Beau Travail  Peter Bradshaw is mesmerised by a homoerotic
reworking of Billy Budd set in the African desert and starring
the French Foreign Legion  Beau Travail    1. Beau Travail (Nice
Work)   2. Production year: 1998   3. Country: France   4. Cert
(UK): 15   5. Runtime: 90 mins   6. Directors: Claire Denis   7.
Cast: Denis Lavant, Gregoire Colin, Michel Subor, Richard
Courcet   8. More on this film  From Beau Geste to The Battle of
Algiers, the French Foreign Legion has enacted on screen a
strange and furtive imperial adventure - simultaneously
upholding what remains of France's martial gloire and
effectively performing the services of a stateless, anonymous,
mercenary group or international glasshouse-alternative:
famously asking no questions of its applicants, and offering a
regime of unrivalled harshness and brutality.  In real life, the
Legion itself is now softening in accord with the times -
incredibly, even offering "summer internships" to Sandhurst
types taking a year out. But there is no hint of t