Claire Denis’ visually striking ‘Beau Travail’ and David Fincher’s sardonically incendiary ‘Fight Club’ from the same year of 1999, both attempts to criticise the traditional structures of gender, specifically the dangers of toxic masculinity onto the men which perform it. Both feature films target the fragile nature of hyper-masculine performativity, and the perils which result from enacting such a mindset. As a result of this overarching theme, I have heavily referenced queer theory and Judith Butler’s ‘Gender Performativity’ theory to aid my comparison between these two films. Furthermore, I have decided upon these two films for comparison as the films were produced and distributed under different cultural contexts. ‘Fight Club’, an American film distributed under the massive conglomerate of 20^th Century Fox, is a stark contrast to ‘Beau Travail’s distribution under the minor Parisian distribution service of ‘Pyramide Films’; the alternative countries these films were produced in also furthers the bridge between these two film’s cultural contexts. Likewise, the oppositional genders of Fincher and Denis allows the subject of masculinity to be presented from the male and female points of view.