Beau Travail
Directed by Claire Denis
Viewed at the San Francisco
International Film Festival

Legionnaires attention!
I was thinking of Gary Cooper and his "Beau Geste" but got the pugnosed Dennis Lavant (star of several Leo Carax films like "Bad Blood" among others)! His odd look is well-suited in this role as a rough and strict sergeant in the Foreign Legion.
Director Claire Denis has made a very beautiful and somewhat poetic meditation on the rigorous and ritual of the legionnaires.
The story was derived from Herman Melville’s Billy Budd. The cinematography is mostly breathtaking! The mountainous and rocky eastern coast of Africa is stark, richly textured and hauntingly peaceful. There are many occasions in the film where we see the synchronized movements of the sweaty soldiers, which is very strong visually.
There is a palpable undercurrent of tension where I waited for the mayhem to disrupt the slow and steady pace of the film…but the minimal violence was mostly psychological and developed as the relationships of the men became stronger…simmering beneath the surface!

Reviewed by Eric Michel, FilmCities

Beau Travail

Country: France
Year: 1999
Run Time: 90 minutes

Cast: Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, Grégoire Colin

Producer: Jerome Minet
Editor: Nelly Quetier
Cinematographer: Agnes Godard
Screenwriter: Jean-Pol Fargeau,
Claire Denis