#Michel Subor

[frenchnewwaves]

Le Petit Soldat

[filmreveries]

“Maybe freedom begins with remorse. I heard that somewhere.”

Beau Travail (1999) dir. Claire Denis

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

[lamiaprigione]

Le Petit Soldat (1963)

[cinematicjourney]

Beau Travail (1999) | dir. Claire Denis

[gatutor]

Michel Subor-Anna Karina "El soldadito" (Le petit soldat) 1963, de Jean-Luc Godard.

[davidhudson]

Michel Subor, February 2, 1935 – January 17, 2022.

With Anna Karina during the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Le petit soldat (1963).

[shihlun]

“Apart from our selves, our own faces, our own voices, we have nothing. But perhaps that’s what’s important. Recognising the sound of your own voice and the shape of your own face. From inside, it’s like this and when I look at it, it’s like this. They look at me and they don’t know what I’m thinking, they’ll never know what I’m thinking.“

Claire Denis

- Le Soldat

2022

[bo-deuxtons]

[headlesssamurai]

[speakingparts]

BEAU TRAVAIL [CLAIRE DENIS 1999]

[transpondster]

Michel Subor and Anna Karina in Godard’s ‘Le Petit Soldat’ c1960

[roavalentines]

Le petit soldat (1963)

[sloshed-cinema]

Beau travail (1997)

Claire Denis managed to find the bootcamp version of the Bob Fosse quote that “The time to sing is when your emotional level is too high to speak anymore, and the time to dance is when your emotions are just too strong to sing how you feel.” A dreamlike languor hangs over this French Foreign Legion outfit based in Djibouti. Much of the film is dedicated to training sequences, the legionnaires running obstacle courses or digging away in the rocky volcanic soil. But their tasks aren’t always so literal. At intervals, their physical exercises more closely resemble interpretive dance, the group performing in unison lying on the ground or intertwining in pairs. They swim in the ocean, their knife training balletic as they draw close before kicking away. All of this is set to extracts from Benjamin Britten’s operatic adaptation of the Herman Melville novella Billy Budd, upon which this film too is loosely based. The more overtly naval and militaristic nature of the Britten compositions speaks to the source, bridging the gap in time to this new period of French military interests, this one of colonialism in Africa even after Djibouti gained its independence. These sequences are more meant to be impressionistic than literal, though I suspect that any locals driving by would stare at them just as strangely if they caught them dancing rather than randomly hacking at rocks in the middle of nowhere.

Choreography elevates the coordinated efforts and discipline of the legionnaires to an art form, but also allows for simmering hatred to boil over. Adjudant-Chef Galoup despises one of the new recruits, Gilles Sentain. There is no reason for this, but that doesn’t stop Galoup from seeking to destroy this newcomer at any opportunity. The motto “Serve the good cause, then die” becomes more of a sentence than an aspiration in the handling of discipline as this rage overtakes Galoup. One legionnaire is forced to dig a hole until his hands are bloodied because Galoup determines that he abandoned his post on patrol one night, and Sentain is sent out into the desert after Galoup provokes him into striking him as a result. Sentain nearly dies, but for what cause? Whether Galoup can find it in himself to carry on remains ambiguous, as we see him lying on a bed holding a pistol, but the film ends depicting him in a manner more in keeping with its more heightened moments, dancing alone in a nightclub similar to one where he wiled away his evenings with his girlfriend. His movements are passionate, erratic, frenzied, as if he is trying to work out just what he wants in life.

THE RULES

SIP

Someone names a country.

Narration voiceover begins.

BIG DRINK

Military exercises are performed.

A Britten composition begins to play in the soundtrack.

[lamiaprigione]

Le Petit Soldat (1963)

[cinemacentral666]

Beau Travail (1999)

Movie #1,105 • Part of My CLAIRE DENIS Director Focus

Haha just a little joke...

First off, I just want to comment on titles and translating titles. I usually go with whatever the English is, but there are notable instances (with European entries) where the original language is definitely the most widely used/known. Like nobody fucking calls this movie "Good Work." OK, moving on...

I struggled with this one somewhat. It's lyrical and lovely, but I didn't connect it with it as much as Nénette and Boni or even US Go Home. I realize it's a top 10 Sight and Sound best film of all-time but I'm. Just being... honest.

This is neither here nor there but perhaps partly indicative of why I personally had some issues...

At the point in the above red asterisk in the wiki plot description there's about nine minutes left in the movie!

Again, probably a feature not a bug and I'm wholly ready to admit that my lack of connection is due to not being in the right headspace at the time for this (and not just the over lack of Vincent Gallo jk). It's bigger themes and connections to Melville (however loose they may be) were lost on my weary mind.

I want/need to rewatch at some point. But the final dance solo sequence is worth at least a 7/10.

SCORE: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️