Inspired by Melville’s Billy Budd, Denis’ extraordinary movie centres on Galoup (Denis Lavant), who recalls his time as a seargent-major in the French Foreign Legion. With limited dialogue and a poetic juxtaposition of music and stunning images of beauty, Denis and her team create a fixed, timeless world of mysterious, balletic rites, rippled with simmering homoerotic tensions.

Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die