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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Beau Travail
Universal acclaim
Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 13 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Claire Denis
Jean-Paul Fargeau
Herman Melville (story Billy Budd, Sailor)
Directed by: Claire Denis
Release Date:
Theatrical: March 31, 2000
DVD: October 15, 2002
Running Time: 90 minutes, Color
Origin: France
Language(s): French (with English subtitles)
Summary
RATING: Not rated
Starring Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, Gregoire Colin, and Richard Courcet
The soldiers of a small French Foreign Legion outpost spend their days practicing drills and exercising. Sergeant Galoup seems to be the perfect Legionnaire: a brooding, young loner who runs his troop efficiently until Sentain, a new recruit, arrives and threatens to upset the balance of his world.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Friday Night The Intruder Trouble Every Day
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Unique and unforgettable.
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
You may not like Beau Travail - which is, after all, a quintessential "critic's film" - but I think you'll have to admit it's been almost perfectly executed.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
A film that has the sweep and esthetic power of a full-length ballet.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
(Denis's) visual style is hypnotic, rapturous, and she makes barren landscapes look gorgeous, hard men look vulnerable.
Read Full Review >Film.com Ernest Hardy
For anyone who wants to see wildly inventive, peerless filmmaking that's oblivious to market-place formulas, Beau Travail is an absolute must-see.
Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
It easily is the most beautiful picture released in America so far this year, perhaps one of the most beautiful films ever made.
Village Voice J. Hoberman
A movie so tactile in its cinematography, inventive in its camera placement, and sensuous in its editing that the purposefully oblique and languid narrative is all but eclipsed.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Brendan Bernhard
Leaving the theater, you feel not only as if you've been in a foreign country, but as if you'd gone there inside someone else's skin.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Charles Taylor
Claire Denis' baffling and exhilarating "Billy Budd" smolders with heat-blasted rhythms and supercharged acting.
Read Full Review >Film.com Peter Brunette
A lovely piece of work.
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
A stunning work of beauty, mystery, contemplation, and grit -- and like sands through the desert hourglass, these are the days of our lives.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
"Chocolat" was just a warmup for the stunning display of the male form against National Geographic settings in her new Beau Travail.
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
A ruggedly beautiful landscape of desert and sea provides a dramatic setting for a psychological drama told with the utmost rigor--and unabashed eroticism.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Denis dispenses with most of Melville's hefty Christian symbolism in favor of the story's other great theme -- repressed homoerotic desire.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson
The characters are barely characters, the story barely a story, and the elliptical filmmaking style that so besots Denis' many fans could drive you to drink.
New York Post Jonathan Foreman
So minimalist in characterization and dialogue that the plot all but evaporates -- and so does any dramatic power.
Miami Herald Marta Barber
If only Beau Travail had a more dramatic edge, this nicely done film wouldn't have felt so long.
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 13 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Max A. gave it a2:
Brooding, plodding, self-conscious and silly. This is a caricature of a French art film. It goes nowhere for an hour and a half while the protagonist poses and smokes lots of cigarettes. In a word: merde.
Mike G gave it a 2:
The dancing is great, and the cinematography is wonderful. But it's a disjointed, often confusing movie, especially if you're not familiar with Billy Budd.
Matthew D. gave it a 10:
Pure cinema. Easily the most powerful movie I've seen in years. Claire Denis' masterwork. Simply beautiful.
Eric P. gave it a 3:
The tendency with some French films: to think that being vague can manufacture a sense of the profound. This is not the case. When the film was over, I simply didn't care about anything I had just watched. A saw little evidence of a creative vision being brought to life. It was shallow and lazy.
Jean-Claude V. gave it an 8:
Dark, sinister, and distinctly French, this film did everything right except for the stock footage and narrative. An terrific final scene.
Elliott gave it a 10:
It's like a marvelous ballet acted on the most breathtaking set you've ever seen.
Josh T. gave it a 10:
A mesmerizingly lyrical and enigmatic masterpiece; the best French film of the decade.
