In this golden age of home viewing, the Criterion Collection still provides some of the best editions of the best movies ever released, usually with a rich selection of extras and often including audio commentaries (a feature they pioneered, and perhaps the greatest gift ever to film students and cinephiles alike). This column features one Criterion release per week, based on where my interests lead me and what’s available from my local public library.
The shorthand description of Claire Denis’ 1999 feature film Beau Travail is that it’s an adaptation of Billy Budd set among members of the French Foreign Legion in Djibouti. But if you think it will get you out of doing your assigned reading for HS English, prepare to flunk. For one thing, Beau Travail is closer in spirit to Benjamin Britten’s opera (whose music is featured on the soundtrack by Eran Zur and Charles Henri de Pierrefeu) than Herman Melville’s novella. Second, it’s the most Claire Denis movie ever and thus anything but a straightforward telling of a narrative.
A better description would be “a visual and sonic exploration of masculine society and male jealousy” but that’s the kind of summation that a viewer should come up with themselves, because this is a film open to many interpretations. It’s also an intensely beautiful film, full of intensely fit men performing physical training that is as carefully choreographed as a formal ballet, all expertly captured by frequent Denis cinematographer Agnès Godard, who also captures the natural beauty of the location and the charm and dignity of the local women who play a limited role, at best, in the lives of the men.
The story is narrated by Adjudant-Chef Galoup (Denis Lavant), who commands a section of the Foreign Legion under Commandant Bruno Forestier (Michel Subor). Galoup would probably describe himself as a man’s man and it’s clear that he draws most of the meaning in his life from his position in the Foreign Legion. When a beautiful young man, Gilles Sentain (Grégoire Colin), joints the section commanded by Galoup, he forms an irrational hatred toward him, fueled in part by his feeling that Forestier likes Sentain (which he does seems to, but only in the sense of valuing Sentain is a good soldier and team member) and that Galoup is thus losing attention and favor he believes he is due.
Since Galoup begins his narration as a civilian in Marseille, you know from the start that he’s no longer serving in the Legion. The Oscar Wilde phrase “each man kills the thing he loves” comes to mind, since what Galoup killed was his own career and the one thing that gave his life meaning. He retains vestiges of the military lifestyle in his daily routine, from his choice of clothing to the care with which he makes his bed, and it’s clear that nothing will fill the void in his life. Denis ends this film with an astounding sequence I’m not going to spoil here, but it’s the perfect culmination of the film’s aesthetic as well as Galoup’s character.
There’s not a lot of dialogue in Beau Travail, so the mood and story are both carried primarily by the visuals and the soundtrack, with interesting juxtapositions of wildly different scenes creating a sort of collage that reveals connections that aren’t always obvious on first viewing. This is a film that repays close watching and study, and it seems with each viewing you discover something new in it. The extras are also particularly useful in this regard, particularly the scene commentaries by Godard and the video essay by Judith Mayne. | Sarah Boslaugh
Spine #: 1042
Technical details: 93 min.; color; screen ratio 1.66:1; language.
Edition reviewed: Blu-ray
Extras: conversation between Claire Denis and Barry Jenkins; selected scene commentary with Agnés Godard; interviews with actors Denis Lavant and Gregoire Colin; video essay “Beau Travail and the Dance Floor” by Judith Mayne; booklet with essay by critic Girish Shambu.
Fun Fact: Greta Gerwig has said that seeing this film inspired her to become a director.
Parting Thought: In the 2012 Sight & Sound list of the greatest films of all time, Beau Travail was ranked #79. In the 2022 list, it was ranked #7. What accounts for the substantial rise in ranking, and which got closer to the truth?
