Lykke Jensen
Professor John Orr
French Cinema
2.November 2005
Option essay on Beau Travail
(Godt Arbejde) by Claire Denis.
The body dances in Beau Travail and how they express masculinity.
The cover of Martine
Beugnet's book on Claire Denis shows an interesting photo: two men embracing
each other in front of a flickering background of other men probably fighting.
The embrace seems intense, the physical appearance and masculinity imposing and
at the same time the scene evokes a titillating curiosity in the viewer. This
is the immediate impression of the picture. In fact, the men are not fighting
but performing some kind of physical exercise or dance that is significant in
the film Beau Travail.
This essay will focus on the dances in the film to examine how they express masculinity
and if they perhaps sketch what one may call an alternative way of being male.
To support this reading, the essay will also examine other scenes and signs of
masculinity.
The Foreign Legion, briefly.
A brief description of the French Foreign Legion must be appropriate since Beau
travail is set within the context of this organisation and its understanding of
manliness. Beau Travail was shot on location in Djibouti and the French Foreign
Legion has been present in the country since 1962. The French Foreign Legion was
created in 1831. The Embassy of France in the United States provides information
on the French Foreign Legion which was according to the information based "on
traditions from foreign troops who have served France since the Middle Ages."
The organisation holds a strong code of honour which implies a significant sense
of loyalty to country, superiors and fellow legionnaires. Within the Foreign Legion,
the soldier will take on a new identity and consider all others within the group
as family. Race, creed, past and nationality are abolished and the legionnaire
can apply for French citizenship after three years.
An attempt to define masculinity.
Masculinity is a large field of study and the concept shows a multiplicity and
a constant social and historical change. However, an attempt to define masculinity
before going in to a deeper analysis of selected scenes must be appropriate.
R.W. Connell points out that:
Masculinity, to the extent the term can be briefly defined at all, is simultaneously
a place in gender relations, the practises through which men and women engage
that place in gender, and the effects of these practises in bodily experience,
personality and culture." (71)
"Being a man or a woman means enacting
a general set of expectations which are attached to one's sex- the "sex"
role. (22).
These expectations for men in a Western culture have traditionally been more or
less associated with mental and physical power, suppression of emotions except
for varying degrees of aggression, an active approach to the outside world and
to the female and a heterosexual orientation. The male body is considered to be
a kind of very functional machine or "The body is for sport and sex and eating.
When it's tired, it sleeps. Thus it is quite an efficient functional instrument
for many men." as Roger Horrocks points out (158). All definitions of masculinity
seem to be put to the test or twisted in Beau Travail in the mise-en-scene and
the strange dances throughout the film.
The narrative of the film.
The narrative of the film, like the film itself, is in many ways ambiguous and
open to different interpretations. The film jumps between the past or flashback
in Djibouti and the present of Galoup in Marseille. On one level of narrative,
the film describes the day-to-day life of the legionnaires: washing, ironing,
cooking, exercising, dancing at the nightclub, the routine as Galoup recalls it.
The men are put into a feminine frame by their activities. This is also a contrast
to Connell's definition. Another level is the social and psychological triangle
of conflict and envy between Galoup, Sentain and Forestier, a kind of Oedipal
story of a man struggling for paternal attention and love. At the same time, the
narrative is about the moral and social fall of a man (Galoup). As strange physical
and spiritual manifestations, the dances push and twist the narrative.
The "kiss" dance.
The first scene in Beau Travail opens in an astonishing and breathtaking way.
The pulsing rhythm of the Arab "kiss" song grabs the spectator as the
camera moves smoothly into the dance floor and half mingles with the dancers,
half pans over them. At first sight the scene establishes a traditional "boy
meets girl" context and therefore a more conventional masculinity but the
mise-en-scene shows something else. As Martine Beugnet points out implicating
Julia Dobson's theory, the Djibouti women are self-confident (112-113) and take
an active approach to the soldiers and spectators with their direct gaze into
the camera or at themselves in the mirror, the mouthing of a kiss and the following
sexy grimace, their gaudy clothes and enjoyment of dance and sensual movements..
The masculinity of the legionnaires is undermined by this, one may say shaped
in a new form towards an equal status with the women. In a way, both genders contradict
Connell's argument about how men and women behave according to their sex and sex
role. There is not just a male gaze but a female one and the smooth and undulating
movements of the dancing establish a sensual and playful yet highly erotic relationship
between the soldiers and the Djibouti women rather than a directly sexual and
physical one.
One could assume that the soldiers have casual sex with the women, since night
life normally is associated with that, but nothing seems to indicate sexual relations.
The position with arms above the head which one of the couples assumes creates
an impression of bodily openness and devotion. The bodies are exposed and very
close yet not touching. Also Galoup is captured by a sensitive approach to Rahel
who seems absorbed in herself. Galoup's caresses of her arm and shoulders are
tender and contrast highly to his behaviour during the everyday life of the legionnaires.
Hans Bonde refers to the theory about bodily armour of Wilhelm Reich and talks
about muscular tension that works as a kind of self-defence. This can lead to
physical and psychological blockage where it is impossible to sense devotion and
desire. (Bonde, 91, my translation) This seems to be a part of the idealised masculinity
within the Legion where as "An elite soldier: you will train vigorously,
you will maintain your weapons as if it were your most precious possession, you
will keep your body in the peak of condition, always fit", according to information
on the French Foreign Legion (the Embassy of France in the United States). That
is obvious in the scene where Galoup, motivated by envy of Sentain, forces the
men to do multiple push-ups. When the narrative shifts to his present position
in Marseille, he mentions that his muscles "are rusty" which probably
refers to both lack of exercise and muscular tension according to Reich.
Maybe to suggest an alternative masculine attitude, Sentain is seen almost in
slow motion floating over the dance floor, dreamlike and out of touch. He does
not mingle, he does not approach, with his sharply shaped profile, a little feminine,
and his delicate, slim physiognomy he offers a contrast to conventional masculinity.
In the narrative, Sentain's body is more harmonious than Galoup's body. He is
handsome, almost an ancient ideal of a classical statue, and capable of expressing
such virtues as courage, empathy and solidarity.
The meditation dance.
This dance appears immediately after the night club scene. The contrast is powerful
as is the the whole mise-en-scene. First a shadow rises slowly from the sand,
long and angular. Then this shadow turns into a man while the camera moves gradually
up the male body from a low angle. At the same time Benjamin Britten's music intensifies
to make the scene extremely powerful. Normally masculinity is associated with
drawing in the stomach, vaulting the chest, holding oneself straight and tensing
the body (Bonde197, my translation). This is apparently the situation but the
closed eyes, not on the alert, and the outstretched arms of the men contradict
this. Here is rather a spiritual, meditative and emotional masculinity. Denis
may agree with Victor Jeleniewski Seidler that "
the devaluation of
nature has gone together with the denigration of the femine within modern Western
culture."
"This has to go along with transforming understanding
of ourselves (as men) as part of the nature." (211). Nature and femininity
are in a way incorporated in the masculine in this scene.
In medium shot, the camera pans over the bodies and carefully examines the skin
made almost transparent by the strong sunlight. The scene mimes an initiation
where the old self, the old identity dies and in the process of initiation a new
self, identity and individual is created.
(Bonde, "Mandekultur" 50, my translation)
Chris Dashiell points out that "Denis is concerned with men's relationship
to their own bodies. The bonding together of these men is on a primal level, like
a tribe existing before time and civilization." (Dashiell) This is exactly
what the scene evokes. The men are put in a world of prehistoric times also according
to the physical context, the naked and wind-stripped desert. The men are caressed
by the wind and sun and inscribed in nature or "at risk of merging with the
plants and the rocks"
Both Beugnet and Hayward interpret the bodies
as objects leaving no traces (that's why we see them as shadows) or "in its
negation of change and in its cultural amnesia, this collective body is being
reclaimed by the natural world."
(Beugnet 114)
(Studies in French Cinema 164).
In a way, the collective body leaves no traces since everybody has lost their
identity and gained another one within the Legion. The honour and valour of the
Legion, the perfect outfit and Forestier's line "We are taught elegance in
and under our uniforms." is of no use because there are no enemies or places
to be conquered.
The presence of the men as soldiers, the military outfit, the shape and look of
the male bodies, signal some kind of danger and threat as symbols of war and power
do, but the men are also acting differently from the norm that would be expected
of soldiers in foreign countries. They do not assault the Djibouti women; they
do not ravage their surroundings. In fact, they behave very politely. One may
interpret this ambiguity as Denis' wish to shade her characters and the context
they are put in.
The military exercise.
There is an abrupt but effective cut from the narrative present in Galoup's home
in Marseille to the sequence of a forceful military exercise which culminates
in the capture of an empty building. The transition is Galoup's line about rusty
muscles. The military exercise is one of the three scenes that at first sight
look like a sequence from an American war or combat film (e.g. G.I Jane
or Full Metal Jacket, both American) By juxtaposing or contrasting the
exercise to the siege of the house, Denis is being ironic about the presence and
values of the Foreign Legion and traditional masculinity as well. Another difference
in the scene is the lack of shouting, cursing and swearing from the superiors
that would often be found in a more conventional war film. There is just silence
and the sound of breathing and physical effort.
The scene displays all kinds of physical exercise; a kind of crawl and dragging
exercise, running, climbing, jumping, tight-rope walking against a bright blue
sky, which endows the scene with magic and supreme mastery of the body. The masculinity
is expressed as both mechanical, artistic and at the same time strangely grandiose.
Helen Brandis explains how "it depicts male bodies, relating this on the
one hand to a nexus of masculinity and war
." Here Brandis quotes Fergus
Daly
"Fine-honing of flesh and muscle into sensory-motor machines that
the actual world has no place for". (Brandis). Both theorists are right since
the cut to the empty house associates with war and taking of buildings. The setting
of light on the bodies, the glow of skin and muscles is a pleasure to watch -
in a way the soldiers turn their useless exercise into a brilliant performance
for the spectators, as Fergus Daly notices above. They expose their bodies and
ability to an invisible audience. The very uselessness of the exercise, the waste
of time is a point Denis is using to signal another kind of masculinity. The sequence
forces the spectator to feel and see the deception; the soldiers are conscious
of doing "good work".
The swimming dance.
There is a direct cut from the night-club's self-assured Djibouti women to the
underwater scene where the legionnaires are swimming, doing exercises with daggers
under the water. The camera examines the swimming bodies in an almost erotic way
with medium close-up of thighs, bellies and torsos turning and moving through
the water. The same technique is used in the scene where the men are digging the
stony and crusty soil in order to make a road. Here the camera is in a way obsessed
with muscular thighs and buttocks, which it almost caresses.
The soldiers in the swimming dance are like elegant dolphins performing for an
audience. The underwater setting functions as a fish tank for a curious camera.
Stuart Klawans points out that "The film's events are not a narrative stream
but singly or in smaller groups like a set of archaic sculptures
.wrap your
hands around them, torso here, abandoned leg there." (34-36). This would
seem to be the case. The spectator becomes a visitor in an underwater word or
exhibition with beautiful maritime animals. The masculinity is extremely elegant,
resembling a water ballet. The movements are smooth and the body is in a way back
in its natural element. Claire Denis emphasises, using choreographer Bernardo
Montet for the orchestration of the dances and martial arts, that:
A sequence is an opportunity for choreography that has nothing to do with the
movement of a camera
but rather the choreography of a body in front of a
camera
To me it is like a dance
The bodies are in the grip of my choreography.(Lifshitz
1995)
The almost feminine masculinity is contrasted with the phallic symbol, the dagger
and the fine diegetic sound of steel from cutting knives, a hardly audible sound.
The swimming men are doing exercises with these daggers. The cutting blows are
in a way alleviated by the water. If seen as a phallic symbol, the masculinity
is macerated and in a way Denis stresses that both femininity and masculinity
can unite in an alternative masculinity.
The "Indian" dance.
In the narrative this dance follows the camp-fire dance that ends in a fight and
this "Indian" dance seems to be a kind of re-establishing exercise to
build up the concentration and cohesion within the legionnaire group. Galoup seems
to be the centre of energy, spreading concentration and positive vibrations to
the others. The dance may be read as a way of letting go of tensions and aggressions
go in a physical way. Martine Beugnet talks about the unspoken bonds and hidden
tensions symbolically represented in the dances and "martial arts" like
exercises; the male group movements are synchronised like an ancient chorus. (27)
As Ramsay Burt points out "in order to represent masculinity a dancer should
look powerful" (50) The dancing men look powerful, humming and grunting in
a collective rhythm resembling sun dances or the ritual dances of American Indian
tribes - but the masculinity, though it struggles to maintain itself, is undermined
by the narrative and context. Tensions between Sentain and Galoup are getting
more serious. This kind of masculinity expressed via the dance can not keep the
tensions and conflicts away from the group and indirectly is of no use in maintaining
a society.
The patting dance.
The patting dance is perhaps the most peculiar of the dances in Beau Travail.
The scene of the dance appears just after a sequence of the soldiers crossing
a bay or stream of water - again in a way that reminds one of an American war
film, e.g. The Deer Hunter or The Thin Red Line.
In the sunny desert, in the context of a naked landscape, the legionnaires do
a patting exercise at the same time very intimate, very corporal and yet very
distant. If they needed to get warm they could be making individual exercises
but here the men throw themselves deep into each other's arms and quickly withdraw.
According to Ramsay "Images of men must appear active in some way in order
to appear in line with dominant ideas of masculinity." (53) Indeed the scene
is very masculine and what is interesting is the intensity of the embrace. Sport
and physical exercises connected to sport has always been a masculine domain and
Hans Bonde points out that exactly because sport is and has always been a guarantor
of masculinity men have within sport a forum where they can develop a kind of
gender motor function and a one-sided range of movements which could not be considered
feminine or homophile. Therefore men could allow themselves to let their sweaty,
breathless bodies touch each other.(Bonde,198, my translation) The transgression
in the scene of norms for male sexuality, by which men do not normally touch each
other's bare skin, may be read as an alternative masculinity that is not scared
of approaching in a strong physical way.
Denis has some interesting thoughts about desire and violence. She says that:
"Ritual is interesting because it's a way of expressing the sexuality of
bodies outside the sexual act itself." (Denis). It may be possible to read
the scene as a sexual expression because of the sound of smacking bodies, the
huff and puff which resemblance sexual intercourse. The scene at the same time
reflects Denis' way "teasing" the audience, playing with different genres
(ballet, opera, martial arts, war film) in the film and being almost constantly
ambiguous.
The dance between Galoup and Sentain and a brief focus on Sentain.
The scene with Galoup and Sentain in some kind of trial of strength evokes several
themes. In a way it brings the human being back to a primal level of actually
struggling for food and the opportunity to mate. Elena del Rio, referring to Claire
Denis, points out that "Galoup and Sentain's outlandish performance is a
real martial arts exercise where the opponents test their psychological endurance
by locking eyes with each other
" (del Rio). In a mainstream film, the
scene would probably end in physical fighting but here the aggression and emotion
are kept and transformed into this sophisticated dance. One may say that two kinds
of masculinity are fighting each other. Sentain's "feminine" or alternative
type, and Galoup's conventional rigid conflict-ridden type are clashing together.
The narrative shows that both are put to the test with Sentain almost dying in
the desert and Galoup dismissed and sent back to Marseille.
Through the narrative, it seems that Denis outlines three models of masculinity;
Galoup's conventional and traditional, Forestier's disillusioned, cold-hearted
and resigned (Forestier witnesses the assaults within the soldiers group but do
not interfere) Sentain's alternative and "feminine". Sentain may be
symbolically representing a new man, a new way of being male; through the scenes
his body and the body of Galoup are clearly different; Galoup scarred and stocky,
Sentain slim and flawless. "Gilles Sentain breathes his character through
his pores" as Klawans mentions (36). As mentioned above, Sentain is almost
floating in the first dance scene at the disco. When he finally hits Galoup the
blow is shown in slow-motion as if to minimize the violence and keep the blow
somehow surreal and non-physical. Sentain is constantly shown in the mise-en-scene
in a very aesthetic way, the camera shooting him from low angle or close- up or
in a long take so his body and character are exposed. When he saves the crashed
pilot they are shot in an aesthetic composition lying in a careful embrace that
evokes war hero monuments or a parent protecting his or her offspring.
The scene where Sentain has hurt his foot is posed in the mise-en-scene to resemble
a classical arrangement of Grecian youths. Sentain is posed with his back facing
the camera, with Combe treating his foot and surrounded by three other legionnaires.
Their bronze-coloured backs, contrasted to Sentain's white skin as they carefully
and protectively examine the wounded foot, is highly sensual and aesthetic. Sentain's
different perception of physical contact may also be read from the scene, where
he is being tonsured. He laughs and enjoys being patted on the head.
Galoup's final dance.
The last scenes of Beau Travail focus on Galoup and his possible suicide back
in Marseille. It is not clear if he finally kills himself lying on his perfectly
made bed. A vein is pulsing in his arm; this can be read as life insisting on
going on, a hope for Galoup. There is still a possibility to fit into life and
society again.
In the final scene, Galoup is in a nightclub. Galoup performs a dance for himself
and the audience. "Galoup's body is free at last and transforms all the films
events into a fit of disco madness." (Klawans 34-36) The masculinity Galoup
finally shows is not controlled, but is a kind of a clown's performance. He is
suddenly able to be spontaneous and impulsive, in stark contrast to his perfectionism
within the Legion whenever he folded the napkins for the dinner table, supervised
the men ironing their uniforms or made a bed without creases. Either Galoup is
set free to live, finally representing if not another kind of masculinity then
a more self reflecting personality, or there is a kind of tragic ending to the
film, presenting Galoup as a lonely loser and a clown who only has his own reflection
in the mirror to trust and react to - plus the dimension of a present and changing
body and of an immanent and inaccessible ideal. (Beugnet 33)
Conclusion
An overall reading of Beau Travail could be Claire Denis' closer study of masculinity
with the Foreign Legion as the frame; a frame that is closely associated with
France in both colonial and post-colonial times.
It seems that Denis insists through the mise-en-scene of dances and marches, the
context and the contrasts - on another way of being male, twisting the more or
less traditional masculine content, and thereby implies an alternative masculinity.
This is shown by twisting gender and gender roles or showing conventional male
attitudes together with more feminine and spiritual features of behaviour. This
is also emphasised by juxtaposing conventional military exercise and masculinity
with either an ironic commend in the narrative (the empty building) or an unconventional
intimacy between the legionnaires (the clapping and embracing). The dominant juxtaposition
or contrast of very conventional masculine attitudes appreciated within the Legion
and alternative ways of being male implied through context, body positions, gestures,
gazes and body moves can be interpreted as Claire Denis's wish to point out or
show "another way" , an alternative way of being male and human.
It also becomes clearer within the narrative that Denis maybe intends to outline
three types of masculinity symbolically represented by Galoup, Sentain and Forestier.
Galoup represents a traditional kind of masculinity that in many ways is "rusty"
and reacts to the outside world in a rigid and violent way. Forestier is haunted,
disillusioned and has settled into resignation. Sentain is represented as a kind
of new man, an alternative masculinity which embodies empathy, courage, a gentler
and more intimate approach to others and the outside world. If both Sentain and
Galoup survive the horrible stay in the desert and the despair in Marseille, it
may be concluded that both have found a place in the world. The world can embody
both men with their personalities and masculinities. Sentain doesn't need to feel
"perdu" and Galoup will fit into society. Claire Denis' final message
may be one of spaciousness and diversity within the world.
Works Cited
Bandis, Helen. "Beau Travail: Some Call it Loving." Rev. of Beau travail,
by Claire Denis.
senses of cinema . April 2001. 1. December 2005. >http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/13/beau.html<
Beugnet, Martine. Claire Denis. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004.
Bonde, Hans. Mandighed og sport, Manliness and Sport, title translated from Danish.
Odense:
Odense Universitetsforlag, 1991.
Bonde, Hans. "Broen fra drengeår til manddom- sport som manddomsprøve,
the Bridge from
Boyhood to Manhood - Sport as a test of manhood", title translated from Danish.
Mandekultur,
Male Culture, title translated from Danish. Ed. Hans Bonde and Bente Rosenbeck.
VARIA.
Ser. 1. København: Skriftrække for Center for Kvindeforskning, Københavns
Universitet, 1991.
Burt, Ramsay. The Male Dancer: Bodies, Spectacle, Sexualities. London: Routledge,
1995.
"Claire Denis, la Vagabonde." 48 minute documentary by Sebastien Lifshitz.
Prod. La Femis,
France, 1995.
Connell, R.W. Masculinities. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995.
Dashiell, Chris. "Beau travail." Rev. of Beau travail, by Claire Denis.
CineScene
2000. 1.December 2005. >http://www.cinescene.com/dash/beautravail.html<
del Rio, Elena. "Performing the narrative of seduction: Claire Denis' Beau
travail."
Rev. of Beau travail, by Claire Denis. Kinoeye. 3:7, 9. June 2003. 1. December
2003.
>http://www.kinoeye.org/03/07/delrio07.php<
Denis, Claire. "Desire Is Violence." Sight and Sound 17, July (2000).
13. June 2005.
1. December 2005. >http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/30<
Embassy of France, In the United States."The French Foreign Legion."
Embassy of France, In the United States. 1.December 2005.
>http://www.ambafrance-us.org/atoz/legion/index.asp<
Hayward, Susan. "Claire Denis' Films and the Postcolonial Body- with special
reference to
Beau travail (1999)." Studies in French Cinema 1.3 (2001): 164
Horrocks, Roger. Masculinity in Crisis. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1994.
Klawans, Stuart. "Legionnaire's Disease." Rev. of Beau travail, by Claire
Denis.
The Nation April 17, 2000: 34-36
Seidler Victor Jeleniewski. Man enough: Embodying Masculinities. London: SAGE,
1997.
Beau travail. Dir. Claire Denis. Perf. Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, Gregoire Colin.
DVD.
Artificial Eye Film Company Ltd. 2000.
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