Beau Travail (99, Claire Denis)

Featuring some great performances and some exceptional direction from Claire Denis, Beau Travail mainly succeeds due to its director and performers' ability to get points across without much concern for normal narrative beats. Denis' direction is subtle enough to get a lot of points across with small moments in deep concentration rather than any kind of big high spots in the story. Essentially a flick about a discharged French foreign legion officer who fixates his gaze upon a younger soldier, Denis makes the material succeed more than the average director with an especially strong set-up. As Denis Lavant (perhaps the ugliest man ever) narrates his discontent with civilian life, director Denis uses a shot in which the camera, floating on a brisk river, focuses on the military men working in the background. The way in which the camera can see these things but could never reach them due to the divide emphasizes the longing much more than the voiceover does, which renders the narration a bit superfluous. However, due to the film's method of jumping around, the voiceover by Lavant services more than detracts. The narrative unfolds slowly but manages to really get across the two big things that Lavant's character has on his mind: the joy of the hard militaristic labor and the ensuing male camaraderie (and the resulting sexuality). As a result, the film sometimes becomes a bit too plodding for its own good, emphasizing and reemphasizing similar points. Then again, when the filmmaking's this good, this complaint is more of a lack of mood on the part of me to watch this kind of film rather than any fault by the film itself. The film earns bigger points for an unusual yet captivating and affirming ending. Simply put and shot, the use of sublime music with the dancing helps to offset the depression and self-loathing throughout. Because Denis so effectively sets everything up, the ending becomes as much of a revelation for me, the straight spectator, as much for the blossoming of Lavant's personality. **** and 1/2 * out've *****