Claire Denis's Beau travail (2010)

Claire Denis's Beau travail is set in Djibouti with a group of legionnaires under the command of Galoup (Denis Lavant), warrant officer first class. It was inspired by Herman Melville's short story Billy Budd, with which it shares a number of similarities. Above all, this film is a celebration of the male body, with men practicing exercises, almost dancing a ballet and embracing one another, but then visiting night clubs in search of women, or conversely ironing, sweeping, drying clothes and peeling potatoes.

The homosocial tones inevitably give way to homosexual ones, but of course these are only suggested, tweaked out by the images: needless to say, there are very few words in the film, such as in a night club where the music drowns out the spoken word.

What this comes down to is a disgraced officer's memories of a platoon in the desert. Gilles Sentain (Grégoire Colin) is a new recruit, and a very handsome one. He fills Galoup with jealousy due to his repressed homosexual desire and the fact that the commander of the base, Bruno Forrestier (Michel Subor)*, has noted Sentain's noble actions. And Galoup will send Sentain out into the desert with a defective compass, leading to Galoup's court marshalling.

*Michel Subor (as Bruno Forrestier) starred in Jean-Luc Godard's Le Petit Soldat (1963), in which he deserted to Switzerland and joined an extreme right-wing group.