Amazon.com

The movies of French director Claire Denis (I Can't Sleep, Trouble Every Day) are magical to some viewers and maddening to others because of the indirect way she tells her stories. Plot and character are revealed through what feel like inconsequential moments, while the important events seem to happen between the scenes. Beau Travail is more accessible than most, partly because of the simplicity of its plot (a jealous Foreign Legion sergeant ruins his own career when his beloved commander becomes fond of a young recruit) but mostly because of the vividness of its imagery, particularly sensuous shots of muscular men sweating in the sun or swimming in the ocean. It's unabashedly homoerotic, but it's also a compelling portrait of the basic emotional drives felt by men in extreme circumstances. --Bret Fetzer ... Read more

Reviews (18)

Inriguing but Snail Paced Movie
Beau Travail is a modern-day update of Billy Budd, although the plot is much changed and the characters more ambiguous. Directed by French director Claire Denis (best known for 1988's "Chocolat"), Beau Travail stars Denis Lavant as a Foreign Legion officer in Africa. Lavant is the perfect officer, but he finds himself largely ignored by his commandant (Michel Subor), whom he greatly admires. His jealousy is piqued when he sees his commandant drawn to a new recruit, Sentain (played by Grégoire Colin).

The movie has some simple and beautiful scenery of barren Africa; accordingly it won several awards for its cinematography, including a Cesar (the equivalent of the French Oscar). The tone of the film is mesmerizingly aloof, with little dialogue and character development (most are nameless and credited simply as "legionnaire"). However, the movie is glacier paced, relying on repeated imagery and stark narration. There are also far too many scenes in which the camera lingers on the legionnaires training or ironing their clothes. Despite the languid pace, the movie is rarely boring, as it manages to maintain a sense of intrigue. In addition, the ending is amusingly peculiar and bewildering.

Box cover is the most intriguing part...
Do you ever catch yourself watching a movie that hasn't been worth your time, but stick to it through the end 'just in case' and thinking to yourself.... "If this is the end, I'm gonna be mad..."?

This is that movie, intensified 100 times.

Then again, after an hour you're ready for it to be over so you don't really get mad. I whole-heartedly recommend that you save your time and energy and watch/buy something else. I really wouldn't even recommend renting this one. As others have said, the actual cinematography is nothing to be ashamed of, but its almost like recording the lineolium peel and releasing it on DVD with a half naked guy on the cover. No matter how sharp the image is, there's just no story in front of the camera.

See this before you buy it
Beau Travail is Claire Denis's reductionist take on Melville's tragic tale of Billy Budd. While Melville gives us all we need to understand the plight of the beautiful and tragic young sailor and his tortured tormentor, Claggart, Denis opts to make everything so subliminal and barely articulated that we are left with stunning visuals of half-naked men doing calisthenics in the hot, windswept deserts of Djibouti and little else to inform us. The cinematography is gorgeous, but the storytelling is ambiguous, confusing, and deliberately opaque. The homoeroticism is beyond obvious, but since the director is a woman, it may be more fairly said to be a woman's enchanted view of the mysterious male wrapped in his wordless love of ritual, his casual, almost sensuous brutality, his obligatory isolation, and an almost servile idolatry of the male body. The way this film is visualized, the French Foreign Legion seems like nothing so much as the Nazi Brownshirts at summer camp. And the story, told from within the mind of the chief antagonist, Galoup (Denis Lavant), is made with such minimalism as to be almost wholly obscured by the mannered style of the film. Many reviewers were entranced by this film because of its luscious landscapes and blatant male splendor. While I think the film was beautiful, I found it virtually incomprehensible as a narrative, and ultimately just plain tedious to sit through.

AH, SWEAT MYSTERY OF LIFE....... [!]
and oodles simply oodles of body-odor!

TWO STARS and that only for the pounding disco [?] sequences.

Now really THIS is the French version of "Taboo" and sightly better than that waste of film. The 'bad, bad sargeant' - resembling Kermit the Frog - obsesses about this Young recruit and then sum .....nothing really happens except for quite a few close-ups of buns and pouts .... more buns and pouts and still more buns and pouts ... {yeech!} it's all very GQ alal Morocco [possibly a remake of that Dietrich/Cooper opus? Nah - are u kiddin???]. Melville was never quite like this .... perhaps Conrad[ish?]

FOR real depth see Dirk Bogard in "Death In Venice" or Rod Steiger and John Philip Law in the daring "Sargeant" or the sometimes obtainable "Bofors Gun" - now there's something with David Warner.

BUT this one .... get the deodorant!

Elegant but Insubstantial
Introspective and subtle, Claire Denis' BEAU TRAVAIL offers a modern retelling of Herman Melville's BILLY BUDD, transposing the tale of an officer who self-destructs through his jealousy of a new recruit to an outpost of the French Foreign Legion. And although the film is elegant in both its simplicity and purity, I myself found it a shade too simple and pure to be completely effective.

Still, BEAU TRAVAIL has two things going for it: director Denis' cinematic eye and superior performances throughout. One truly senses the location in all its elemental nature, and the cinematography is remarkable for its restrained elegance. The cast follows suit, with direct and underplayed performances that fold seamlessly into both Denis' atmosphere and the story itself, and the result is often quite stylish.

But for all its elegance and style, I found BEAU TRAVAIL too introspective and subtle for its own good; to me it lacks any significant substance, with both story and characters slipping through my attention as easily as sand slips through my hand. While this is doubtlessly part of director Denis' intent, and while I have admired many a film with a notably elusive touch, my ultimate reaction to BEAU TRAVAIL is that it is a rather superficial exercise in style over substance, and I cannot say that it leads me to interest in the director's other work.

The DVD transfer is reasonable, if not entirely first rate, and there are few bonuses of any kind. In passing, I also note that BEAU TRAVAIL is often marketed as a film with homoerotic context and imagery, but I personally did not find it so. Final word: worth a look, but not greatly memorable for all that.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer ... Read more

Description

new to DVD: Directed by Claire Denis, A provocative drama looking at urban alienation, based on the true story of Thierry Paulin, a homosexual "grammy killer" who terrorized Paris in the 1980's. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

strange and exciting
THEfirst thing that attracted me to this movie was the title,I found it very interesting.THIS MOVIE is very exciting and good.After I saw it I always told people about it and cant get it out of my mind.Everyone had the same reaction I did when I said the title.I CANT SLEEPwow!

A Unique and Exotic Experience
This is one of my favorite films.It's definitely in my top 10 list.I first saw this film in 1998, and it made me want to go to Paris.Just watching this film, you actually feel like you're there in this strange, odd, and artsy underground world
in Paris.The music is dreamy and exotic and so are the strange mix of characters; French, Russian, African.The interwiningstories are bizarre and interesting.

I've been a fan of Claire Denis ever since I saw this film.She's quite talented and grew up in France and Africa. Her understanding and realistic portrayls of Africans and peoples of the African dispora is refreshing and tres gentil.

I would recommend you watch this unique film.

The Point Being
I believe that people who search for the director's point or meaning to the overlapping stories in "I Can't Sleep" only do themselves a disfavor.This film, with its dreamy music, pensive acting and odd flavor seems more about the lack of a point.All the plots in this film have connection, yet nobody in it really connects, and there seems to be very little meaning for any.This can be a frustrating film experience; but overall, leaving it so empty, the beauty is that the viewer is forced to fill in his or her own details and use his or her own brain.Definitely not a film for all, but those who like challenging, slow-moving and very pensive material... you can fo much worse.Also check out Nenette et Boni, an even better film by the same director, and Beau Travail, a beautiful tone poem of an adaption of Billy Budd, still by Claire Denis.

An interesting film for those not obsessed with tidy plots
"I Can't Sleep" is an odd film--with a plot about a number of overlapping stories, about people who live on the margins of Parisian society.The story is not so much held together by a continuous or integrated methodology, but rather between the tension of the external urban images of a Paris that belie the subversive, sometimes pathological actions of its main characters, whose existences we are privy to through the action of the film and because of the properties of narrative film itself.The film has the easy-going, wan attitude of an early Jim Jarmusch movie combined with a quasi-documentary sloppy styled cinematography.Its main purpose, it seems, is to show us how our outward and anonymous appearances, particularly for those who live in large urban areas, mask an abundance of attitudes, objectives, obsessions, etc., and that who we are is not what we seem.

Effective and appealing
Incredible acting with pensive directing and music that will move you. One should see this movie. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

snooze
It was a pretty movie visually, but there is no plot and the character relationships go nowhere. It may be interesting to watch once, but only if you are very awake! It's a snoozer for sure...

Exquisite Elegance
Claire Denis's Chocolat tells the tale of a french woman returning to africa to visit the home where she has spent her childhood. After a brief introduction to the enigmatic woman named France the film transgresses into her childhood. Without any obvious plot or even protagonist we watch a family living in Africa during colonialism. The film concentrates on the daily activities of this family. An argument with the cook, Planting flowers, eating, showering, and so on. There is an interesting character named protee who is a servant to France's family. Protee has a complex and interesting relationship with France and her mother Aimee, it is the examination of this relationship that is the bulk of the film. Chocolat has breathtaking cinematography, Denis uses long shots tastefully, to establish for us, the massive, vast African landscape. Several critics have named Claire Denis as the best french filmmaker working today, and I tend to agree. Her last film Beau Travail was a powerful work based on Britten's Billy Bud opera. If you have an interest in art cinema, explore the works of Claire Denis, one of the last true artists working in cinema today.

Be careful what you pray for because you may get it
If you want to watch a movie about colonial Africa, watch this one. But be aware that this movie puts a very heary burden on the patience of the average sensory-overloaded person in our society. Not enough happens to keep one's interest. Yes, the photography is good, the scenery is great, the characters are mildly interesting, etc., but things happen so slowly -- or things happen that aren't really things that are happening, such as a woman sitting and staring into the distance for a long, long time -- that what I'll remember most about this movie is that it was boring. It also tries too hard to be artsy. The last minute or so of the film, which simply depicts the natives' attitude towards nature (rain), had beautiful music and was engrossing to watch, but seemed to be tacked on so as to end the movie artistically.

A Very Sensual Africa
This is a wonderful film. Having lived in Western Africa myself around the time this film was made, I find Chocolat very authentic. The landscapes are beautiful!
This is a story about Europeans in Africa and their various ways of dealing with Africa. There is an evil colonial businessman, the misguided missionary out to save Africa, the colonial adminstrator who tries to be helpful and just. But the major action in the film is in the relationships that revole around Protee, the "house boy." The daughter of the colonial administrator, France, relates easily to the Africans, while her mother tries to uphold the colonial ideal of cold respect.
Not really a five star movie, because some of the acting is poor and some of the plot is rather contrived. Still, overall, a very good film and an opportunity for people to get a glimpse of life in Cammeroon, where the movie was shot.

Fabulous movie!!
Chocolat is a fabulous movie! It makes me homesick for Africa! I've watched it 15-20 times. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Like the other films of French director Claire Denis, Friday Night exists in a realm of glances, skin, and dreams. Working with basic elements, Denis (whose previous films were the hypnotic Beau Travail and the scary Trouble Every Day) fashions an often-wordless liaison between a woman caught in a huge Paris traffic jam (there's a transportation strike going on) and the stranger she picks up in her car. Their brief encounter is the simplest of situations, but Denis grounds it in the exactly realized locations of their courtship:car interior, hotel room, late-night restaurant. And, of course, in the expressive faces of the two actors:Valerie Lemercier, best known for her comic roles, and Vincent Lindon (late of Chaos). The dreamlike rhythms of the piece will undoubtedly defeat some viewers, but if you give yourself over to the movie's spell, it will come alive. --Robert Horton ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Pretty bad
Okay, I'm a big Claire Denis fan--the sublime "Chocolat," "Nenette and Boni," even "Beau Travail"--but this one is worse than pretty bad, really. It's downright awful. All, that is, but the stunning opening shot over the roofs of Paris.

Friday night becomes Sunday morning
If there is a way to make a traffic jam interesting this film has not found it. It is all I could do to remember the title of this pointless movie. I wanted to give it a second star because it wasn't half as 'bad' as it was dull, but I couldn't force myself to give this self-indulgent waste of time any compliments at all. I won't bother to try and describe the plot. There is none. NOTE: Watch out for French films that feel compelled to show the Eifel Tower, that is a bad sign. Here, it is the most interesting thing in the movie and we see it in the first minute.

denis' new tone-poem
I believe that Claire Denis is one of the few great directors working in Europe right now. Most of the greatest European filmmakers are past their prime or dead, and currently most of the world-class talents are located in Asia (Iran, Taiwan, Korea). Denis, one of the last hopes for French cinema, has made some brilliant films, but "Vendredi Soir" could be her weakest. All the stylistic traits that have served her so well in the past are there: the spare style, the moodiness, the soundtrack, the superb cinematography of Agnes Godard... and the editing in this film is particularly fine. Yet here all the stylistic excellence comes off as too little. The director describes it as an attempt to capture a moment, but the moment is relatively banal (a woman meets a man, they check into a hotel, make love and have pizza afterwards) and the whole attempt at spontaneity comes off as forced, despite the film's beautiful rhythm. Many have responded favorably to the film (one critic even calling it the most beautiful film ever made about two people) because, as I've mentioned, it has a lot going for it. It's just that unlike the director's best works, "Vendredi Soir" is unable to engage. It left me indifferent to the characters, the scenario, and whatever the director was trying to convey. The DVD transfer looks good, though, and adequately captures Godard and Denis' lovely vision of Paris at night. It's perhaps a little grainy, but I suspect Denis just likes the grainy look. The DVD also contains commentary by the director and the great critic Kent Jones - certainly a worthwhile perk if you're a fan of the director's work.

Make other plans
I rented Claire Denis film because I had heard that it addressed the one night stand from the rarely-filmed female perspective. While the film was unique, there was so little to it that it could hardly be said to offer any perspective at all.

All the events take place during one night. The night before she is to move in with her boyfriend, unusual circumstances bring Valerie Lemercier together with stranger Vincent Lindon.

There is some suspense and tension in the first scenes between the two; particularly interesting is that neither prattles on and on in an attempt to court the other. In that sense, we seem to have two mature individuals, who will take things as they come. The problem is, when they do finally get together, not only is there no passion between them, but little more of their characters' are revealed. This is probably intentional on the director's part; in fairness, you rarely learn much about a person in one night, and conversation can't really be expected to flow. This movie ends up simply describing an average hookup, which makes Lemercier's supposed elation at the close somewhat dissonant. There just isn't that much to say, so you end up having almost no dialogue.

If the movie had more style, or operated simultaneously on a metaphorical level, the above would have been tolerable. Perhaps this movie is simply too realistic; what you see is what you get, and you won't get much out of this film. (2.5 stars)

Strangers in the Night
Sometimes physical attraction is so strong and the consequences for following through with said attraction are so weak that we cannot help but do the dirty deed...right there and right now.
Claire Denis's "Friday Night" tells the story of such an encounter and it tells it from the woman's (Valerie Lemerciere) point of view.
Often such stories are told in the style of a fairy tale with the girl as a fairy princess and the man a knight with shining armor. But Denis is too realistic and thoughtful a director for this. Instead we get a 2003 take on the situation with all the pitfalls and emotional weight intact. The meeting, the courtship, the physical relationship and the breakup is all done in one night.
Denis has shown us in "The Venus Beauty Institute" that relationships often take turns and twists that we cannot predict and that love can come from the unlikeliest places. In "Friday Night" we see a relationship telescoped into one evening and it is thrilling, bizarre but ultimately quite wonderful and resonant with the truth and humanity of something real. ... Read more