- Home
- Big screen classics
- Beau Travail + intro
Beau Travail
+ intro
Repressed violence and desire simmers beneath the surface of Claire Denis’ breathtaking visuals of male bodies and barren landscapes, capturing an unsettling failure to belong.
![](/ArticleMedia/Images/WhatsOn%20images/20240405/beau-travail-01.jpeg)
-
Director
Claire Denis
-
With
Denis Lavant, Grégoire Colin, Michel Subor
-
France 1998. 93min
-
Digital
-
Certificate
15
-
English subtitles
Among French Foreign Legionnaires stationed in the former colony of Djibouti, a triangle of jealousy and obsession develops. These elite, unmoored soldiers are redundant, guardians of a fallen empire, training for a battle that never comes. Denis draws from Melville’s novella and Britten’s operatic adaptation to entwine masculine and feminine, in spellbinding images from choreographed military exercises to household chores.
Ruby McGuigan
![](https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/ArticleMedia/Images/lff21/misc/bacurau-01.jpg)
BFI Membership
Become a BFI Member from £39 to enjoy priority booking as well as other great benefits all year round.
Join today![](/content/Images/WhatsOn%20images/202402/25-and-under-560x315-2024-02.jpg)
![](/content/Images/features/bfi-imax-bond-wrap-september-2021.jpeg)
![](/ArticleMedia/Images/WhatsOn%20images/20231011/scrapper-01.jpg)