Beau Travail (2000)
85%RT Audience Score: 78%
Awards & Nominations: 6 wins & 11 nominations
Beau Travail finds director Claire Denis drawing on classic literature to construct a modern tragedy fueled by timeless desires
Beau Travail is like a poem, but with more hot guys and less rhyming. It’s set in a French Foreign Legion outpost in Africa, which sounds like a terrible vacation spot, but makes for a great movie. The film is all about repressed homosexuality and power games, which is basically what happens every time I go to a gay bar. The cinematography is stunning, and I’m pretty sure I could watch it on repeat for days without getting bored. Overall, it’s a masterpiece that requires patience, but rewards you with some seriously swoon-worthy visuals.
Production Company(ies)
Horizon Pictures,
Distributor
New Yorker Films
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Obock, Djibouti
MPAA / Certificate
Unrated
Year of Release
2000
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:1.66 : 1
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Runtime:1h 30m
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Language(s):French, Italian, Russian
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Country of origin:France
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Sep 4, 1999 Original
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
Good Work, Drama, French, Foreign Legion, Jealousy, Tragedy, Classic Literature, Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau, Herman Melville, Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, Grégoire Colin, New Yorker Films, Surround Sound, Dolby SR, Flat Aspect Ratio, $271.6K Box Office, Reviewed by Lisa Schwarzbaum, Chris Vognar, Ed Gonzalez, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Michael Thomson, Wesley Morris, Dennis Lim, Jas Keimig, Piers Marchant, Rob Aldam, Matt Brunson, Ray Pride, Drama Movie, French Movie, Foreign Legion Movie, Military Movie, LGBTQ Movie, Cannes Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, French Cinema, War Movie, Psychological Drama, Art House Movie, Independent Movie, LGBTQ+ Themes, Homosexuality, Repressed Desires, Masculinity, Male Bonding, Memory, Desire, Futility, Motion, Gesture, Ritual, Sisyphus, Struggle, Sweat, Observation, Subtext, Visual Poetry, Gorgeous Cinematography Directed by Claire Denis, Written by Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau, Herman Melville, Starring Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, Grégoire Colin, Produced by Georges Benayoun, Philippe Liegeois, Karl Baumgartner
Worldwide gross: NA
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): NA
US/Canada gross: $247,606
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $429,452
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,365
US/Canada opening weekend:
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Michel Subor – Commander Bruno Forestier
Grégoire Colin – Gilles Sentain
Richard Courcet – Legionnaire
Claire Denis – Director, Writer
Director(s)
Claire Denis
Writer(s)
Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau, Herman Melville
Producer(s)
NA
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
6 wins & 11 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (42) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (36) | Rotten (6)
September 7, 2011 | Rating: A
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly
TOP CRITIC
As much poem as film. It requires patience, which it rewards at every languid turn.
March 7, 2002 | Rating: A-
Chris Vognar
Dallas Morning News
TOP CRITIC
Beau Travail is an allegorical tale of revenge and jealousy set within a French Foreign Legion outpost in Africa.
May 2, 2001 | Rating: 4/4
Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine
TOP CRITIC
A masterpiece.
January 1, 2000 | Rating: 4/4
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
January 1, 2000 | Rating: 3/5
Michael Thomson
BBC.com
TOP CRITIC
Denis’ film is as fluid as her nine others, demonstrating her skill at integrating story strands with her handsome visual sense and gift for evocation.
January 1, 2000
Wesley Morris
San Francisco Examiner
TOP CRITIC
Ardent and unflinching, Beau Travail looks beyond homoeroticism to the subtle, savage power games of an all-male world.
May 24, 2022
Dennis Lim
Out Magazine
As soon as the DVD stopped playing, I started watching it again, not sure I’d taken it all in-the film lends itself easily to multiple viewings.
February 2, 2022
Jas Keimig
The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
Denis tells her story in typically cryptic ellipticals, allowing the film’s stunning visual work, forged by legendary French cinematographer Agnès Godard, to convey the layers of complex emotion, desire and futility of Galoup’s memory.
March 19, 2021
Piers Marchant
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
An astonishingly muscular tale of repressed homosexuality and troubled fixation
September 24, 2020
Rob Aldam
Backseat Mafia
Crafted as a picture that’s meant to be experienced rather than explored.
September 19, 2020 | Rating: 3/4
Matt Brunson
Film Frenzy
We are given motion, gestures, enactment of anachronistic ritual. Raptures and vicissitudes shadow and sinew. The men work, strain, sweat; we are immersed in the routines of these stripped-bare Sisyphuses as they are weighted with inexorable fate.
September 16, 2020 | Rating: 10/10
Ray Pride
Newcity…
Plot
In Good Work, a Foreign Legion officer’s jealousy towards a promising young recruit leads to the destruction of both men.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
The film stars Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, and Grégoire Colin.
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