MUBI

It really does look like I’m on a quest to write about everything Claire Denis has directed before the year is up. I know a few months back i said id ease up on her but i couldn’t resist. Many people (myself included) consider ‘Beau Travail’ to be the best thing she’s ever done. Everything fell right in to place: Denis’ most commonly used actors (Gregoire Colin, Richard Courcet, Michel Subor and Nicolas Duvauchelle), Agnes Godard behind the camera, Africa as the backdrop (Djibouti to be exact) and even though The Tindersticks didn’t score this film (like they’ve done with just about everything else Denis-related since ‘Beau Travail’), it still has the same dreamy vibe as the other Tinderstick-scored works like; ‘35 Shots Of Rum’, ‘The Intruder’ or ‘White Material’. ‘Beau Travail’ was one of those films that bridged the late 90’s with the next decade. An all-star group of movies released on to the film festival circuit in 1999, but released worldwide in 2000. Others included; ‘Humanity’ (Bruno Dumont), ‘Ghost Dog’ (Jarmusch), ‘8-1/2 Women’ (Peter Greenway), ‘Ratcatcher’ (Lynne Ramsey), ‘Rosetta’ (The Dardenne Bros.) and a few more.
‘Beau Travail’, a loose adaptation of the book “Billy Bud”, is the story of a court marshaled sergeant; “Galoup” (played by Denis Lavant in one of his finest performances) reminiscing about his days as a troop leader in the foreign legion. The Majority of this film is a flashback told through haunting voice over narration by Lavant. In Galoup’s last days as a sergeant we see him grow jealous, envious and also fascinated by one of the new foreign legion soldiers under his command; “Sentain” (played by Claire Denis “regular” Gregoire Colin). Galoup’s complicated feelings towards Sentain later become the driving force behind his court Marshall. In addition to Galoup’s conflict with the new recruit, we also watch the relationship between him and his mentor; “Bruno Forestier” (played by Michel Subor who had taken a long break from acting up til that point), a commander in the foreign legion.
What’s interesting about ‘Beau Travail’ is that for such a masculine film (the cast is damn near all male), the characters deal with emotions on an almost feminine level. Similar to how some women in real life can dislike each other right off the back at first glance, Galoup has no real reason to dislike Sentain, but his hatred for him grows and grows (not to say that all women think this way, but you all know what I’m talking about).
‘Beau Travail’ has a few levels to it. It isn’t just an adaptation of Billy Bud (Sentain = Billy Bud & Galoup = John Claggart). It also has a connection to an older Godard film (as does the character played by Michel Subor).
Denis’ films always seem to have a direct connection with other films (either hers, or with fellow french directors). But aside from the ‘U.S. Go Home’/‘Nenette & Boni’ connection, ‘Beau Travail’ has the most direct relationship with another film. In 1963 Michel Subor played the same character (“Bruno Forestier”) in Godard’s ‘Le Petit Soldat’ that he does in ‘Beau Travial’ (Denis even throws in a more than obvious reference to the Godard film). In ‘Le Petit Soldat’, Michel Subor plays a young man working for the French Intelligence who doesn’t want to be drafted in to the Algerian war. In her Contemporary Film Directors book series, Claire Denis explains her (somewhat vague) inspiration for re-using the Forestier character in her film:

“I told myself that after the film (‘Le Petit Soldat’), when he leaves the army and kills the correspondent for the FLN, Forestier joined the French foreign legion.”

In the world of film, Claire Denis and the continent of Africa have become synonymous with one another. I’ve even noticed a pattern with her. It seems like every decade or so, Claire Denis comes back to Africa to make a film: ‘Chocolate’ (1988/89), ‘Beau Travail’ (1999/2000) and ‘White Material’ (2009/2010).
In ‘Beau Travail’, Denis captures so many different shades, physical features and nationalities of Africans. Even though this story that’s set in Africa is centered around 3 white characters, Denis makes the presence of Africans known all through out the film.
As we discussed in “The Cinema Of Claire Denis”, the human body is a commonly explored theme in her work. This isn’t a film for an insecure man. There’s a lot of shirtless, sweaty men on top of each other exercising through most of it. As a female director (i know some people cringe at that term, but hear me out…) Claire Denis had the opportunity to turn the tables on men and objectify them in the same way that so many male directors have done to women (which is actually something she was accused of with this film by a few critics), but instead she showed the beauty and sensuality of the male body and still managed to make her all male cast retain their masculinity. And lets not forget that the cinematographer of the ‘Beau Travail’ (and most of Denis’ other work) was a woman (Agnes Godard), which adds an additional level to the idea of the (almost) naked male body looked at through the eyes of a female. I recently went with a woman to the french institute to see a special screening of ‘Beau Travail’, and needless to say she was quite mesmerized by all the shots of the men in the film (she also tried her best to help me out by getting Kent Jones’ attention at the Q&A afterwards when I was trying to ask my question). But more importantly, it was interesting to get a females point of view on ‘Beau Travail’ as I always seem to get in to deep conversations about it with nothing but men.
And in the tradition of any other military film that places an emphasis on basic trying or the idea of a military unit working as one (‘full metal jacket’, ‘an officer and a gentlemen’, etc etc), Claire Denis really hammers home the idea of repetition in the way the soldiers live and exercise. Without much of a score (outside of the night club scenes and the opening music), there’s a real rhythm to the movie in the way the soldiers move: Their movements through the obstacle courses, the drills they do, they way their bodies all hit the ground at the same time, etc…

Beau Travail has been translated to “Good Work”. However, “beau” more commonly denotes “handsome” or “beautiful” and “travail” can at times suggest “game”. All these permutations of meanings apply to Claire Denis’ magnificent, thought-provoking and contemplative film.

Her camera finds beauty in routine and the routine in beauty. The editing vacillates back and forth between reverence for the sun-drenched choreography of handsome men valiantly training for duty vs. the abject pointlessness of it all. Set against the epic, stormy music of Benjamin Britten’s operatic adaptation of Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, young, fit bodies toil by the glittering waters of Djibouti, in gliding sequences of elegant movement. Yet in the eyes of the local people, these men of the French Foreign Legion are likely seen as inscrutable guests who have overstayed their welcome. (The Republic of Djibouti gained its independence from France in 1977.) Though their impressions are never voiced, the faces of the resident Somalis and Afars convey a remote bemusement at the sight of men in ridiculous uniforms paving roads that will never be used and practicing battles that they will never fight. Indeed, the injuries and fatalities suffered by this brigade seem to result more from accidents and treachery rather than combat.

Denis also weaves together inner monologues and selective, disjointed memories with more conventional narratives. When the protagonist Galoup (Denis Lavant) recounts a remembered conversation, we do not see the flashback characters speak even though they are in the frame. Galoup interjects with his own voice-over, telling what someone said rather than showing it, thereby casting doubt on its veracity. In the present day, Galoup the civilian is but a hollow shell of the soldier he once was: blankly ironing his shirts and tucking precise hospital corners for no one’s approval. These scenes of mundanity echo scenes of disciplined routine at the base camp, betraying Galoup’s absence of identity in the absence of work and duty.

I don’t agree with the critics and film guides that describe Beau Travail as being only loosely based on Melville’s Billy Budd. Beyond the obvious commonalities such as the character archetypes, military setting and undertones of homoerotic jealousy (which frankly Beau Travail‘s reviewers get too worked up about and read more into than is warranted), there are stronger links to Melville’s themes about the elusive nature of truth, the distortions of memory, the corruptibility of the drifting soul, and faint threads of nationalism, racism and colonialism. (The Foreign Legion, by definition, is a unit that was created to allow foreign nationals to serve in the French Army. It had a reputation in the past for attracting unsavory characters with ulterior motives. Melville hinted at Billy’s foreign origins and possible complicity in a conspiracy to mutiny as factors in Claggart’s enmity towards Billy.)

Having read volumes of reviews and critical analyses of the film before seeing it, I was a little apprehensive about the common complaint that the film was set back by frustratingly languid shots of seemingly insignificant minutiae. My impression was quite the opposite: every frame was pertinent and evocative of Galoup’s inner turmoil as well as the folly of his obsession. Denis’ affinity for Ozu emerges in the dearth of dialogue. As she says herself , such narrative ellipses connect “the industry of cinema with the private moment”. With few words, Galoup’s soul is laid bare.