Wk3 | Beau Travail (1999)

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Hi everyone!

Our film this week is Beau Travail (1999) directed by Claire Denis.

Denis’s masterpiece, Beau Travail (which is loosely based on Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor) firmly established her as one of the great visual tone poets of our time.

Amid the striking landscapes of Djibouti — sunbaked earth, azure waters — the film follows a platoon of French Foreign Legion under the command of Sergeant Galoup (Denis Lavant).

The pace of their lives is beautifully portrayed, the rhythm of work, until finally it all comes undone, culminating in one of the most startling and unforgettable endings in all of modern cinema.