Upcoming Events at Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum
Fri Aug 5, 7:30 PM - Fri Aug 5, 11:30 PM
10899 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90024, United States, Los Angeles, CA 90024
Community: Westmont
Description
UCLA Film & Television Archive presents free screenings at the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum.
Event Details
French Foreign Legion sergeant Galoup (Leos Carax regular Denis Lavant) violently fumbles with the quandary of fading glory in Claire Denis’ masterful fifth feature, set in the Horn of Africa in the peacetime Republic of Djibouti.
Like the rusting relics of this country’s militarized past, the chinks in Galoup’s armor begin to show as he struggles to maintain authority over his troops, including oft-Agnès Godard-lensed Grégoire Colin (see him also in Nénette et Boni, 35 rhums and La vie rêvée des anges in this series) with the quiet desperation of a man newly drained of significance.
As the lithe legionnaires run military drills, their perspiring bodies receive reverent lensing thanks to Godard, who has collaborated with filmmaker Denis for two decades.
With simple stretching sessions blocked with geometric, Busby Berkeley-like precision, underwater sequences that flirt with the ghost of Esther Williams and pulsing nighttime discotheques, Beau travail looks back at its French New Wave predecessors while tipping its beret to neoclassical ballet traditions for a singular piece of elliptical, formally abstracted cinema.
Like the rusting relics of this country’s militarized past, the chinks in Galoup’s armor begin to show as he struggles to maintain authority over his troops, including oft-Agnès Godard-lensed Grégoire Colin (see him also in Nénette et Boni, 35 rhums and La vie rêvée des anges in this series) with the quiet desperation of a man newly drained of significance.
As the lithe legionnaires run military drills, their perspiring bodies receive reverent lensing thanks to Godard, who has collaborated with filmmaker Denis for two decades.
With simple stretching sessions blocked with geometric, Busby Berkeley-like precision, underwater sequences that flirt with the ghost of Esther Williams and pulsing nighttime discotheques, Beau travail looks back at its French New Wave predecessors while tipping its beret to neoclassical ballet traditions for a singular piece of elliptical, formally abstracted cinema.
