“A major achievement in new French cinema.” - Scott Tobias, A.V. Club
“[Claire Denis’s] transposition of Herman Melville's novella Billy Budd to a French Foreign Legion post on the Horn of Africa is a mosaic of pulverized shards. Every cut in BEAU TRAVAIL is a small, gorgeously explosive shock.” - J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
Globalization’s “New World Order” was haunted by ghosts of colonialism. A loose adaptation of Herman Melville's novella Billy Budd, BEAU TRAVAIL observes the routines of a French Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade that remained in Djibouti after the country’s independence in 1977 in the name of “mutual defense” agreements. Director Claire Denis finds rare poetry in choreographed training of an army with no one to fight, personalizing restlessness in Sergeant Galoup’s (Denis Lavant) tense relationship with young recruit Gilles Sentain (Grégoire Colin). Agnès Godard's cinematography and Benjamin Britten's music add to the film’s uniquely beautiful landscapes and atmosphere, culminating in one of cinema's most celebrated final sequences.
Awards & Nominations
1999 Toronto International Film Festival - Official Selection
1999 Venice Film Festival - Official Selection
2000 Berlin International Film Festival - Official Selection
2000 Sundance Film Festival - Official Selection
2001 National Society of Film Critics Awards - Winner, Best Cinematography
2001 International Film Festival Rotterdam - Special Mention, KNF Award
Contact Zones: Cinema of Globalization, 1989–2024
Fall 2026 Lecture Series
“We might have come to the end of something,” Adam Curtis reflected recently, referring to "globalization," which began with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. But just how well do we know this world that we were, until recently, living in? Brief lectures before screenings and open discussions afterwards will cover background on local histories related to films in the series as well as theories of globalization, neoliberalism, migration, and digital culture. Presented in collaboration with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism. Lecturer: Professor Daniel R. Quiles. Select titles offered with Sunday encores; encores do not include lecture.
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu