Beau Travail

What does it mean to be a foreigner? Better yet, what does it mean to belong? These are questions that we tackle with in some way throughout our lives in both big and small ways. Our subject today manages to tackle both at the same time, using the same subject, providing a unique view on these universal thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Through the eyes of a Legionnaire we see the pursuit of perfection to not only belong, but to thrive and more importantly what happens when something foreign gets in the way of that pursuit. A film written and directed by a legendary woman in cinema and one of the greatest films of all time.

So if you’re like me and you enjoy film and the impact and emotions they convey then grab a glass of your preferred beverage and join me for the next little while. For me that’s a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon from our friends at Beringer winery. So sit back, relax, and let’s talk about the love of film. Welcome to Glazed Cinema.

Today's subject features the story of a commander in the French Legion who loves and takes his position very seriously. As new recruits come into the company's fold he sees one of them as a threat as he impresses the commending officer. As he negotiates unfamiliar territory, feelings of jealousy, attraction, and paranoia begin to fester beneath his calm and stoic demeanor, brewing a mighty oncoming storm ashore.

Our subject for this episode comes from a powerhouse female French director. A woman with tremendous creativity and artistic vision.

Today is the third and final episode of our inaugural mini-series French Phenoms. A series that highlights three films with both literal and non-literal connective tissue. Our last episode featured Jean-Luc Godard's New Wave gem, Vivre Sa Vie, while the first episode in the series featured Carl Theodor Dreyer’s poignant silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc. If you haven't listened to those episodes or seen the films I highly recommend them. Today though we're highlighting the third film in the French Phenom series; and one that was made nearly forty years after Jean-Luc Godard’s Vivre Sa Vie.

Our film begins with singing amidst a mural of soldiers on a mountain top beneath a blazing orange sky. The voices, a choir of male voices begins singing in a harmonized tone as the words in French grace our ears, which translate to:

“Under the burning African sun, Cochin-China, Madagascar, a mighty phalanx hoisted up our banners. It’s motto “Honor and Valor” makes for brave soldiers. It’s flag that of France is a sign of glory.”

After some brief opening credits we see a woman with a tanktop on a dancefloor. With a bandana on her head she syncronizes an air kiss to the sound of one. As she begins to laugh music begins to play as she and thise around her start to dance. As we see several women on the dance floor soon men in white expertly pressed collared shirts begin to appear. They are dancing alongside them and we see from the lights of the club black bars on their shoulders and pins on their chests. After some brief shots of dancing the screen cuts to black as the words Beau Travail appear on screen.

Beau Travail in French translates to Good Work. The film takes place in a small country on the east coast of Africa named Djibouti. Our subject today follows a group of soldiers in the French Foreign Legion who are stationed there. Among them is out main character, the group’s master-at-arms named Galoup.

Galoup, played by Denis Lavant is a man who breaths and lives the Legion. Everything he does is in service to it and he strives to be the best within its ranks. At one point in the film he states with pride that he is the perfect Legionnaire. One day two new recruits arrive to join the group. One of them is a man named Gilles, played by Grégoire Colin, who presents a threat to our protagonist. He not only impresses the group’s superior officer with his performance, which breeds paranoia in Galoup as he feels he is possibly being outshined. However, something else is brooding beneath the surface, something Galoup is not prepared for…attraction. Navigating uncharted waters he tries to cope with these new feelings while maintaining his goal of excellence and devotion to the Legion. With this internal tension building something surely must give way.

The movie’s main focus outside of its characters is what they are united by, which is the French Foreign Legion. The French Foreign Legion is an elite military force that is unique among the free world. It is unique because unlike others you do not have to be French to serve, hence the word Foreign in its name. We see that within the movie as well with men from many different nationalities, backgrounds, and creeds. There's one great moment in the film where one of the Legionnaires is learning to speak French, taught by a fellow soldier. This practice I found is common in the Foreign Legion wherein new recruits learn French while training in the Legion.

In the film there are three characters of note, which are Galoup, Gilles Sentain, and their Commander, Bruno Forestier. There are also several other legionnaires, but the main players are the three aforementioned characters. Galoup, who we already mentioned is our main character and the anchor of the plot. Gilles is a new recruit who has joined Galoup's unit within the Legion. Commander Bruno is the unit's commanding officer who doesn't say much, but his presence is felt. We get insight into Bruno's character through a bit of narration from Galoup in which he states:

"He never confided in me. He said he was a man without ideals, a soldier without ambition. I admired him without knowing why. He knew I was the perfect Legionnaire...and he didn't give a damn."

The three characters are entwined within their unit and for the common good, but we can feel the internal struggle between each man. The film at its core is a love story on many levels, but ultimately its a story about one man's love for the Legion. There are subplots to that including his feelings toward Gilles, but ultimately his love for the Legion drives his emotions, thoughts, and actions.

Beau Travail was written and directed by Claire Denis and released in 1999. When this film was in production Denis had already made a name for herself having made some great films including Chocolat, I Can’t Sleep, and Nénette and Boni, which also starred Grégoire Colin. Beau Travail was born out of an offer from the French government. Their idea was a film depicting what it was like being a foreigner in France. With that idea in mind Denis thought of the Foreign Legion, which at first was in jest, but as more time passed the idea continued to sound more appealing. She spoke about this in an interview with Moonlight's Barry Jenkins in which she stated:

“I remember reading a quite from Jean-Luc Godard, he said “If I had to do a commercial I would not think too much. If it was for Marlboro cigarettes, our first film would be a packet of Marlboro with the red packet of Marlboro.” and I thought, yeah, let’s keep the word foreign in mind…and then immediately Foreign Legion came, as if foreign was leading me to the legion. I was not trying to be philosophical. So I thought, let’s make it about what it is to be foreign in the true sense…”

So with that idea and mindset Denis began plotting out and writing her new film. Loosely based on Herman Melville’s novel Billy Budd she uses the Legion instead of Melville’s Royal Navy. The timeline of the film is not linear, meaning some scenes appear as if they're happening directly after the previous, but in fact they're happening at another time altogether. A good example of this is when Galloup and Bruno are playing chess and billiards together. Within their conversation in two different settings are interspersed images of Galloup navigating Marseille back home in France. Serving as memories of his homeland whether past or future. We eventually ground back in Djibouti, but moments like this occur from time to time.

The film also includes narration told from the perspective of Galoup, the master-at-arms, spoken by Denis Lavant. The narration in the beginning gives us a window into the mind of the man we are following and of those around him. As the movie goes on the amount of narration gradually decreases until it is non-existent. This is done in such a great way that we don't really even notice it happening.

When Denis eventually began making the picture she found several challenges while doing so. One of them being the heat in Djibouti. The country is located near Ethiopia, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia and in the summer months experiences temperatures averaging over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The second challenge became budget as Djibouti is a rather poor country and supplying the crew with certain equipment onsite was a bit tough. Denis once recalled that she had one truck to carry equipment from location to location and a few tents for cover, though she had a lot of support from the country as a whole. The third challenge and perhaps the most odd was from the movie’s requestors, The Foreign Legion itself. The Legion learned of the homosexual undertones of the plot and found this unacceptable as they incorrectly misunderstood to be a major plot point. To them, they requested a movie about the Legion and were getting something off script. Denis repeatedly maintained while filming, this is a movie about the Legion. This fell on deaf ears however, as all they could focus on was a plot point amongst the whole picture and scope of work. The misunderstanding on the Legion's part drove them to some pretty extreme measures. These included monitoring the filming from afar with binoculars, destroying the film's encampment, and making physical threats to the crew. All of this however drove Denis to complete the picture and realize the vision she had in her mind.

One of the brilliant things about Beau Travail is in its simplicity. We follow the Legionnaires in their daily routines and witness a snapshot of their lives. They train, complete tasks for the community like building a road, eat, dance and drink, and iron their uniforms. There's nothing extra about this movie. It does what it needs and does it well.

Claire Denis as a director exceeds where others may be uncomfortable, which is in the details. I say that because as a creative, in a film like Beau Travail there’s nothing to hide behind, nothing to insulate you as an artist. There’s no flashy and attention grabbing visual effects, no loud and emotive score, no big budget magic…looking at you Hollywood. No, here it’s filmmaking at its finest where all the fundamentals, the details, the execution is perfectly done. Not everybody is comfortable making a movie like this just like not everybody wants to see a movie like this. However Denis does this so expertly that it's captivated audiences since its release in 1999.

When the film was released a representative of the Foreign Legion was at the premiere. After the final credits rolled the representative was close to tears and complimented Denis on making a beautiful film. The Legion later thanked her for the film as well.

The first time I saw this film was actually just last year in the theaters. My local theater, the Philadelphia Film Society was showcasing the entire BFI Sight and Sound List . If you're unfamiliar with that, the British Film Institute puts out a lst of the 100 best films every ten years and Beau Travail was in the Top Ten of that list, so I was naturally curious. The PFS unfurls its catalog quarterly, so when this appeared, naturally a thumbnail image accompanied it on the website. I chose the same image they used, which intrigued me about this film as the hint for this episode. It's just a simple image of Galloup sitting down, but I found it so intriguing. So naturally I bought tickets and when it came time walked to the theater to witness the film for the first time. I went in to this pretty blind as I like to do on occasion. The only thing I really knew prior to the viewing was its director and the single thumbnail.

Sitting down with a fairly large contingent of movie goers the film began to play and it completely swept me away. By the time the credits rolled I had a smile on my face and was blown away by it all. I immediately knew that what I had witnessed was nothing short of spectacular and sat there gobsmacked for a bit. I had no words to muster except wow. It's a feeling I had only had one time before that, which was our previous episode, Vivre Sa Vie. With headphones on I bundled up and walked into the cold city streets of Philadelphhia afterward. I walked down Broad Street, digesting the experience and reliving the moments in my mind, like savoring the notes of a delicious meal.

Beau Travail is one of the best movies I've ever seen and for me personally it is as close to perfection as a movie can get. Everything was done so expertly well from the writing, acting, and cinematography down to the pacing, which is as smooth as a flowing river. This movie, like all great works of art including The Passion of Joan of Arc and Vivre Sa Vie stayed with me for days afterward. It is a true work of art and I can’t wait to meet another person who has seen it and talk about it.

I started this in-season film series French Phenoms to highlight films about French subjects or from French directors that made me further appreciate the artistic side of cinema. All three films are beautiful, thought provoking, and legendary in their own way and worth a viewing. I hope you enjoyed taking this journey with me and in our next episode we’ll go back to our regular bi-weekly format of Glazed Cinema.

Beau Travail is a masterwork from creative genius. If you love and appreciate film and the art of filmmaking I highly recommend and encourage you to press play on this gem. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

If you’d like to watch Beau Travail for yourself you can find it on a variety of streaming services. At the time of this recording you can find it on The Criterion Channel. The Criterion Channel is a streaming service from out friends at The Criterion Collection. The Criterion Channel offers tremendous value for any seasoned or bourgeoning film fan with pricing options including $10.99 per month or $99 per year, which is what I chose to do.

Apart from the Criterion Channel you can also find it on Max. Max is a streaming service from HBO featuring movies and TV from underneath and outside the HBO umbrella. Pricing options include $9.99 per month with ads, $12.99 per month ad-free, and $15.99 per month ultimate ad-free.

Lastly, you can also find Beau Travail on Vudu, YouTube, Google Play, and Apple TV for $3.99 to rent.

If you like this podcast tell your friends and follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Each week there will be hints about episodes before they air. If you’d like to learn more about the podcast visit our website at glazedcinema.com. There you’ll find more info about the show and a place to submit ideas for future episodes. For film fans who are hearing impaired the blog page on our website features each episode in written form as well. As always thanks for listening and I hope to see you next time with another beverage and another fine film on Glazed Cinema.