Beau Travail (Good Work) Review

Denis Lavant, the wiry, one-time acrobat who starred opposite Juliette Binoche in Les Amants De Pont Neuf, here plays a disgraced French Foreign Legion officer reminiscing about his downfall. As Galoup, he sits in an austere Marseille flat reminiscing about his position with the Legion in Djibouti, east Africa.

As a sergeant, Galoup drills the men under the desert sun, keeping this isolated cog of the military machine turning smoothly. The legionnaires' days consist of strict routine, their ritual-like exercises precisely choreographed by Galoup under the watchful eye of the unit's melancholy father figure, Forestier (Subor, who played a character of the same name in Godard's 1963 film Le Petit Soldat). Their evenings are spent cruising the bars and clubs of the local town. All is monotonously orderly until a new recruit, Sentain (Colin), ignites the jealousy of Galoup because of his popularity and heroism (he saves a fellow legionnaire after an accident downs a helicopter in the sea). The charming, selfless Sentain finds himself on the receiving end of the cruel persecution of the sergeant, which eventually results in Galoup's dishonourable discharge.