Avoir Beau

At the end of the second installment of Le Jour où tout a basculé - J'ai volé pour nourrir mon fils, Sarah uses an interesting construction to express remorse about something she did at work:

Et j'avais beau me dire que je l'avais fait pour Nino,

And even though I told myself that I'd done it for Nino,

j'avais vraiment honte.

I was really ashamed.

Captions 54-55, Le Jour où tout a basculé - J'ai volé pour nourrir mon fils
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Beau means "beautiful" or "handsome," but the expression "avoir beau + infinitive" doesn't have anything to do with beauty. It can mean a variety of things depending on context, but it generally describes a failed effort or something done in vain. Sometimes it's just a synonym of bien que, malgré, or quoique ("even though" or "although"), as in the example above:

T'as beau le travailler, ça ne vient pas.

Even though you work at it, it doesn't come.

Caption 67, Alsace 20 - Laurent Chandemerle, l'homme aux 100 voix
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Ça a beau être une pizzeria,

Although it's a pizzeria,

nos prix sont assez élevés pour le commun des mortels.

our prices are pretty high for the everyday mortal.

Caption 5, F&F Pizza - Chez F&F
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Or it can correspond to the English expressions "no matter what" or "no matter how hard":

Elle a beau faire, son copain la critique toujours.
No matter what she does, her boyfriend always criticizes her.

J'ai beau trimer,

No matter how hard I slave away,

sans toi ma vie n'est qu'un décor qui brille, vide de sens.

without you my life is just decor that shines, empty of meaning.

Caption 19, Indila - Dernière danse
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When used with the verb essayer (to try), it means "try as one might":

Et j'ai eu beau essayer de le convaincre

And try as I might to convince him

d'arrêter ses enfantillages, rien à faire.

to stop his childish games, it was useless.

Captions 6-8, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Mes grands-parents sont infidèles
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And when used with être (to be), the expression is often translated as "may be" or "may well be":

Yseult a beau être jeune,

Yseult may be young,

elle sait bien où elle veut aller.

[but] she knows exactly where she wants to go

Caption 5, Watt’s In - Yseult : La Vague Interview Exclu
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Tu as beau être désolé, tu m'as blessé profondément.
You may well be sorry, but you hurt me deeply.

Note that, while the English requires a "but" in both of these sentences, there's no need for a mais in the French. So you wouldn't say: Yseult a beau être jeune, mais elle sait bien où elle veut aller.

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Topics Expressions