Many early Claire Denis films are difficult to find in the United States. They are not on streaming sites, and most physical copies are out of print. That is partially why Beau Travail, the loose adaptation of the Herman Melville novella “Billy Budd” that won her international acclaim, is such a revelation. Parts of the film are hypnotic and borderline elliptical, yet it retains undeniable power. Denis uses oblique formal qualities and storytelling to get us curious about what her characters are thinking – both in terms of their interiority, and how they feel about each other.
If you have seen the film and not watched it lately – it is currently streaming on The Criterion Channel – then what you probably remember are the bodies. Denis follows a group of French Foreign Legion soldiers who are stationed in Djibouti, an east African country that borders Ethiopia and The Red Sea. The men are young, athletic, and have closely cropped hair. When they train, which is often, they do not wear much clothing. Denis depicts them matter-of-factly, often in a medium shot, without the usual master shots or plot arc of developing into competent soldiers.
Instead, Beau Travail serves as a rebuke of the male gaze and most films about war. Has there ever been another film about soldiers and their rifles where no shot was fired? After decades of male filmmakers using their cameras to leer at women, how often do arthouse crowds have a chance to depict the male form in its peak condition? In each callisthenic drill or obstacle course – all set against a stunning desert and ocean background – there is a sense Denis’ frustration motivates her. Sometimes the scenes are tense, as when two soldiers face each other and deliberately size each other up, a prelude to a fight or maybe a seduction. Mostly Denis obliterates our preconceptions through her distant, curious point of view, allowing us to see these men the way they see themselves.
Although many scenes do not advance the narrative, Denis and her co-screenwriter Jean-Pol Fargeau include just enough detail to keep us intrigued. The protagonist is Galoup (Denis Lavant), a drill instructor type who provides voice-over throughout the film. We know from flash-forwards that Galoup was kicked out of the Legion – he now lives a modest civilian life in France – and Denis implies the scenes in Djibouti are about the lead-up to his discharge. Galoup is ferocious and enigmatic, the sort of man who aspires to be a great leader, then lets it out on his underlings when he falls short. A fantasized version of the Legion is the only he thing he loves, other than maybe his superior (Michel Subor), and he wisely keeps these obsessions to himself.
Lavant had already wowed audiences with Carax’s Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, although nothing in that film suggests he could play a convincing soldier. His compact, sinewy dancer’s body is shown in contrast to the broad-shouldered men he trains, and being cast against type is a smart way of establishing wordless character development. As with Benedict Cumberbatch in The Power of the Dog, Lavant strives for a masculine ideal that always eludes his grasp. When he lashes out, we can see the subtext the other soldiers cannot.
Absent the structure and meaning of the Legion, Beau Travail ends with two scenes away from Djibouti that redefine how we think of Galoup. At first, he makes his bed – the size of a military cot, of course – then clutches a pistol to his chest as he lays down on it. Denis then ends on her most audacious idea: Galoup dancing by himself to “The Rhythm of the Night.” Lavant’s dance, a mix of a shy experimentation and ferocious movement, might be the most memorable scene in the film because of its loose connection what preceded it.
Then again, perhaps dance is the only place where Lavant/Galoup can find the structure he craves. It comes with less pomp, sure, although the throbbing music has the potential to unleash liberation and ecstasy he could not find among people who affirmation he craved. In a theme that would come to define her work, Denis once again declines to comment on what she depicts. Thanks to her unconventional storytelling techniques and sense of camera placement, the cumulative effect not obtuse, but downright thrilling, a promise of a filmography that would only grow become undeniable and enigmatic.
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