|
BEAU TRAVAIL Send This Review to a Friend
One of the best made films that surfaced at the 1999 New York Film Festival is surely director Claire Denis's French-language "Beau Travail," set in East Africa and dealing with the French Foreign Legion. Forget the traditional views of the Legion. This is far from the Legion of the old Hollywood movies. Today's Legion is more ethnic and this story, strangely placed considering that it was inspired by Herman Melville's "Billy Budd," involves the recollections of a Legionnaire about the persecution of a new recruit.
Denis delivers an incredibly well-honed mood piece. One is transported into the setting and everything is amazingly controlled. The film overflows with atmosphere and a sense of lurking violence and jealousy. It is also beautifully photographed by Agnes Godard in counterpoint to the sinister tone. Whether focusing on desert landscapes or on the bodies of the men regimented into military automatons, the camera makes each scene special.
The solid, understated acting is completely in tune with the ambience, with Denis Lavant as Sergeant Galoup, the narrator, and Gregoire Colin as Gilles, whose rescue of an injured soldier leads to resentment and abuse by Galoup. A New Yorker Films release.
|