Jean-Luc Nancy: A-religion

by JEAN-LUC NANCY

Should we wish to praise Claire Denis’s latest film, Beau Travail (good work, handsomely done), it would not be advisable to direct its title back at it, as a compliment. For this title should be understood as an exclamation uttered in front of a disaster: ‘Good work, handsomely done’, as one might say ‘Congratulations!’ in order to lash out with irony at a stupid act or a clumsy gesture. So that no doubt should remain as to the correct tone of the title, one need only look up the expression in the short story from which the film was adapted, Melville’s ‘Billy Budd, Sailor’. ‘Handsomely done’ is an expression uttered by Claggart (Budd’s sworn enemy) when Billy knocks over his bowl of soup. Melville prolongs it by ‘And handsome is as handsome did it, too’ (Melville, 1985: 350), going on to comment on this allusion to Billy’s particular, angelic type of beauty, by noting that it was the deep-seated reason for Claggart’s hatred of him. ‘Handsomely done!’ not only takes ‘handsome’ against the grain: beauty in itself is mocked. This is the effect of the ‘perverse nature’ of Billy’s tormentor.

Originally published in Vacarme (January, 2001) @
http://www.vacarme.eu.org/article81.html.
Translated by Julia Borossa.