Beau Travail (1998) is Claire Denis' bold, sensuous masterpiece. Loosely based on Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Sailor (1924), the film explores the complexities of desire, identity, and power within an all-male group of French Foreign Legionnaires stationed at a coastal outpost in the former colony of Djibouti, in East Africa.
The film cemented Denis' position as a leading auteur and visual poet. In this book, Corinn Columpar positions the film as a cinematic bid for freedom. She examines its formal innovations - particularly the use of the gaze, voice, and movement - to explain how Denis produces exhilarating possibilities narratively, affectively, and ideologically, while also situating the film within the histories of art cinema and postcolonial filmmaking.
| ISBN: | 9781839027130 |
| Publication date: | 11th June 2026 |
| Author: | Corinn Columpar |
| Publisher: | BFI an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 96 pages |
| Series: | BFI Film Classics |
| Genres: |
Films, cinema Feminism and feminist theory Gender studies: men and boys LGBTQ+ Studies / topics Film history, theory or criticism Film guides and reviews Gender studies, gender groups |
Beau Travail (1998) is Claire Denis' bold, sensuous masterpiece. Loosely based on Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Sailor (1924), the film explores the complexities of desire, identity, and power within an all-male group of French Foreign Legionnaires stationed at a coastal outpost in the former colony of Djibouti, in East Africa.
The film cemented Denis' position as a leading auteur and visual poet. In this book, Corinn Columpar positions the film as a cinematic bid for freedom. She examines its formal innovations - particularly the use of the gaze, voice, and movement - to explain how Denis produces exhilarating possibilities narratively, affectively, and ideologically, while also situating the film within the histories of art cinema and postcolonial filmmaking.
Beau Travail features in the following genres: Films, cinema, Feminism and feminist theory, Gender studies: men and boys, LGBTQ+ Studies / topics, Film history, theory or criticism, Film guides and reviews, Gender studies, gender groups
Beau Travail is available in Paperback
Beau Travail was written by Corinn Columpar and published by BFI an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)
Beau Travail has 96 pages
Yes it is part of BFI Film Classics series
£11.69