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Beau Travail
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9781567302677
Format: Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
ISBN: 156730267X
Label: New Yorker Video
Languages: English (Subtitled), French (Original Language), Italian (Original Language), Russian (Original Language),
Manufacturer: New Yorker Video
MPN: D75002D
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: New Yorker Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: October 08, 2002
Running Time: 90 minutes
Studio: New Yorker Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1999
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Editorial Review:
The movies of French director Claire Denis (I Can't Sleep, Trouble Every Day) are magical to some viewers and maddening to others because of the indirect way she tells her stories. Plot and character are revealed through what feel like inconsequential moments, while the important events seem to happen between the scenes. Beau Travail is more accessible than most, partly because of the simplicity of its plot (a jealous Foreign Legion sergeant ruins his own career when his beloved commander becomes fond of a young recruit) but mostly because of the vividness of its imagery, particularly sensuous shots of muscular men sweating in the sun or swimming in the ocean. It's unabashedly homoerotic, but it's also a compelling portrait of the basic emotional drives felt by men in extreme circumstances. --Bret Fetzer
Inspired by Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Beau Travail is the most provocative and accomplished film yet by French director Claire Denis (Chocolat, I Can't Sleep, Nenette and Boni). Set against the stunning East African enclave of Djibouti, Beau Travail follows a troupe of men in a small French Foreign Legion outpost. Exercising their muscular torsos under the blaring sun, each day the Legionnaires engage in a hypnotically choreographed routine of drills, chores, and mock battles. Sergeant Galoup (Denis Lavant) seems the ideal Legionnaire: a brooding loner, cut off from his past. He runs the troupe like a well-oiled machine, until his jealously for a promising young recruit, Sentain, threatens the delicate balance of his life. With the haunting suspense of a Greek tragedy, Galoup's uncontrollable urge to destroy Sentain ultimately leads to his own downfall.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Great Film
This is a great film from a cinematographic view point. It is very well filmed, the script is well-done, director does an awesome job to relate the attitude of service in hot countries. The background scenery is very well picked. Nothing is done in an excessive way in this film !!! It's definitely worth owning!!!
Rating: - A Cinematic Masterpiece
Melville's great Billy Budd story told from the perspective of Claggart, who is the villain in Melville's story, but he's not exactly so evil here, even though he does try to kill someone. A very simple and powerful story of irrational hatred and rivalry between two men in the French Foreign legion. The theme is eternal. And the storytelling is almost all done through images and music, very little dialogue. Not really sure why the reviews are so mixed. It's a truly compelling movie for anyone who ... Read More
Rating:  - Talk about a woman who loves to focus on the male body.
Even though I've seen quite a few French films this seems to be one of better ones. Is this movie slow pace?, yes but it's done for a reason. While viewing this you can tell that director Claire Denis had a tight budget and limited technical resources when this film was shot, but her fecund imagination and masterful directorial skills don't let those constraints appear on the screen. Visually, Beau Travail is rich in telling imagery, stunning settings, and powerful contrasts. Narrated in voiceover ... Read More
Rating:  - NICE BODYS,BUT NOT A GREAT PLOT
This movie is quite slow, for those who are expecting a gay film, this is not, it may under certain circunstances, but is more about tehe foreign legion in Africa. I saw it once, that was enough, I wouldn not recomended it
Rating: - A very personal experience
This movie is maddeningly slow. You really have to really be a certain kind of person to appreciate where Claire Denis is going here, and you have to willing to come along for the ride--the entire ride. I got it, and I loved it--but I also recognize that I'm probably in the minority.
Editorial reviews on the pretentious-side (e.g. the New Yorker) didn't have enough good things to say about Beau Travail. More down-to-earth reviews had a "What the heck???" feel to them.
For ... Read More
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