Based on the book by Percival Christopher Wren, Beau Geste, tells the tale of three ... more
inseparable Geste brothers, Beau, Digby and John who have been adopted into the wealthy household of Lady Brandon.When money grows tight in the household, Lady Brandon ...
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Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Production Year: 1977 - Action/Adventure - Director: Clint Eastwood - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring:Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Action/Adventure - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring:Jack Ging, Marla Heasley, Lance Legault, Melinda Culea, Mr T, Dwight Schultz, Dirk Benedict, George Peppard, Carl Franklin
Advantages: Superb acting, Agnes Godard's cinematography, Benjamin Britten's opera, Afro-pop music, and Claire Denis' subtle direction. Disadvantages: Galoup's motives and Sentain's character not fully spelled out; much too easy to dismiss as dull and pretentious.
In "Beau Travail"/"Good Work" (1999), French director Claire Denis' film inspired by Herman Melville's "Billy Budd", we are never quite sure why officer Galoup harbors such a disdain for new legionnaire Gilles Sentain, only that he does. In this remote French Foreign Legion outpost in Djibouti, in the North African Republic of Djibouti (a land surrounded by Eritrea to the north, Ethiopia to the west and south, Somalia to the southeast and the Red Sea to the east), Galoup is the officer in charge of some new guys, and answerable only to his commander, Bruno Forestier. He takes an immediate dislike to Sentain after the strong, quiet young man carries out actions that make him look heroic in the eyes of the others. Not that Sentain, a foundling and most likely an independent spirit at heart, does what he does to gain popularity, or for any ...
Advantages: the best French film in a decade Disadvantages: Narrow appeal; a "film person's film "
the audience is constatnly denied exposition, only heightens the intensity of the film.
There are other wonderful devices in this gem, too. The scenes of the samll band of recruits constantly training, exercising and drilling against the harsh desert landscape and blue water of the African coast do more than simply move along the narrative. We are, additionally, presented with a documentary on the meaning of the French Foreign Legion, by the back door. This is not the army of the films that we know: it is a handful of men caught constantly in silent exercise that looks almost like dance, a ritual. Is this the remnants of the Knights Templar, a spiritual army that eventually realised that religion was less important than its way of life? Ironically, whilst debunking the representations of the Legion that we have all seen before ("BeauGeste" et al ...
Advantages: Pretty in places... Disadvantages: Pretentious with a very large 'P'!
Beau Travail - a truly pretentious film drawing on the plots of Billy Budd and BeauGeste. How many more French films do we need to see that are almost entirely devoid of plot and where we are conducted through the action (or in this case, lack thereof) via a moody, monotone voiceover? The gratuitous scenes of lithe, tanned men, stripped to the waist enaging in yogic rituals and body slapping grow very tedious very quickly. I had been drawn to the film on the promise that it would be chock full of beautifully filmed panoramas of North Africa. Instead, we were served a bland dish of lingering, meaningless shots of salt flats and arrid scrub land. The opening scene set in a night club is just about enjoyable and this is only thanks to the music. If you like pseudo-intellectual dross then this film is a must, otherwise spend your ...
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