Undescribable Perfection

Simply A Masterpiece

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

"Gold in the mountain, and gold in the glen, and greed in the heart, heaven having no part, and unsatisfied men." - Melville Claire Denis directs "Beau Travail". The film's loosely based on several Herman Melville poems ("The Night March" and "Gold in the Mountain"), as well as Melville's "Billy Budd", a maritime tale which questioned man's thoughtless submission to various forms of authority (military, media, biblical, political etc). Denis' film swaps the novella's maritime setting for the sandy deserts of Djibouti, a country in Eastern Africa. Her protagonists are soldiers in the French Foreign Legion. They're stationed in Djibouti to do the neo-Imperialist biddings of France and (unofficially) the US, who to this day maintain violent, dictatorial puppet regimes in the country. The site of the only "official" US military bases on the African continent, the country is also used as a staging ground in an overall strategy to dominate the Horn of Africa, the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Peninsula. From Djibouti, various plots were, and continue to be, mounted to destabilise Ethiopia and Somalia."Different viewpoints count," Sergeant Galoup (Denis Lavant) narrates at the start of the film. He's speaking in hindsight. The film then jumps from Galoup's apartment in France to the deserts of Djibouti, several months prior. Here Galoup feuds with Gilles, a fellow soldier whose physical beauty, social standing and strength inexplicably make him jealous. Later Galoup orders Gilles to trek across the African desert without water and with a tampered compass. The man almost dies, leading to Galup's swift court-martial. Significantly, Gilles is rescued by a group of Djiboutis. Other scenes focus on the persecution of black officers within the Foreign Legion. The film ends with close-ups of Galoup's veins, quietly pumping blood, before a beautiful sequence in which he dances to Corona's "The Rhythm of the Night". More than Melville, key influences on the picture are Jean-Luc Godard's "Le Petit Soldat" and Resnais' "Muriel". Both dealt with the Algerian war, a then-taboo subject which led to both films being attacked and banned. Denis' film maintains the structure and voice-over narration of Godard's film, linkages which are made explicit by the military superior in her film being named after the hero of Godard's. They're also played by the same actor (Michel Subor). Interestingly, the voice over narration in both films are designed to echo each other. "I have a lot of time ahead of me," the narrators of Denis' film begins, precisely the line which ends Godard's picture. The message is clear. History rolls on, and France's imperialist doings didn't end with Algeria. Denis spent much of her childhood in Djibouti. She wrote "Beau Travail's" script herself and teamed up with female cinematographer Agnes Godard for the shoot. The duo create a film which plays like a series of dreams within dreams, mirages within mirages, memory fragments constantly dancing and fusing and fluttering off into the wind. The film unfolds like dance, ethereal, hazy and liquid. Most of its running time consists of shots of soldiers training, working, exercising and waiting. These sequences are simultaneously banal and highly choreographed, the men's bodies bending to some unspoken dance routine. Throughout the film Denis captures the dangers of machismo, male egos and a kind of simmering hunger for violence. But her imagery is both homo-erotic and neutering; these warriors are feminized, painted as infants, small boys, sensitive, confused, pitifully childish and overly emotional. Denis softens everything, turns masculinity into something weak and soft and round, which indeed was always the unspoken core of even "traditional masculinity". Still, these soldiers are dangerous. And they are dangerous precisely because of their weaknesses. Most of the film functions as a dreamy allegory for the white man's desire to violently assert himself over the Other, be they African or fellowman; to deny the Other's culture, voice, customs, practises or right-of-governance. Galoup in particular is obsessed with control, organisation and the meticulous. Some have said the film is about Galoup's "homosexuality", but this misses the point. Whilst all sexuality is on some level violent, the film itself is almost completely asexual. The soldiers have been conditioned to repress love, not sex, and it is this conditioning which flies in the face of the men's homo-social love, which in turn results in violent blow-back. The film's title means "beautiful work", referring ironically to the Empire's work in Africa, and of course its long-standing rationalisations for bloodshed. The film's title is also a command, a call to do "good work" rather than the devil's deeds. Much of the film is sprinkled with shots of African women, who exist outside the soldiers' story. Like a Greek chorus, they're positioned to both witnesses white cruelty, silently judging from afar, and to mock the petty men skirmishing below them. The gyrations of these African women to pop songs is later mirrored to Galoup's own dance sequence (no rehearsals, shot in one take), in which his ego softens, he symbolically turns his back to a reflection of himself and he finally cuts loose. This is the only moment in the film in which Galoup shifts from a watcher and subject - and by extension a master - to an object. He relinquishes control and allows us to possess a piece of him. Denis' work frequently deals with the Empire's relationship with Africa ("White Material", "No Fear, No Die", "Chocolat", "35 Shots of Rum" etc). Of these, "Beau Travail" is perhaps her most unconventional film. See too "35 Shots of Rum", arguably a better film, which uses Jean Renoir as a springboard as Denis uses Godard here. 8.5/10 – Worth two viewings.

Never mind the pseudo-psycho plot that is really just undeveloped, the music that is mainly purloined or the character development that is really nil. The scenery and the physicality are worth it. Imagine a place whose most interesting geographical feature is an immense salt flat stretching to the jagged mountains on the horizon, and you'll get the idea. It's hard to believe the French Foreign Legion is this romantic, but the bodies are certainly worth the show.No one seems to have observed that "beau travail" can be play on words in French. It can mean "beautiful work" but it can also mean "empty" or "vain" work. Clever.

A remake of Billy Budd in the context of the French Foreign Legion is a brilliant idea. Changing the point of view to the older, envious Sr NCO is also a brilliant idea. The film is beautifully shot.However... This has to be least convincing portrayal of everyday life in the Legion ever made. Young Legionaires don't have birthday parties with their CO. And they don't spend a lot of time frolicking on the beach. It's true they do spend a lot of time ironing, doing laundry, and holes, but the rigid discipline and hyper-masculinity that the Legion is known for is nowhere to be seen. My disbelief could not be suspended.

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 jealousy of a new recruit to an outpost of the French Foreign Legion. And although the film is elegant in both its simplicity and purity, I myself found it a shade too simple and pure to be completely effective.Still, BEAU TRAVAIL has two things going for it: director Denis' cinematic eye and superior performances throughout. One truly senses the location in all its elemental nature, and the cinematography is remarkable for its restrained elegance. The cast follows suit, with direct and underplayed performances that fold seamlessly into both Denis' atmosphere and the story itself, and the result is often quite stylish.But for all its elegance and style, I found BEAU TRAVAIL too introspective and subtle for its own good; to me it lacks any significant substance, with both story and characters slipping through my attention as easily as sand slips through my hand. While this is doubtlessly part of director Denis' intent, and while I have admired many a film with a notably elusive touch, my ultimate reaction to BEAU TRAVAIL is that it is a rather superficial exercise in style over substance, and I cannot say that it leads me to interest in the director's other work.In passing, I also note that BEAU TRAVAIL is often marketed as a film with homoerotic context and imagery, but I personally did not find it so. Final word: worth a look, but not greatly memorable for all that.Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer