Download information from the original Forum catalogue (PDF)
A group of foreign legionnaires forgotten and abandoned in an outpost on the Horn of Africa. Aide-de-camp Galoup (Denis Lavant) perceives the new recruit Sentain as a rival for the favor of his commander and decides to put him out of action. The plan goes wrong and Galoup is thrown out. From a hotel room in Marseilles he remembers his time with the company. The structure of the film follows these memories only loosely, with plot and dialogue taking a back seat to a series of fleeting scenes and choreography of training, fighting and dancing bodies executing routines which tell a story all of their own.
Claire Denis, born 1948, studied film in Paris and worked initially as director’s assistant to such greats as Jacques Rivette, Costas Gavras, Wim Wenders and Jim Jarmusch before making her own directorial debut in 1988. Her second feature Man No Run was shown at the Forum in 1989. She won the Golden Leopard at Locarno in 1996 with Nénette et Boni; Beau Travail received prizes at numerous international film festivals. In 2005, the Forum showed Denis’ essayistic portrait of choreographer Mathilde Monnier Vers Mathilde.
Production: Pathé Télévision, La Sept/Arte, SM Films
Camera: Agnès Godard
Format: 35mm, color
Running Time: 90 min.
Language: French
