1042 Beau travail

[Mr Sausage]

Beau travail



With her ravishingly sensual take on Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Sailor, Claire Denis firmly established herself as one of the great visual tone poets of our time. Amid the azure waters and sunbaked desert landscapes of Djibouti, a French Foreign Legion sergeant (Denis Lavant) sows the seeds of his own ruin as his obsession with a striking young recruit (Grégoire Colin) plays out to the thunderous, operatic strains of Benjamin Britten. Denis and cinematographer Agnès Godard fold military and masculine codes of honor, colonialism's legacy, destructive jealousy, and repressed desire into shimmering, hypnotic images that ultimately explode in one of the most startling and unforgettable endings in all of modern cinema.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director of photography Agnès Godard and approved by director Claire Denis, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New conversation between Denis and filmmaker Barry Jenkins
• New selected scene commentary with Godard
• New interviews with actors Denis Lavant and Grégoire Colin
• New video essay by film scholar Judith Mayne
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by critic Girish Shambu

[Mr Sausage]

DISCUSSION ENDS MONDAY, June 25th.

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This thread is not spoiler free. This is a discussion thread; you should expect plot points of the individual films under discussion to be discussed openly. See: spoiler rules.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

I encourage members to submit questions, either those designed to elicit discussion and point out interesting things to keep an eye on, or just something you want answered. This will be extremely helpful in getting discussion started. Starting is always the hardest part, all the more so if it's unguided. Questions can be submitted to me via PM.

Discussion now open!

This week's film is the winner of the Women Director's List Project.

[kubelkind]

Well, I'm due a rewatch on this which I shall do this week. I avoided Denis for years 'cos "she did that terrible Chocolat film"...turns out I got the wrong Chocolat... A year or so ago I had a chance encounter with "Bastards" and, though not her best, it got me hooked in a big way and I decided to watch everything I could find by her.
I left "Beau Travail" until (almost) last as nearly everyone said it was her masterpiece and was somewhat underwhelmed as a result. Sure, I liked it but it seemed a little cold compared with the films I truly loved such as 35 Rhums or Trouble Every Day. My expectations were of course sky high.
I was also a little mystified as to the reasonings for the Galoup/Sentain emnity...it all seemed a bit over intense for unrequited love/jealousy, especially from an experienced military man with a professional reputation. Oh and the Dennis Lavant dance at the end would have been a lot more enjoyable and surprising if I hadn't already seen it in "The Story Of Film"...bah!
So, a rewatch is in order and soon.
Couple more notes - the lack of blu ray options on Denis (or even DVDs/decent PQ DVDs of many films) is truly an annoyance. The only blu rays available seem to be her two least interesting (for me) features. Agnes Godard's photography is stunning and I'd love to see it to full advantage.
Secondly, with all due respect, Denis takes serious umbrage about being ghettoised as a "woman director" - https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/fil ... -1.3457322

[zedz]

I was also a little mystified as to the reasonings for the Galoup/Sentain emnity...it all seemed a bit over intense for unrequited love/jealousy, especially from an experienced military man with a professional reputation.

I find the motivation in the film pretty clear and compelling: it's kind of a Krazy Kat lopsided love triangle of obsession and violence. Galoup is in love with Forestier (whether this is romantic love, a need for fatherly approval, or professional deference gone bad is up to us, and I don't think even Galoup knows for sure); Forestier is in love with Sentain (I think this is much less ambiguously gay lust); Sentain doesn't really give two shits about either of them. Because Galoup (Officer Pupp) cannot express his love for Forestier (Krazy Kat), all he can do is destroy the object of his affections, Sentain (Ignatz Mouse), which is half brutally practical (get rid of the rival) and half pathetically attention-getting (look at me being a good soldier). Forestier likes and respects Galoup, but he doesn't love him, so that's not enough.

L'amour fou is not rational, and people do stupid, life- and career-destroying things all the time (like texting people pictures of their junk) out of dumb lust and desperate emotional need.

SpoilerShow

When Galoup is found out, he has nothing left without his career (and, necessarily, Forestier), which is why he kills himself at the end.

[knives]

SpoilerShow

I never took it as an actual suicide, but just the contemplation of it. The film would not work for me at all if that were the case.

[zedz]

That's interesting -

SpoilerShow

if he goes so far as to contemplate suicide, and even has the gun right there by his side, what, in your opinion, might have pulled him back from the brink? For me, it seems like absolutely everything he'd built his identity around (his vocation, his pride, his relationship with Forestier, and . . . there's probably not much else he has apart from that) has been taken away. I don't think his newly discovered love of dance is enough to keep him going!

[knives]

SpoilerShow

I took the dance to be a revelation that he does have life outside the prison of his work. That after all this stress, anxiety, and general awfulness committed by him and eventually against he can, and by extension the audience, still can have catharsis through the dance. I do not know what could have brought him from the brink, but I do know what the steam released from the pressure cooker looks like and that's the rhythm of the night.

[kubelkind]

Ok, rewatched and greatly, greatly enjoyed. Freed from the "expectations of a masterpiece" factor that tainted things a bit last time, I loved it for what it was rather than what I hoped it would be (this has happened in the past a lot, maybe we can all relate). As someone whose heart is really in experimental non-narrative (non-standard-narrative?) cinema, Beau Travail's pleasures are, for me, maybe more in things like the blue of that sky or that incredible lake of salt (and the salted skull!) than the "story" as it is. I think theres a definite kinship with more abstract "landscape and music as emotional state" films such as Garrel's La Cicatrice Interieur.

SpoilerShow

L'amour fou is not rational, and people do stupid, life- and career-destroying things all the time (like texting people pictures of their junk) out of dumb lust and desperate emotional need.

Bit of a difference between texting someone your junk and sending them out into the desert with a nobbled compass to face probable death...but then maybe the stakes are higher in the Legion (and probably no mobile phone coverage in the desert). But, yes, I see your point even if I still don't entirely believe in the premise. No matter, I am not really a "plausability person" (Hitchcock?). I loved your Krazy Kat analogy and the possibilty that We Are In Coconino County Here kept jumping into my head throughout the re-viewing.

Regarding the suicide/non-suicide question

SpoilerShow

To be honest, I get the feeling it doesn't really matter. Or at least Denis leaves the option open for us. An ambiguity which reaches its peak in L'Intrus where we are encouraged to doubt the veracity of most of the events paraded in front of our eyes. Certainly Galoup's life has been destroyed and his suicide is a likely (the most likely?) option, but when we last see him in "real time" he is still alive and the pulse is pumping to prove it (leading into the rhythm of the night). As knives suggests, I think the incredible explosion of release represented in the dance number at the end is far more effective than if we were to see him blowing his brains out or whatever and fits in perfectly with the "musical logic" of much of the film

Finally, Rhythm Of The Night, what a great record. And who other than than Denis would have the balls to throw a non-diagetic Neil Young number into the mix as well, and pull it off?

[swo17]

Sep 15

[senseabove]

The clip of the opening sequence looks beautiful...

[yoloswegmaster]

I thought they would have wanted to have Janus tour the restoration first before releasing it on blu.

[FrauBlucher]

I think touring probably has been put on hold for a while

[goblinfootballs]

I think touring probably has been put on hold for a while

Indeed, it was put on the schedule at the Northwest Film Center for February 2019 and then pulled due to "issues securing the rights."

[RitrovataBlue]

What are the odds of Criterion having the rights to Denis’s other 80s-early 00s films? Beau Travail is a remarkable film, but so are Nenette and Boni, Chocolat, etc. I hope that this is the first of many Denis catalog films on BD.

[senseabove]

I believe I remember seeing a tweet about Beau Travail and another movie having the Janus logos before them during the recent Denis retrospective in NYC... I want to say Chocolat? But I'm not sure. Tried digging the tweet up to confirm, but couldn't find it.

[John Cope]

What are the odds of Criterion having the rights to Denis’s other 80s-early 00s films? Beau Travail is a remarkable film, but so are Nenette and Boni, Chocolat, etc. I hope that this is the first of many Denis catalog films on BD.

Out of that era No Fear No Die is the one I most want to see get proper representation at long last. L'Intrus comes in second if only because it already has a decent DVD at least.

[therewillbeblus]

My favorite Denis is probably Friday Night so I'd love to see that one, even though I'm pretty sure that's a very unpopular opinion.

[zedz]

I think it was Chocolat that was at some point confirmed to be with Criterion.

Nenette et Boni seems to be still in print in the US (from Strand, in a real ugly cover), but J'ai pas sommeil looks to be OOP and would be a great rescue. It'd also be great to see some bold US company pick up S'en fout la mort, since it will never be issued in the UK. And US Go Home, the perpetual red-headed stepchild of the filmography, is a wonderful film that should at least be included as an extra with one of those, even if it's unlikely to be released in its own right.

[criterionsnob]

I’ll take any and all Claire Denis on Criterion Blu, but 35 Shots of Rum is up there with those mentioned above.

[Grisbi]

Regarding the ending, I saw a 35mm screening of this at Emory University in Atlanta a handful of years back with Denis in attendance, and in the conversation afterwards she directly referred to the last scene as

SpoilerShow

"The Dance of Death"

which pretty much sealed the deal for my interpretation.

Can't wait to own this masterpiece on blu-ray, finally.

[colinr0380]

Spoilers for the final scene but I'm glad to see The Rhythm of the Night by the currently unfortunately named band Corona be the next iconic piece of music to enter the collection!

Out of that era No Fear No Die is the one I most want to see get proper representation at long last. L'Intrus comes in second if only because it already has a decent DVD at least.

Very much seconded on No Fear No Die, especially because it appears that no UK label is going to be able to release it due to animal cruelty issues.

[Calvin]

An announcement that has felt a long time coming, and one that I'll definitely be importing day one if there isn't an equivalent UK Criterion or Artificial Eye release announced before September.

It would have been nice if Criterion included one of the other many adaptations of Billy Budd as an extra, such as this one with William Shatner and Basil Rathbone for Canadian TV.

I think it was Chocolat that was at some point confirmed to be with Criterion.

Nenette et Boni seems to be still in print in the US (from Strand, in a real ugly cover), but J'ai pas sommeil looks to be OOP and would be a great rescue. It'd also be great to see some bold US company pick up S'en fout la mort, since it will never be issued in the UK. And US Go Home, the perpetual red-headed stepchild of the filmography, is a wonderful film that should at least be included as an extra with one of those, even if it's unlikely to be released in its own right.

As was the case with Assayas' Cold Water, another entry in the Tous les garçons et les filles de leur âge... series, I think that music rights have prevented a commercial release of US Go Home up until this point. It's probably my favourite of Denis' films, so I really hope that Criterion sees fit to iron them out like they did with the Assayas film but it would probably need a standalone release to justify it.

[kubelkind]

re: S'en Fout Le Mort (No Fear, No Die is a TERRIBLE English language title, just like Let The Sunshine In).
This nugget from "jeromezone" on IMDB:

I worked on this film as an extra and it was a pleasure to meet the fantastic talent in the film. Isaach was a delight and it was great to meet the late, great Jean-Claude Brialy, who had us often in stitches during the breaks. But the sheer brilliance of watching Ms. Denis at work was unforgettable. I would also like to point out that the cockfights in the film look very real but in filming them it was executed so well that no harm was ever done to any animals. It took many, many hours of shooting and many takes to make it look real - and lots of fake blood. Of course they were put into the ring and they hopped around on each other and began to get aggressive but then it would be stopped. Thus the words "no animals were harmed during the making of this film" is true. It was important to show that this type of thing was going on at the time (many people didn't believe it), and how brutal it was.

Having seen the film (which I think is top-drawer Denis), this seems plausible. The cockfights are not shown in any detail and without close-ups. Its likely they are mostly simulated. And there is a "no animals harmed" disclaimer at the end. Maybe a British release is possible after all, so we call all watch it whilst eating our chicken McNuggets in good conscience.

[zedz]

My favorite Denis is probably Friday Night so I'd love to see that one, even though I'm pretty sure that's a very unpopular opinion.

Not with me: it's yet another masterpiece, and all those night scenes could do with an upgrade from SD.

Let's just make them do a big box and be done with it.

[zedz]

As was the case with Assayas' Cold Water, another entry in the Tous les garçons et les filles de leur âge... series, I think that music rights have prevented a commercial release of US Go Home up until this point. It's probably my favourite of Denis' films, so I really hope that Criterion sees fit to iron them out like they did with the Assayas film but it would probably need a standalone release to justify it.

Denis' film should be less of a headache on those grounds, as I think there's less music. I remember Donovan and Otis Redding. Maybe only one or two other pieces?