Beau Travail
“Beau Travail (1999)”
Our first guest host! We welcome Marcia DeFiore Ensley, replacing absent Ilya, to the podcast to discuss gender dynamics in the French Foreign Legion. This is also the first episode where we started stealing Doug Loves Movies games.
These early episodes are not available on Apple Podcasts anymore, so I’ve taken the liberty for anyone who wants to listen of making sure the archive.org links still work. You can listen right here on the website or download the MP3 below.
Original Release Date: July 11th, 2014
Episode Timeline:
00:00-01:05 Marcia joins the Podcast! (Ilya is away)
01:05-09:10 Let’s Play a Game!
09:10-11:30 Brief Plot Recap: Reuben (who used to hate this movie)
11:30-19:30 Loved It (Reuben), Liked It (Marcia, Patrick liked it OK), On The Fence (Basil)
19:30-22:00 Reuben thinks this movie is funnier/more playful than he initially gave it credit for
22:10-22:40 The perfect crease
22:40-23:20 Weird army exercises
23:20-24:00 The women are the Greek chorus of the movie
24:00-25:50 Colonialism & Branding
25:50-26:30 Marcia thinks the movie is less postcolonial as much as it is about new colonial powers
26:30-27:30 The Sexyfication of Sentain
27:30-29:05 Laura Mulvey and the meaning of looking
29:05-30:30 Galoup’s body issues as satire of Leni Riefenstahl’s obsessive bod worship
30:30-32:00 Galoup – He’s The Greatest Dancer
32:00-32:45 Patrick likes that kiss-kiss pop song in the beginning
32:45-33:30 Basil likes the women staring back in the African Disco
33:30-34:30 Galoup’s heaven is a Discotheque (with him in it)
34:30-36:00 Is there even any good work left in the world?
36:00-37:45 More weird Army exercises
37:45-38:30 Galoup and Sentain get really close to kissing
38:30-41:15 Patrick doesn’t get the Galoup/Sentain jealousy
41:15-42:00 Computer proooooooooblems!
42:00-42:45 Marcia read a hilarious gay panic-filled synopsis of this movie
42:45-43:20 GOOGLING PORTION!
43:20-44:30 Looking at pictures of the French Foreign Legion
44:30-44:45 Join the French Legion and get hugged!
44:45-45:40 Reuben likes that this is a poetic movie that also makes fun of itself
45:40-46:20 Basil feels like that church digging scene was from another (worse) movie
46:20-46:50 Instead of slow motion people just move really slowly
46:50-48:35 Loose scripting and amateur acting
48:35-49:30 Finally a movie that acknowledges Denis Levant is weird-looking
49:30-50:20 Reuben thinks he looks weird in a good way
50:20-51:10 Patrick talks about Rooney and Kate Mara for a bit
51:10-52:00 Betsy hates Denis Levant’s face
52:00-53:20 Reuben saw a movie where Sentain looks like a child
53:20-54:00 How about them salt fields!
54:00-55:00 Basil had a lot of salt in his movie diet that day
55:00-55:50 Reuben likes a lot of shots in this movie
55:50-57:40 Basil hates the digital look (and hates that he notices that)
57:40-58:20 Car problems in Beau Travail
58:20-01:00:10 Reuben wants to check other Denis films for funny parts
01:00:10-01:01:10 I Can’t Sleep and Vendredi Soir
01:01:10-01:02:40 Inversions in Beau Travail (Military life as regular life, sexual repression causes perversion)
01:02:40-01:04:30 JBaum on Beau Travail (as usual, his review ends when it gets really interesting)
01:04:30-01:12:00 Let’s Play a Game again!
01:12:00-01:12:47 Thanks, Marcia! Thanks for listening everybody!
