Saturday, September 01, 2012
BUDD-IES
Today's Claire Denis film was the first film we ever saw by her
in which she uses the theme (and some of the music) of the Benjamin Britten opera Billy Budd transposed to an African outpost of the French Foreign Legion.
Like other Denis films it is so simple. The story line wanders along. The photography is so lush and beautiful and lingers on scenes of almost primitive beauty.
The themes are, of course, homo-erotic in the sense that the conflict between the hero and his sergeant has to do with order and rank and the approval of the commander. Subtle but potent issues.
The drama is tight and almost arbitrary and then an ironic ending. Even happy.
Denis dwells on the rituals of men alone and isolated. The Legion is the most extreme modern example of this. Daily drills, exercises, work details, cleaning, staying orderly. Most of this with not a lot of clothing. The male body at work.
We first saw this when it was selected for a gay film festival. A lot of people came to the show expecting a military fuck fest. What they got was an abstract study of heterosexual men playing out "games" with one another and a whole lot of location in Djibuti Africa.
A 5 out of Netflix5.
Some scenes:
Labels: films
