Beau Travail

Beau Travail
Theatrical release poster
Directed byClaire Denis
Screenplay byJean-Pol Fargeau
Claire Denis
Based onBilly Budd
by Herman Melville
Produced byPatrick Grandperret
StarringDenis Lavant
Michel Subor
Grégoire Colin
CinematographyAgnès Godard
Edited byNelly Quettier
Music byEran Tzur
Distributed byPyramide Distribution
Release dates
  • 4 September 1999 (1999-09-04) (Venice)
  • 3 May 2000 (2000-05-03) (France)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguagesFrench
Italian
Russian
Box office$570,000

Beau Travail (pronounced [bo tʁa.vaj], French for "good work") is a 1999 French film directed by Claire Denis, who co-wrote the screenplay alongside Jean-Pol Fargeau as a loose adaptation of the novella Billy Budd by Herman Melville. The story follows a section of French Foreign Legion soldiers training in the desert of Djibouti. Parts of the film's soundtrack are taken from Benjamin Britten's 1951 opera based on Melville's novella.