Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

ThrillMessage There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

johntex9 Usual pretentious European film. Simply dreadful and full of itself.

Boba_Fett1138 On paper this movie probably sounds like a very odd and boring movie. And it also is being quite simplistic and minimalistic with about everything but the movie is never boring to watch. Through its mood and atmosphere this actually becomes a quite fascinating watch! This is a very quiet movie, literally. It prefers images over dialog but that doesn't mean that the movie doesn't feature a clear story. Everything is easy to understand and follow and you really can't call this movie a pretentious one, even though it has all of those ingredients in it. Its quite an accomplishment how this movie manages to create a certain mood and atmosphere for the movie and tells its story mostly trough just that. You understand what the characters are going through and what they feel and what they must be thinking, even though they don't express it verbally.It's also one of those movies most people will get different things out off. For me it was a movie about contrasts. Here we have a macho like movie, with macho characters, doing tough things but yet the movie, with all of its themes, is very gentle and about feelings and emotions, which you wouldn't expect in a macho like movie. It keeps things interesting to watch, even when there isn't an awful lot going on, on screen. It's also because even though that the movie is slow and quiet there still is a constant undertone of tension throughout the movie. It makes it also feel like something could happen at any moment in it and things could go terrible wrong, or people might snap at any moment in it.Basically its a very well made that got beautifully and effectively directed by Claire Denis. It gets you involved and the calm, slow approach of the movie works really suiting, which draws you into the movie even more. 8/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

nycritic Every so often a movie comes out that conflicts me, and these are the movies that take me quite a while to analyze. Sometimes it will take a second view to see if I missed some vital element, or it will dawn on me later, and thus I will have grasped what it was that at the moment seemed rather inconsequential. BEAU TRAVAIL, Claire Denis' 1999 film, is one of these movies. It is an adaptation of Herman Melville's "Billy Budd" -- although adaptation should be expressed in a loose term. It tells the story of an army troop stationed at Djibouti, training endlessly under the firm hand of a nearly expressionless Denis Lavant, himself a training machine, and the arrival of a young soldier played by the very beautiful Gregoire Colin who becomes the catalyst that triggers a response from Lavant. Colin, as Sentain, is the young rookie everyone loves and admires; he has great beauty and is the epitome of masculinity. This ticks Lavant's Galoup to approach Sentain at an oblique angle, and a scene in which both men face off resembles that of two lions about to attack and is a sequence of immense beauty because you see the hardened expression on Lavant's leonine face pitted against Colin's frightened yet set facade. This is what cinema is supposed to do: tell a story without too much dialogue, maybe a voice-over here or there as BEAU TRAVAIL does, and then get to its denouement, which in this movie is made more ironic than tragic. Where it falters a little is in its portentous score with a male chorus which is lifted from the opera version: it's too intrusive and is reminiscent of the score used for 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, but there it had a purpose; here, I didn't see it. Frequent incursions into dance music also distract a little from the meat of the story. What I do admire is Denis' approach to the material. In bringing a strong homoerotic element to the scene, she also manages to do what few gay directors have done: create a visually mesmerizing work of art where male passion is expressed through what is appropriate of the gender: physical activity. It's what I've always wanted to see: an aggressive ballet of masculine energy which unfolds a deceptively simple story of attraction, repulsion, and envy. Highly recommended.

gftbiloxi Introspective and subtle, Claire Denis' BEAU TRAVAIL offers a modern retelling of Herman Melville's BILLY BUDD, transposing the tale of an officer who self-destructs through his jealousy of a new recruit to an outpost of the French Foreign Legion. And although the film is elegant in both its simplicity and purity, I myself found it a shade too simple and pure to be completely effective.Still, BEAU TRAVAIL has two things going for it: director Denis' cinematic eye and superior performances throughout. One truly senses the location in all its elemental nature, and the cinematography is remarkable for its restrained elegance. The cast follows suit, with direct and underplayed performances that fold seamlessly into both Denis' atmosphere and the story itself, and the result is often quite stylish.But for all its elegance and style, I found BEAU TRAVAIL too introspective and subtle for its own good; to me it lacks any significant substance, with both story and characters slipping through my attention as easily as sand slips through my hand. While this is doubtlessly part of director Denis' intent, and while I have admired many a film with a notably elusive touch, my ultimate reaction to BEAU TRAVAIL is that it is a rather superficial exercise in style over substance, and I cannot say that it leads me to interest in the director's other work.In passing, I also note that BEAU TRAVAIL is often marketed as a film with homoerotic context and imagery, but I personally did not find it so. Final word: worth a look, but not greatly memorable for all that.Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer