258. Beau Travail

Song - Denis (Blondie)

Movie: Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999)

In my write up of Leos Carax' Mauvais Sang, a long time ago now, I compared Denis Lavant to Robert De Niro. I probably just found him immensely cool, because I don't really see where that comparison came from otherwise. Lavant is one of those completely singular actors, but even if you insist on looking for his American 70's counterpart, Jack Nicholson and his great explorations of male (not just sexual) impotence and anger, would be more apt. However, Beau Travail does often feel like a feature length adaptation of the famous shot in Taxi Driver where the camera moves away from De Niro's sad phone call towards the empty hallway. Like Taxi Driver, it is one of the great films about loneliness. Unlike Taxi Driver, it is also one of the ultimate 'dudes rock' movies. I don't like using 'too cool for school' internet speak, but there is really no better way to characterise Beau Travail, in part because it's central conflict arises from Galoup's (Denis Lavant) inability to rock with the dudes, for both professional and psychological reasons. 

I also don't much like reading critics who are too in love with using the phrase 'bodies moving in space'. I do increasingly though like the kind of movies to which that phrase is applied. People watching can be more fun than plot, and despite not yet having seen many Claire Denis films, it is evident that she is one of the best people watchers out there. This is a great film that consists of little else, which is probably for the best, as the scant narrative that does exist suffers from flat and too literal-minded plotting. Denis follows a squad of the French Foreign Legion on training in Djibouti, led by their commanding officer Galoup. As France is not at war, these exercises mainly serve as male bonding activities, allowing a group of rootless youths to create a connection through shows of strength, athleticism, honor and masculinity.  While there is a compettitive element to all they do, the collective experience and performance of these actions is the ultimate goal. As their commanding officer, Galoup can't be one of the boys, even when he is around them, and he can't quite assert his authority as he feels his leadership is inadequate and threatened by Gilles Sentain (the most charismatic of his soldiers). Additionally, Galoup greatly looks up to his own higher-in-command, Bruno Forestier (Michel Subor) and you never get the sense that he feels that he has the capacity to be promoted. As a result he is stuck between two worlds he can't enter. 

The soldiers engage in running drills, stretching exercises, weapon trainings, road reparations and other military activities, thoough we also see them ironing their clothes, cook dinner and go out dancing. Througjhout all this Denis highlights how aware the soliders are of both their own actiions and of the actions of the others, and how they adjust their behavior to exert themselves more as individuals or to become part of the group.. What stands out is the concentration and commitment they dedicate to all these activities, which is further emphasised by Denis whenever she sets the soldiers' activities to extracts from the opera adaptation of Billy Budd, giving their actions an almost mythical, religious dimension. Especially during these 'Billy Budd sequences' the soldiers are often barechested and Denis fully objectifies their bodies, often letting them pose as if they are classical marble statues that have come to life. If you see this as an expression of Galoup's point of view, the great ending scene becomes even better, a furious expression of how it feels to be excluded of an experience you see as holy.

It is interesting that beyond spending time with the soldiers, Denis also makes some digressions to showcase life of ordinary Djiboutians. She presents them as people who simply go on with their lives next to the French military camp. Though they are not rich, they are also not dependent on French goodwill or protection for their livelihood. The Djiboutians treat the presence of the soldiers neither as a threat nor as a blessing, but simply as an ordinary, unremarkable occurence. The soldiers are just some people who have a job and uwind by dancing to Tarkan just like the locals, contrasting the soldiers' self-absorption and self-glorification. Through this depiction of Djibouti, Denis makes national and cultural identities and differences a non-factor, largely in line with 1999's hopeful visions of globalisation. I wish those visions were more prevalent these days. but Claire Denis' newest film Stars at Noon, which I actually like more than Beau Travail, shows we are far away from that. 

Stars at Noon finds Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn lost in Nicaragua. They are the kind of western middle-class young professionals who have shaped their career based on the unspoken promise that if they get a graduate degree and parrott vaguely liberal ideals about freedom, democracy ans equality they can the have the lives of their dreams. Trish and Daniel have reached the point where they can  theoretically start those lives, but running into COVID; corrupition, local hostility and the CIA, they find that their qualifications, attittudes and knowledge are only useful for seducing each other, which leads to a sexy and melancholic romance. Between Stars at Noon and Beau Travail I am fully on board with Claire Denis after a rocky start. I thought Bastards was a terrible film that boringly obfuscates what is completely obvious, while Let the Sunshine In is good, but also completely insular in its depiction of the problems of rich elitist Parisians.