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Beau travail

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87% Tomatometer 45 Reviews 77% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
Foreign Legion officer, Galoup, recalls his once glorious life, leading troops in the Gulf of Djibouti. His existence there was happy, strict and regimented, but the arrival of a promising young recruit, Sentain, plants the seeds of jealousy in Galoup's mind. He feels compelled to stop him from coming to the attention of the commandant who he admires, but who ignores him. Ultimately, his jealousy leads to the destruction of both Sentain and himself.
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Beau travail

Beau travail

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Critics Consensus

Beau Travail finds director Claire Denis drawing on classic literature to construct a modern tragedy fueled by timeless desires.

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Critics Reviews

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Lisa Schwarzbaum Entertainment Weekly Rated: A Sep 7, 2011 Full Review Chris Vognar Dallas Morning News As much poem as film. It requires patience, which it rewards at every languid turn. Rated: A- Mar 7, 2002 Full Review Ed Gonzalez Slant Magazine Beau Travail is an allegorical tale of revenge and jealousy set within a French Foreign Legion outpost in Africa. Rated: 4/4 May 2, 2001 Full Review Susan Sontag Artforum A dazzling riff on Melville’s Billy Budd. You’ll never forget the final scene, when the amazing Denis Lavant starts to dance. May 2, 2024 Full Review Sean Burns WBUR’s Arts & Culture The movie is a mass of engorged muscles and entwined limbs; desire rerouted through conformity and cruelty in the rhythm of the night. Mar 9, 2023 Full Review Annlee Ellingson CineWomen [Claire] Denis has crafted a psychological portrait as exquisite and harsh as the East African landscape so gorgeously captured by cinematographer Agnès Godard. Aug 17, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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John S Awful acting, and no soundtrack for most of the film. There is one event that happens during the entire film and it is not dramatised in the slightest (with the least well acted punch I have ever seen in my life), it then turns out that the character does not even die and will be perfectly ok, so essentially, nothing happens. There was no differentiating factor between the TWO MAIN characters for the first hour of the film and only knew about them for the last part. The other characters are not even named… The director, Claire Denis, has attempted to be ‘quirky’ and ‘unique’ with this horrific attempt at a film and has failed miserably. In trying to be different from other films, she has utterly bored all the viewers and completely wasted an hour and a half of everybody’s life that has watched this film. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 09/26/24 Full Review Otto H What a waste of my time. I would rather procreate with a dog than rewatch this film. Absolutely atrocious. An offence to cinematography. Not a single scene gave me pleasure, the acting was dry, and honestly i never want to see Galoup again or hear his name. I hate him. I hated the film. Never watch this film. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 09/26/24 Full Review Nate V This might be one of the most disappointing films I’ve ever watched. Each scene is terribly performed and directed; the acting is lackluster and the film horribly attempts to build up tension (through the means of music) with no palpable climax and an ending that serves no purpose to the film whatsoever. This specific ending led me to burst out laughing - although at least this was the one piece of emotion that I felt throughout the whole 90 minutes. One could argue that the film has deeper “meanings” that can be discerned through deep analysis, yet this serves no purpose if the director went out with that sole intention. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 09/27/24 Full Review Dani G I never knew exactly what to think about this film while watching it. Interesting, though Rated 2 out of 5 stars 08/15/23 Full Review Leaburn O It's basically a French portrayal of what the opening half to Full Metal Jacket would look like if Colonel Kurtz was the drill sergeant. It's a bit drawn out and brooding. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 05/25/23 Full Review Brian M Brilliantly shot and has a lot of truly stellar moments, but let's calm down a little people -- definitely in the great, but not THAT great category. The ending will be divisive. I get it, and I hate it, but it's not awful. It has everything you like and everything you hate about foreign films. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Beau travail

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Movie Info

Synopsis Foreign Legion officer, Galoup, recalls his once glorious life, leading troops in the Gulf of Djibouti. His existence there was happy, strict and regimented, but the arrival of a promising young recruit, Sentain, plants the seeds of jealousy in Galoup's mind. He feels compelled to stop him from coming to the attention of the commandant who he admires, but who ignores him. Ultimately, his jealousy leads to the destruction of both Sentain and himself.
Director
Claire Denis
Screenwriter
Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau, Herman Melville
Distributor
New Yorker Films
Production Co
La Sept-Arte, Tanais, SM Films
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Canadian French
Release Date (Theaters)
Sep 4, 1999, Original
Box Office (Gross USA)
$271.6K
Runtime
1h 30m
Sound Mix
Surround, Dolby SR
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.85:1)
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