Beau Travail
Director: Claire Denis
Year: 1999
Country: France
Running time: 90 minutes
Language: French with English subtitles
VTIFF screening date and time: Friday, September 27, 2024, @ 7:00 pm
Cost: $10 general admission
Location: Screening Room @VTIFF, 60 Lake Street, 1st Floor, Burlington
This highly acclaimed film is based on Herman Melville’s 1888 novella Billy Budd. The story is set in Djibouti, where the protagonists are soldiers in the French Foreign Legion. Parts of the soundtrack are drawn from Benjamin Britten’s 1951 opera based on the novella.
VTIFF calls the film “ravishingly sensual,” a “desert vision of desire and despair, brotherhood and otherhood.” It’s “an absolute barn-burner of a movie … which both celebrates its 25th anniversary this year and takes its place as one of the finest films in that span.” The 2022 Sight and Sound poll ranked it as the 7th greatest film of all time.
Read more about the film and order tickets on VTIFF’s page.