Beau Travail

Reviews

CinemaSerf
Denis Lavant is good in this powerfully delivered reminiscence of soldier "Galoup". Having previously been stationed with his French regiment in Djibouti, director Claire Denis now takes us on a gently paced but effective retrospective as he revisits his time there where his life of discipline and routine gradually becomes compromised as he takes a bit of a shine to the newly arrived, confident and lithe, recruit "Sentain" (Grègoire Colin). The photography here is striking, as is the repetitiveness of their rather pedestrian existence. They spend most of their time, well, killing it! Their perfectly toned bodies frequently exposed to the relentless sunshine - as they do their laundry and their ironing - and to the azure waters of the ocean. For the most part, they are simply bored! It is perhaps that boredom that contributes to the increasingly frustrating existence of "Galoup" and of his commander (Michel Subor). It has a degree of violence to it, a physical and intellectual torment that is well illustrated as the story unfolds slowly but distinctly and not in any way predictably either. This isn't a love story in any traditional guise; but there is affection and sentiment here and as we gradually learn a little of what makes "Galoup" tick, I felt a little immersed in his scenario. The music plays a big part here too - not in a soundtrack manner, but augmenting the imagery and standing in for a dialogue that is sparing and effective. It's a slow burn, but I did enjoy it.
Movie Recommendation
- The Samurai2014-02-08Jakob, a young policeman from a remote village, has his world unhinged when a stranger in a dress emerges from the forest and begins killing villagers with a sword.More...
- Contact1985-01-06A platoon of British paratroopers on border patrol in South Armagh face a series of tense encounters.More...
- Kannapolis (N.C.), 19411941-01-01A silent, non-narrative documentary showing people in a small town in the early 1940s. One of H. Lee Waters' "Movies of Local People".More...
- Bad Timing1980-03-02Alex Linden is a psychiatrist living in Vienna who meets Milena Flaherty though a mutual friend. Though Alex is quite a bit older than Milena, he's attracted to her young, carefree spirit. Despite the fact that Milena is already married, their friendship quickly turns into a deeply passionate love affair that threatens to overtake them both. When Milena ends up in the hospital from an overdose, Alex is taken into custody by Inspector Netusil.More...
- Boy Meets Girl1984-11-21In Paris at night, a young aspiring filmmaker grapples with heartbreak after his girlfriend leaves him for his best friend. After a failed attempt to confront his friend, he wanders the streets and encounters a girl who has just been abandoned. Their paths cross at a party, bringing together two tormented souls.More...
- Killer of Sheep1978-11-14An African-American man working at a slaughterhouse in the Watts area of Los Angeles leads a dissatisfied and listless existence.More...
- Raining Stones1993-09-09Proud, though poor, Bob wants his little girl to have a beautiful (and costly) brand-new dress for her First Communion. His stubbornness and determination get him into trouble as he turns to more and more questionable measures, in his desperation to raise the needed money. This tragic flaw leads him to risk all that he loves and values, his beloved family, indeed even his immortal soul and salvation, in blind pursuit of that goal.More...
- Dead Man's Letters1986-12-12In a world after the nuclear apocalypse a scholar helps a small group of children and adults survive, staying with them in the basement of the former museum of history. In his mind he writes letters to his son — though it is obvious that they will never be read.More...
- There Will Be No Leave Today1959-05-09Soldiers undertake the perilous task of removing a stockpile of World War II bombshells discovered during roadworks under the ground of a small village.More...
- Macbeth1948-10-01A Scottish warlord and his wife murder their way to a pair of crowns.More...
- Trouble Every Day2001-07-11Newlyweds Shane and June arrive in Paris for their honeymoon. In the process of trying to find a cure for his strange, bloodthirsty disease, Shane stumbles upon the story of a doctor and his flesh eating wife.More...
- The Sweet Hereafter1997-09-25A small mountain community in Canada is devastated when a school bus accident leaves more than a dozen of its children dead. A big-city lawyer arrives to help the survivors' and victims' families prepare a class-action suit, but his efforts only seem to push the townspeople further apart. At the same time, one teenage survivor of the accident has to reckon with the loss of innocence brought about by a different kind of damage.More...
- 3 Women1977-04-10Two co-workers, one a vain woman and the other an awkward teenager, share an increasingly bizarre relationship after becoming roommates.More...
- Knife+Heart2018-06-27In the summer of 1979, gay porn producer Anne sets out to film her most ambitious film yet, but her actors are picked off, one by one, by a mysterious killer.More...
- Safe1995-06-23Carol White, a Los Angeles housewife in the late 1980s, comes down with a debilitating illness with no clear diagnosis.More...
- Be Sick… It's Free1968-10-24Comedy about the flawed Italian healthcare system of the time and a doctor's expeirence with it.More...
- The Tribe2014-09-11Deaf-mute Sergey enters a specialized boarding school for the deaf-and-dumb. In navigating through the school's hierarchy, he encounters a corrupt underbelly of criminality, known as The Tribe. By participating in several robberies, he gets propelled higher into the organization, when he meets one of the Chief’s concubines Anya, and unwittingly breaks all the unwritten rules of the group.More...
- Cléo from 5 to 71962-04-11Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.More...
- Five Easy Pieces1970-09-12A drop-out from upper-class America picks up work along the way on oil-rigs when his life isn't spent in a squalid succession of bars, motels, and other points of interest.More...
- Alphaville1965-05-05Lemmy Caution is on a mission to eliminate Professor Von Braun, the creator of a malevolent computer that rules the city of Alphaville. Befriended by the scientist’s daughter Natasha, Lemmy must unravel the mysteries of the strictly logical Alpha 60 and teach Natasha the meaning of the word “love.”More...
Similar Movies
Flashdance
1983-04-14Alex Owens, a young woman juggling between two odd jobs, aspires to become a successful ballet dancer. Nick, who is her boss and lover, supports and encourages her to fulfil her dream.Rashomon
1950-08-26Four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.Fight Club
1999-10-15A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until an eccentric gets in the way and ignites an out-of-control spiral toward oblivion.The Poseidon Adventur...
1972-12-01When their ocean liner capsizes, a group of passengers struggle to survive and escape.Fat Girl
2001-03-07Anaïs is twelve and bears the weight of the world on her shoulders. She watches her older sister, Elena, whom she both loves and hates. Elena is fifteen and devilishly beautiful. Neither more futile, nor more stupid than her younger sister, she cannot understand that she is merely an object of desire. And, as such, she can only be taken. Or had. Indeed, this is the subject: a girl's loss of virginity. And, that summer, it opens a door to tragedy.The Experiment
2001-03-0820 volunteers agree to take part in a seemingly well-paid experiment advertised by the university. It is supposed to be about aggressive behavior in an artificial prison situation. A journalist senses a story behind the ad and smuggles himself in among the test subjects. They are randomly divided into prisoners and guards. What seems like a game at the beginning soon turns into bloody seriousness.To Die For
1995-09-22Suzanne Stone wants to be a world-famous news anchor and she is willing to do anything to get what she wants. What she lacks in intelligence, she makes up for in cold determination and diabolical wiles. As she pursues her goal with relentless focus, she is forced to destroy anything and anyone that may stand in her way, regardless of the ultimate cost or means necessary.Dances with Wolves
1990-03-30Wounded Civil War soldier John Dunbar tries to commit suicide—and becomes a hero instead. As a reward, he's assigned to his dream post, a remote junction on the Western frontier, and soon makes unlikely friends with the local Sioux tribe.The Hours
2002-12-27The story of three women searching for more potent, meaningful lives. Each is alive at a different time and place, all are linked by their yearnings and their fears. Their stories intertwine, and finally come together in a surprising, transcendent moment of shared recognition.Solaris
1972-03-20A psychologist is sent to a space station orbiting a planet called Solaris to investigate the death of a doctor and the mental problems of cosmonauts on the station. He soon discovers that the water on the planet is a type of brain which brings out repressed memories and obsessions.To Kill a Mockingbird...
1962-12-20Scout Finch, 6, and her older brother Jem live in sleepy Maycomb, Alabama, spending much of their time with their friend Dill and spying on their reclusive and mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley. When Atticus, their widowed father and a respected lawyer, defends a black man named Tom Robinson against fabricated rape charges, the trial and tangent events expose the children to evils of racism and stereotyping.The Grapes of Wrath
1940-03-15Tom Joad returns to his home after a jail sentence to find his family kicked out of their farm due to foreclosure. He catches up with them on his Uncle’s farm, and joins them the next day as they head for California and a new life... Hopefully.Full Metal Jacket
1987-06-26A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the U.S.-Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.Downfall
2004-09-16In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his generals and advisers to fight to the last man. When the end finally does come, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender.Wild Strawberries
1957-08-28Crotchety retired doctor Isak Borg travels from Stockholm to Lund, Sweden, with his pregnant and unhappy daughter-in-law, Marianne, in order to receive an honorary degree from his alma mater. Along the way, they encounter a series of hitchhikers, each of whom causes the elderly doctor to muse upon the pleasures and failures of his own life. These include the vivacious young Sara, a dead ringer for the doctor's own first love.The Last Samurai
2003-12-05Nathan Algren is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai's way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.The Killing Fields
1984-11-23New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg is on assignment covering the Cambodian Civil War, with the help of local interpreter Dith Pran and American photojournalist Al Rockoff. When the U.S. Army pulls out amid escalating violence, Schanberg makes exit arrangements for Pran and his family. Pran, however, tells Schanberg he intends to stay in Cambodia to help cover the unfolding story — a decision he may regret as the Khmer Rouge rebels move in.Trainspotting
1996-02-23Hilarious but harrowing, the film charts the disintegration of the friendship between Renton, Spud, Sick Boy, Tommy and Begbie as they proceed seemingly towards a psychotic, drug-fuelled self-destruction.Interview with the Va...
1994-11-11A vampire relates his epic life story of love, betrayal, loneliness, and dark hunger to an over-curious reporter.Soldier of Orange
1977-09-22The lives of Erik Lanshof and five of his closest friends take different paths when the German army invades the Netherlands in 1940: fight and resistance, fear and resignation, collaboration and high treason.