.

Amazon.com

The movies of French director Claire Denis (I Can't Sleep, Trouble Every Day) are magical to some viewers and maddening to others because of the indirect way she tells her stories. Plot and character are revealed through what feel like inconsequential moments, while the important events seem to happen between the scenes. Beau Travail is more accessible than most, partly because of the simplicity of its plot (a jealous Foreign Legion sergeant ruins his own career when his beloved commander becomes fond of a young recruit) but mostly because of the vividness of its imagery, particularly sensuous shots of muscular men sweating in the sun or swimming in the ocean. It's unabashedly homoerotic, but it's also a compelling portrait of the basic emotional drives felt by men in extreme circumstances. --Bret Fetzer

Product details

  • MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ Unrated (Not Rated)
  • Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.1 x 5.42 x 0.58 inches; 2.93 ounces
  • Director ‏ : ‎ Claire Denis
  • Media Format ‏ : ‎ Multiple Formats, Widescreen, Color, Subtitled, NTSC
  • Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 30 minutes
  • Release date ‏ : ‎ October 8, 2002
  • Actors ‏ : ‎ Denis Lavant, Gregoire Colin, Michel Subor
  • Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English
  • Studio ‏ : ‎ New Yorker Video
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00006JDTD
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 338 ratings

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
338 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

David Crumm
5.0 out of 5 stars Melville’s Classic Contest of Good and Evil Turned to a Form of Dance
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2017
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Recently, I went back and re-read Melville’s original novel and then took time to view a couple of film versions of the classic novel. I wound up wanting to recommend two films, including this one by the great French writer-director Claire Denis whose film career focuses especially on relationships between Europeans and Africans. If you’re familiar with her work at all, it may be from a viewing of her wonderful, thought-provoking 1988 film,  Chocolat  (And, no, that’s not the 2000 romance co-starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp even though the titles are the same.) Or perhaps from viewing her 2009 movie with Isabelle Hupert, White Material. That movie now is available in a terrific Criterion edition:  White Material (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray ] Denis has many films to her credit, but these two seem to be her most popular in the U.S.

I headlined this review with the phrase “a Form of Dance” because I think that phrase helpfully names the sort of dreamlike state or the abstract nature of the narrative identified by other reviewers. Obviously, the movie is not formally a work of modern dance. But the moment I began watching Beau Travail, I jotted myself a note: “bodies in motion.” The movie literally begins with men and women dancing in Djubouti, the setting of most of the film’s action.

That’s right, Denis has taken Billy Budd off the high seas and transformed the basic story into a tale of the legendary French Foreign Legion. Oh, there’s still lots of sea water in this movie. Waves repeatedly flow across the screen—one of the rhythmic motifs that highlight the fluidity of the male and female bodies that always seem to be in motion in this tale.

Beau Travail now is a highly celebrated movie. It’s in the middle of Sight & Sound magazine’s highly esteemed international list of best films. But some viewers continue to raise questions, including: What’s going on here!? And it is true that the minimal amount of dialogue in this film doesn’t exactly clarify every point in the unfolding plot. Instead, viewers sit back and fall into this pattern of physical and emotional movement: dancing, swimming, climbing, calisthenics, military training exercises, fighting, migration and even a hand writing a memoir in flowing script across paper.

The other impact of Denis's artistic choices is a softening of the "evil officer" (originally Claggart and here renamed Galoup). The original tension in Melville's novel (and in the Peter Ustinov movie version) is between the mesmerizing, prophetic honesty of young Billy. There is a purity to Billy's honesty that cannot survive in the compromised world of conflict at sea. Pitted against him is the "evil" Claggart whose life has twisted his moral code and vision of others to the point that he violently wants to dominate as many of the men as possible—and ultimately decides to crush Billy. In Denis's retelling of the basic tale, Galoup ultimately reaches the same desire to destroy this young man he cannot seem to dominate any other way. But there's a difference here. Now, the narrative shifts more to Galoup's viewpoint, rather than Billy's or anyone else's. And as the energy of the narrative shifts from actual dialogue to various forms of movement, we actually feel an empathy for Galoup that would have been impossible with the Darth Vader-like blackness of Claggart's moral compass.

Ultimately, while it may seem a bit disorienting at first, Claire Denis's film is a revelation, opening new perspectives on Melville's original plot. This film richly deserves the praise it has garnered over the years. If you’re considering buying a copy, you’ll be richly rewarded if you can accept the lyrical, somewhat abstract style of the narrative. And I don’t want to spoil the very striking final scene of the film, but it definitely underlines the metaphoric use of dance I am describing in this review.
18 people found this helpful
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Andy
5.0 out of 5 stars Good Work Indeed!
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2021
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A superb modern classic of French cinema. A former officer's recollections on his service stationed in Djibouti in the Foreign Legion, focusing on his obsessive resentment of a young recruit, their competition for the attention of a highly respected commandant, and the inevitable downfall. Essentially a variation on Herman Melville's other famous story, Billy Budd, transported to a modern-day French Foreign Legion, punctuated by music from Benjamin Britten's opera of the story. Director Claire Denis perfectly threads the needle in her storytelling by keeping the the film more ambiguous and giving the viewer more room to interpret, neither lingering on the overt homoeroticism, nor pushing on the religious symbolism, and even adds some social subtext with the inclusion of the local African women. A fascinating, mysterious character study, well paced and compelling, especially impressive considering much of the film is focused on isolation, regime, and the mundane, and is told in a fractured narrative. The beautifully stark, naturalistic photography conveys a majority of the communication, whether it's facial expressions, body language or motion- marching, training, swimming, smoking or the surprising amount of dancing -this is a brilliantly composed film. Criterion Collection's Blu Ray is excellent with several interviews with the cast and crew, and an exceptionally well done visual essay by film scholar Judith Mayne. Highly recommended.
3 people found this helpful
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Andrew David Kennedy
5.0 out of 5 stars A very personal experience
Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2005
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This movie is maddeningly slow. You really have to really be a certain kind of person to appreciate where Claire Denis is going here, and you have to willing to come along for the ride--the entire ride. I got it, and I loved it--but I also recognize that I'm probably in the minority.

Editorial reviews on the pretentious-side (e.g. the New Yorker) didn't have enough good things to say about Beau Travail. More down-to-earth reviews had a "What the heck???" feel to them.

For me, it was fortunate that I watched Beau Trvail in the theater--I was forced to yield a slice of my life over to the film. Being in an open and pensive mood also helped. Even then, it wasn't so much the movie itself but how it made me feel afterwards. It grew on me like a fungus, the neurons trying to process all of the subtext behind what (at the time) just seemed like 90 minutes of desert. After a few weeks, I found myself aching to connect again with the film, digesting every review I could find. The subway scenes peppered throughout the movie are telling, as are the forlorn Legionnaires singing of their lost-love. When the resolution comes, it is abrupt and powerful.

But this was a very personal experience, and my connection with the film probably says more about me as a person than anything about Beau Travail itself. Denis' "Friday Night" follows nearly the same pattern, but I found that film just as maddeningly slow but without the payoff.
10 people found this helpful
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Frank Salisbury
4.0 out of 5 stars Slow, but satisfying.
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2021
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The film was slow, but eventually you got caught up in it. Overall, it proved worth the wait.
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Damaged by Dub
5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece
Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2020
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I have to start by addressing all of the reference to homoeroticism , and the somewhat skewed perceptions that this film seems to garner. At least in my mind. Of course there is an undercurrent of that, just as there was in Melville's story, that the idea for this film springs from. The film contains as much of that, as you bring to it I guess, and there is nothing wrong with that. Ultimatly its straight up an amazing film. Incredible cinematography. Fantastic understated acting, and a beautiful harsh landscape. There is dialog, but its sparse, and it really is amazing how much information and feeling this film conveys with its limited use. Criterion does it again. Releasing another masterpiece from film history. Highly recommended for anyone that loves cinema.
15 people found this helpful
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Michael Burdon
5.0 out of 5 stars Für mich ein absolut sehenswerter Film.
Reviewed in Germany on April 29, 2023
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Den Film an sich kann ich wirklich empfehlen, was mich fast noch mehr begeistert hat war die zügige Lieferung, besonders weil die Blu-ray aus England kommt. Am 27. bestellt und am 29. heile angekommen, hat mich schon sehr gefreut!
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karukera4
5.0 out of 5 stars J'AIME !
Reviewed in France on March 15, 2020
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Beau film, très "esthétique" et à l'atmosphère envoutante ! Nul besoin d'être "militariste" pour l'apprécier.
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saygood -bye-
5.0 out of 5 stars 良かったです。
Reviewed in Japan on October 12, 2022
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ドニラヴアンのファンなので、かいました。
フランス語ですが、視聴できます。
ジャケが、BLみたいで、ドギマギしました。
内容はふつうです。
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Barrie O.
5.0 out of 5 stars Unusual movie to say the least.
Reviewed in Australia on January 3, 2021
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Gives an insight into he French Foreign Legion in Africa. A clash of personalities leads to drastic discipline action by a Legionaire sergeant major to a young recruit.
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JOSEPH OLIVER
5.0 out of 5 stars Stretches the mind - stimulates the eye
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 12, 2011
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I didn't know what to make of this film. I couldn't get to grips with it in the beginning as I'm used to a clear constructive narrative - being lead by the hand I suppose. This film doesn't do that. It uses all the French film techniques we are so used to and uses them well. There is in fact hardly any dialogue - just a voiceover of the main protagonist. I was about 80% through the film before the pieces started to fall into place. Then it made sense.
The scenery is spectacular and the score perfect for the location. It is a wonderful exploration of a man's heart - his unvoiced feelings of jealousy for a man he loves and admires (his Legion superior) but perhaps does not know how to deal with or understand. He feels he is being usurped by a `newby' - and he may be right. It is not a comfortable film but it is very absorbing. Well worth watching.
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