Janus Films Presents: BEAU TRAVAIL

Cleveland Cinematheque

Expired September 25, 2020 3:59 AM
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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. 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. 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.

  • Year
    1999
  • Runtime
    93 minutes
  • Language
    French
  • Country
    France
  • Rating
    NR
  • Director
    Claire Denis
  • Screenwriter
    Claire Denis
  • Producer
    Jérôme Minet
  • Cast
    Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, Grégoire Colin
  • Cinematographer
    Agnès Godard
  • Editor
    Nelly Quettier
  • Composer
    Benjamin Britten