It was the poet Shelley who wrote that "the poet is the unacknowledged legislator of the world." Not much has changed since he wrote those words nearly three hundred years ago. But, after watching these most captivating minutes of video, one may certainly walk away with the sense of how poets change the world not merely by their words, but by their example. Every War Has Two Losers is a documentary based on the journals of midwestern poet William Stafford who declared himself a conscientious objector to World War II and, from 1942 through 1946, was interned at the Civilian Public Service Camps as a pacifist. The film has already aired on selected PBS stations, and features some of this country's finest poets, W.S. Merwin, Coleman Barks, Robert Bly, Maxine Hong Kingston, Alice Walker, reading from Stafford's work Stafford, who was born in...
- 8/24/2010
- by Jayne Lyn Stahl
- Huffington Post
Claire Denis' feature purports to be a loose adaptation of Melville's classic "Billy Budd", as transferred to a French Foreign Legion outpost in the East African enclave of Djibouti, but what "Le Beau Travail" mainly seems concerned with is showcasing hunky, half-naked men frolicking in the desert sun. In its almost fetishistic attention to toned torsos and tight buns, it plays like a military recruitment film as conceived by Calvin Klein. The film is part of the lineup at the New York Film Festival.
Spare to the point of containing barely any dialogue or plot, the film eventually gets around to its main if sketchy dramatic development -- namely the antagonism that develops between the group's leader, Sgt. Galoup (Denis Lavant), and one of his charges, young Gilles Sentain (Gregoire Colin), after the latter saves the life of a downed helicopter pilot.
Mostly, though, the film is a beautifully photographed essay on the routines of Foreign Legion life, with endless minutes of screen time devoted to activities ranging from various drills to romping in the sea to ironing clothes. We watch as the men, clad in tight tank tops and shorts but mostly shirtless, engage in games of chess and billiards, sit around a campfire while banging on drums (shades of Robert Bly) and strenuously hug -- a form of military exercise with which I was previously unaware.
Denis' style reduces storytelling to its most basic elements, with the hostility between Galoup and Sentain most vividly expressed in a really fierce staring contest on the beach, complete with vaguely Wagnerian music blaring in the background. Despite its brief running time, the film seems endless, thanks to its overstylization and skimpy narrative. It's hard to evaluate the performances, since the actors are called upon to do little other than pose, but Lavant is certainly intense as Galoup, a character who also serves as the story's narrator. The most powerful element of the film is Agnes Godard's striking cinematography of the desolate landscape and the myriad male bodies on display.
LE BEAU TRAVAIL
Director: Claire Denis
Screenplay: Claire Denis, Jean-Paul Fargeau
Producer: Jerome Minet
Director of photography: Agnes Godard
Editor: Nelly Quettier
Music: Eran Tzur
Production Designer: Arnaud de Moleron
Color/stereo
Cast:
Gilles Sentain: Gregoire Colin
Galoup: Denis Lavant
Bruno Forestier: Michel Subor
Young woman: Marta Tafesse Kassa
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Spare to the point of containing barely any dialogue or plot, the film eventually gets around to its main if sketchy dramatic development -- namely the antagonism that develops between the group's leader, Sgt. Galoup (Denis Lavant), and one of his charges, young Gilles Sentain (Gregoire Colin), after the latter saves the life of a downed helicopter pilot.
Mostly, though, the film is a beautifully photographed essay on the routines of Foreign Legion life, with endless minutes of screen time devoted to activities ranging from various drills to romping in the sea to ironing clothes. We watch as the men, clad in tight tank tops and shorts but mostly shirtless, engage in games of chess and billiards, sit around a campfire while banging on drums (shades of Robert Bly) and strenuously hug -- a form of military exercise with which I was previously unaware.
Denis' style reduces storytelling to its most basic elements, with the hostility between Galoup and Sentain most vividly expressed in a really fierce staring contest on the beach, complete with vaguely Wagnerian music blaring in the background. Despite its brief running time, the film seems endless, thanks to its overstylization and skimpy narrative. It's hard to evaluate the performances, since the actors are called upon to do little other than pose, but Lavant is certainly intense as Galoup, a character who also serves as the story's narrator. The most powerful element of the film is Agnes Godard's striking cinematography of the desolate landscape and the myriad male bodies on display.
LE BEAU TRAVAIL
Director: Claire Denis
Screenplay: Claire Denis, Jean-Paul Fargeau
Producer: Jerome Minet
Director of photography: Agnes Godard
Editor: Nelly Quettier
Music: Eran Tzur
Production Designer: Arnaud de Moleron
Color/stereo
Cast:
Gilles Sentain: Gregoire Colin
Galoup: Denis Lavant
Bruno Forestier: Michel Subor
Young woman: Marta Tafesse Kassa
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/30/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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