But never has rhythmic movement been more central to Denis’s filmmaking than in her masterpiece Beau travail (1999), a bold reimagining of Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor that follows a French Foreign Legion sergeant (Denis Lavant) and his obsession with a young recruit (Colin) against the backdrop of a Djibouti desert landscape. In one striking scene, dry grass blows in the wind and silhouettes give way to actual men, standing bare chested with their arms raised and eyes closed. 1 hr 33 mins. The film is about the Legionnaire's life, and is mostly a series of images of the soldiers camped out and living in a stark desert environment. The fifth of the thirteen full-length fiction films Denis has made so far—spanning an assortment of genres, settings, and tones—it is the work that continues to be her most celebrated. They never touch. They are still as the breeze moves them; they meld with nature, they become it. Beau Travail . The famous dance scene from Claire Denis's movie Beau Travail (1999) Their relationship is told through choreography, but instead of using their fists, this battle builds through tension. ‘Beau Travail’s’ Restoration Re-animates the Beauty of Denis’s Cinematic Gem. A fantasy to become someone else? It was produced in New York in 2020. Denis Lavant (born 17 June 1961) is a French actor known for his distinctive face and the physically demanding aspects of the roles he plays, which often involve slapstick, acrobatics or dance, as well as for his long-standing association with director Leos Carax. “To love is to surrender.”, “Mauvais Sang,” in which he runs to David Bowie’s “Modern Love”. Mr. Montet said that when Ms. Denis was looking for locations to shoot in the desert, she was inspired by the movement of the grass and asked him to create what he calls the “grass dance.”, “It’s a way to show their vulnerability, their fragility in these killer bodies,” Mr. Montet said. Beau Travail (1999)- source: Pyramide Distribution. That’s right, Denis has taken Billy Budd off the high seas and transformed the basic story into a tale of the legendary French Foreign Legion. Features ... Denis Lavant, Grégoire Colin, Michel Subor . La fin est un lâcher-prise magique. Mr. Lavant told Criterion that he improvised the dance, which was shot in only two takes. Description du produit. In one moment, the men stretch on the ground, one leg forward and the other bent behind — it’s as easy to see them as dancers limbering up as soldiers in training. Denis Lavant was born on June 17, 1961 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He is an actor and writer, known for Holy Motors (2012), Beau travail (1999) and Boy Meets Girl (1984). Denis Lavant (born 17 June 1961) is a French actor known for his distinctive face and the physically demanding aspects of the roles he plays, which often involve slapstick, acrobatics or dance, as well as for his long-standing association with director Leos Carax.Lavant has played the lead role in all but one of Carax's films. Agnès Godard’s cinematography has never looked better and Denis’s style remains as remarkable as it … Claire Denis’s film about legionnaires, ends with a fearless, thrilling dance by Denis Lavant, but that’s not its only choreographic beat. I think I could watch Denis Lavant in anything and the marriage of lonely desert scenery, impacting music and subtle interpersonal conflict builds to a unprecedented moving climax. Claire Denis’s film “Beau Travail,” a luminous tale of desire and despair in the French Foreign Legion, had an uncanny effect on me when I first watched it some years after its release, in 1999. This selected-scene commentary featuring cinematographer Agnès Godard was recorded in Paris in 2020. Who is this untamed person, seemingly drunk on life, we see in the dance? Denis' extraordinary movie centres on Galoup (Lavant) who, while holed up in Marseille, recalls his time as a sergeant-major in the Foreign Legion. “He wanted to go to the bar for the last time. Through his wild metamorphosis, he becomes an object of obsession — ours. Directed by Claire Denis • 1999 • France Is it a dance of death? By using our site, you agree to our use of cookies. "Beau Travail" (1999) is directed by Claire Denis (Chocolat, White Material). Beau travail est un film réalisé par Claire Denis avec Denis Lavant, Michel Subor. In the deser But when they recline all the way with their arms raised overhead, the image takes a tragic turn; their bodies, limp and sprawled out, are lifeless. This conversation between filmmakers Claire Denis and Barry Jenkins was recorded in Paris and Los Angeles in 2020. At this point in the film, about a group of French Foreign Legion soldiers, Galoup has been dismissed from military service — and just moments ago he did not seem to be dealing well. The dance begins on his bed with a close-up of his pulsing biceps and the faint, opening beat of Corona’s “The Rhythm of the Night”; a moment later, he is transported to a nightclub. “Also this relation with the death: For one, it’s real and for the other one, it’s symbolic.”, Neither, in other words, belongs in ordinary society. “In a hug, you can give all your being,” Mr. Montet said. In “Beau Travail,” he isn’t alone. This film focuses on an ex-Foreign Legion officer as he recalls his … Mr. Lavant, who trained in the circus, is a natural mover: Remember his sprinting dance in Leos Carax’s “Mauvais Sang,” in which he runs to David Bowie’s “Modern Love”? Le scénario est inspiré de la nouvelle Billy Budd d'Herman Melville. The soldiers in training resemble dancers limbering up. They start standing apart on a cliff overlooking the sea and eventually take careful steps, moving clockwise as the gap shrinks between them; the wide shot switches to a close-up, first of Galoup, then of Sentain, who radiates innocence even in aggression. 'Beau Travail' CAST Denis Lavant, Gregoire Colin, Michel Subor . Shop Beau Travail(1999) (Criterion Collection) UK Only [Blu-ray] [2020]. There are reverberations from their duet, from the methodical opening steps to the circling pattern. See more in our Cookies Policy. Before seeing Claire Denis’ “Beau Travail,” I had only seen its star Denis Lavant in films by his longtime collaborator Leos Carax (“Holy Motors,” “Mauvais Sang”).In each of those, Lavant delivers unforgettable, chaotic physical performances where, in dance sequences or just walking down the street, his characters seem to lose control of their own bodies. (His rolling-off-the-floor exit came in the second take, “Just to get off camera quickly!,” he said.) The actors playing legionnaires in “Beau Travail” include the film’s choreographer, Bernardo Montet, as well as a boxer, an opera singer and dancers. Overview - Claire Denis’ enigmatic and deeply poetic Beau Travail makes its HD debut thanks to The Criterion Collection. But in the dance, Galoup, played by Denis Lavant, transforms into a new body, one overflowing with life. This is also made apparent by some of Lavant’s notable non-film, or not-quite-film appearances.In the music video for UNKLE’s “Rabbit in Your Headlights” (song featuring Thom Yorke, video directed by Jonathan Glazer! “To love is to surrender.”. Beau travail—the title can mean both “good work” and “beautiful work”—took her back to Africa to shoot a feature there for the first time since her debut. Beau Travail: Denis Lavant, né le 17 juin 1961 à Neuilly-sur-Seine, est un acteur français Biographie. That wasn’t in character.”. The choreography of the group is as important as the landscape — Djibouti, in East Africa — which frames the men with the turquoise blue of the sea, the azure sky and the dusty earth. (Frances Ha enjoys a dash down the street to the same song, too.) 50% of ticket sales go to support BAM, helping to ensure the future of BAM’s adventurous programming. But in the solo, Galoup’s gaze, while intent, isn’t hard; his lips part, softening his mouth. The shorter, stockier Galoup peers up at him, his lips grim and downturned. Beau Travail was loosely based on Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville, though disco dancing did not figure quite as prominently in Melville's novella. He is more animal than human as he goes from being the watcher — which he’s been through much of the film — to the watched. Mr. Lavant, in a Criterion interview, said he viewed his dancing self as “a projection of who Galoup might wish to be.”, The decision to place the sequence at the end of the film came during the editing process. There’s a purposeful double-sidedness, as if what’s living within their muscular prowess is as unpredictable as Galoup’s nightclub dance. Throughout the movie, loosely modeled on Melville’s “Billy Budd,” bodies, more than words, tell the story. “In the script, it was because he was leaving for good,” Ms. Denis said in another interview. Amazon.ca - Buy BEAU TRAVAIL (Bilingual) at a low price; free shipping on qualified orders. Beau travail, 1 DVD, 90 minutes Amazon.fr. Beau travail est un film chorégraphié. Inspired by Herman Melville's Billy Budd, BEAU TRAVAIL is the most provocative and accomplished film yet by French director Claire Denis (CHOCOLAT, I CAN'T SLEEP, NENETTE AND BONI).This simple tale, distilled to the essence of a ballad or poem, is drenched with male eroticism and cast in the form of a languorous tropical dream. ‘Beau Travail’ Finds the Rhythm of Life (and Dances Away the Pain), Denis Lavant from the epilogue dance in "Beau Travail.". Né à Neuilly-Sur-Seine d'une mère psychologue et d'un père pédiatre, il est … A battle built through tension: The stand-off duet between Gilles Sentain (Grégoire Colin), left, and Galoup (Mr. Lavant). Replete with tension and raw beauty this loose adaptation of Herman Melville’s Billy Budd centers around an isolated outpost of the French Foreign Legion as a sergeant becomes painfully obsessed with a new recruit. Beau Travail Tweet ... Denis Lavant is the French Foreign Legion officer whose destructive fixation with a handsome young recruit culminates in one of the most unforgettable endings in 1990s cinema. "Beau Travail" hews to the basic outlines of Melville's fable, which was set in the British Navy in 1797, but the story is really just a pretext for what emerges as a woman's rapt meditation on an all-male society, its pecking order and its punishing rituals of authority, repression, discipline and honor. This interview with actor Denis Lavant was recorded in Paris in 2020. Even after a brief interruption by credits, Mr. Lavant returns to spring up like a fish popping out of the sea before crashing to the floor with a splash and then rebounding. Á Djibouti, une base de légionnaires devient le théâtre d'un conflit entre un jeune soldat idéaliste et son chef, l'adjudant Galoup, fasciné par le charisme du légionnaire. Une fascination qui conduira au drame. He lies down and holds a gun to his bare stomach. 1999. See reviews & details on a wide selection of Blu-ray & DVDs, both new & used. Galoup (Denis Lavant) makes his bed with military precision, the discipline of his many years in the Foreign Legion lingering in his bones even after his unwanted repatriation to France. He was lying on his neatly made bed with a gun in his hand as the camera panned over his tattoo: “Serve the good cause and die.”. For nearly 90 minutes in the film, Galoup’s body has been fixed and hard. “With the dancer, as with the legionnaire, there is this idea of sacrifice,” he added. Product Description. It seems like it has been ages since I have been so enthused about a film as I am by this one. With her ravishingly sensual take on Herman Melville’s “Billy Budd, Sailor,” Claire Denis firmly established herself as one of the great visual tone poets of our time. In an email interview, Mr. Montet said his job was to “release the poetic power” of their bodies. Lavant … DIRECTOR Claire Denis . Denis Lavant, Actor: Holy Motors. WRITERS Denis and Jean-Paul Fargeau, adapted from Herman … ... Denis Lavant. Bonus archives. Janus Films’ restoration of Claire Denis’s “Beau Travail” relivens the film for a new generation. We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. “We see Galoup walking at night among the barracks, and I’d take a little step or something,” he said, adding that it was “almost like dancing. Military drills in which the men climb over walls or crawl under wires flash by with speed and efficiency; but even those moments of action — seemingly everyday or pedestrian — can be deceiving, changing meaning the longer we watch. Starring Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, Grégoire Colin. The circling duet, this one more predatory and ominous, is a face-off between Galoup and Gilles Sentain (Grégoire Colin), the young legionnaire he is both repelled by and attracted to. What I didn’t notice the first time I saw the film is that in his final dance, Galoup — though alone and lost in his own world — actually dances as if someone were standing before him, and he reacts to every move of that phantom partner: Sentain. “Beau travail” (a title which Denis was reported to despise) is inspired, sketchily, by the goings-on in Herman Melville’s “Billy Budd, Sailor.” (The score includes pop songs as well as drawing on Benjamin Britten’s “Billy Budd” setting.) With one arm stretched up the side of a mirror twinkling with magenta lights, he takes a drag on his cigarette and edges his way toward the center of the dance floor where he walks in small circular steps as if marking his territory. It was just the right dance at just the right time. With her ravishingly sensual take on Herman Melville ... Claire Denis . Amid the azure waters and sunbaked desert landscapes of Djibouti, a French Foreign Legion sergeant (Denis Lavant) sows the seeds of his own ruin as his obsession with a striking young recruit (Grégoire Colin) plays out to the thunderous, operatic strains of Benjamin Britten. Directed by Claire Denis • 1999 • France Starring Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, Grégoire Colin With her ravishingly sensual take on Herman Melville’s “Billy Budd, Sailor,” Claire Denis firmly established herself as one of the great visual tone poets of our time. This video essay was written and narrated by film scholar Judith Mayne. “In a hug, you can give all your being,” the choreographer Mr. Montet said. Beau Travail 1999 Criterion Collection UK Only Blu-ray 2020: Amazon.co.uk: Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, Grégoire Colin, Claire Denis, Denis Lavant, Michel Subor: DVD & Blu-ray The solo that ends Claire Denis’s film “Beau Travail” spotlights the repressed, tightly wound Sergeant Galoup in ways we have never seen him before: loose, relaxed, carefree. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. Courtesy: Curzon Artificial Eye. Beau Travail est un film français de Claire Denis, sorti le 3 mai 2000 en France après avoir été présenté à la Mostra de Venise le 4 septembre 1999. Beau Travail With her ravishingly sensual take on Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor, Claire Denis firmly established herself as one of the great visual tone poets of our time. Directed by Claire Denis. But surrender is not a part of a legionnaire’s mentality. How powerful can a dance be? There is almost no acting so the movie lacks the … Galoup spent most of the movie obsessing over someone else, but his dance flips that story. His limbs loosen in gangly, euphoric freedom. Claire Denis' Beau Travail has both a powerful and ethereal quality to it. But the moment I began watching Beau Travail, I jotted myself a note: “bodies in motion.” The movie literally begins with men and women dancing in Djubouti, the setting of most of the film’s action. His dance twists things up: Who is this Galoup? Claire Denis’s film about legionnaires, ends with a fearless, thrilling dance by Denis Lavant, but that’s not its only choreographic beat. Denis and cinematographer Agnès Godard fold military and masculine codes of honor, colonialism’s legacy, destructive jealousy, and repressed desire into shimmering, hypnotic images that ultimately explode in one of the most startling and unforgettable endings in all of modern cinema. Les mouvements de Denis Lavant font appel à la danse contemporaine. While Galoup’s solo is the film’s most obvious dance moment, a singular choreographic consciousness runs throughout “Beau Travail” (1999), recently restored by the Criterion Collection. Beau Travail literally means beautiful work, and this film is all that and more. With her ravishingly sensual take on Herman Melville’s “Billy Budd, Sailor,” Claire Denis firmly established herself as one of the great visual tone poets of our time. Mr. Montet sees the dancer in Galoup as a shaman who has “nothing to do with the show world, dance as an entertainment.”. The story is narrated by the evil, ex-Chief Master Sergeant Galoup (Denis Lavant), in an offscreen voiceover and in a flashback that begins by him stating his time of action is over, it is time for him to recall his life. The actors playing legionnaires include the film’s choreographer, Bernardo Montet, as well as a boxer, an opera singer and dancers. With Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, Grégoire Colin, Richard Courcet. Des mots de minuit 03/05/2000 : Claire Denis à propos de son parcours et de sa collaboration avec un chorégraphe sur Beau travail. This interview with actor Grégoire Colin was recorded in Paris in 2020. Beau Travail (pronounced [bo tʁa.vaj], French for "good work") is a 1999 French film directed by Claire Denis that is loosely based on Herman Melville's 1888 novella Billy Budd.The story is set in Djibouti, where the protagonists are soldiers in the French Foreign Legion.Parts of the soundtrack of the movie are from Benjamin Britten's opera based on the novella. Claire Denis, Beau Travail, 1999, film still (closing sequence). Classics and discoveries from around the world, thematically programmed with special features, on a streaming service brought to you by the Criterion Collection. He starts dancing like the last dance of his life.”. See special feature. He spins suddenly and kneels, taking his time. “They give their body to nature, to death, and they do it with full consciousness.”, There are duets, too, like when the soldiers embrace and retreat — their chests smack hard yet their eye contact and the quick squeeze, a millisecond, just before parting reveals something about their faith in their profession and in each other. Beau travail porte bien son nom puisque c'est peut-être le plus beau film de Claire Denis. As louche as Serge Gainsbourg but with the daredevil precision of Mikhail Baryshnikov, Mr. Lavant uses his primal, low-to-the-ground physicality as a way to release Galoup’s pent-up emotions, which seep out of his skin through movement. Protected Content This content can only be viewed in authorized regions: United States of America, Canada . But this extended solo wasn’t his only dancing moment in the film; what made the role fun for him, he said, was the way he used his physicality to shift from realism to fantasy. Denis Lavant in Claire Denis's ``Beau Travail,'' inspired by ``Billy Budd.'' He sways his arms and spins again, but this time in the air. Galoup’s downfall is brought on by his jealousy and obsession with and a beautiful young man in his unit; his suicide seems imminent.
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