Beau travail (1999)
Directed by Claire Denis

Film Review

Beau Travail is a profoundly sensual work, distinguished mainly by a visual style of very high artistic calibre.  It has been described as one of the most distinctive and beautifully made French films of the 1990s, and it is certainly one of the better works from critically acclaimed French film director Claire Denis.

With the absolute minimum of dialogue but through some very potent cinematography, the film paints a vividly unromantic portrait of life in the French Foreign Legion.   It is a harsh life, the film tells us, with its interminable drills, humdrum chores and constant unspoken tensions stemming from petty rivalries and repressed desires.  The characters in the film are scarcely recognisable as human beings, except in the rare moments when they are seen relaxing with civilians at a disco.

Although much is shown about the life of a legionnaire, there remains an unbridgeable distance between the spectator and the characters in the film.  We are always mindful of the fact that we are the outsider, looking in on a closed world, with its own set of rules, its own language, the language of silence.  This is a style which Denis often employs in her films, but it is perfectly suited to Beau Travail, which is a film about subconscious desire and unspoken malice, viewed from a distance.

Beau Travail is a very different work to the novel by Herman Melville on which it is based.  With characteristically Gallic lyricism, the film manages to capture the essence of the novel whilst offering a far more profound experience, transporting us into a world that few have seen, the life of the legionnaire.   The film has been criticised for its overly artistic style, and it is certainly far from being a conventional piece of cinema.

This is a film where the drama is carried mostly in the camera work, less so in the script.  As such, it engages its spectator in a far more direct and subtle way than a conventional film, even if a lot of what we see is hard to interpret or accept.   Some of the images in Beau Travail border on the surreal, particularly the legionnaires' drills, which resemble more a rehearsal for a ballet than preparation for armed combat.  The lingering, voyeuristic shots of sweating male bodies is intentionally homo-erotic, emphasising both the intimacy of the relationship between the legionnaires and, more crucially, the hidden tensions which drive Galoup to his destructive course of action.

Perhaps most impressive is how the film uses its location to convey the gruelling harshness of life in the Foreign Legion.  The wide expanses of desert are both alluring yet threatening, reinforcing the macho image of the film's characters and their distance from contemporary society.  The film features some of the best cinematography in a film by Claire Denis, and the film's director of photography, Agnès Godard, was rewarded with a César in 2001 for her work on this film.

Not adverse to recognising the works of other, Denis includes in this film a number of references to Jean-Luc Godard's controversial 1960 film, Le Petit soldat, which bears a number of similarities to Beau Travail.   The most direct reference is the appearance of a character named Bruno Forrestier, whom Michel Subor previously played in Le Petit soldat.

Film Synopsis

As he struggles to adjust to civilian life, a former military man Galoup recalls his past life in the French Foreign Legion, in particular the incidents which led to his humiliating dismissal.  Whilst serving in the Gulf of Dijbouti in Africa, he was responsible for training a unit of young legionnaires, and all was well until the arrival of a new recruit, Sentain.   Through displays of courage and humanity, Sentain  quickly wins the respect of his fellow legionnaires, and also praise from his commanding officer, Forestier, whom Galoup idolises.  Driven by jealosy, Galoup makes Sentain his enemy and sets out to discredit him...