LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Jean Reno: Luc Besson
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Jean Reno, actor in such films as Le Grand Bleu, Nikita, Léon and more recently The Da Vinci Code, visited the Monaco Grand Prix this year as one of the major stars present. His friend and fetish director, Luc Besson, was ... present to show him around.
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This high-energy Dirty Harry in Japan stars Jean Reno (The Professional) as a maverick Paris cop with sledgehammer fists and a short temper. Promoted to sudden fatherhood when he "inherits" a spunky Japanese daughter (Ryoko Hirosue) he never knew, he becomes her droopy guardian angel, protecting her from an army of yakuza gangsters. Written and produced by Luc Besson, the former fashionista director of Euro-sleek shoot-'em-ups, this colorful B-movie blast is as gritty as an oil slick on a water slide but packed with explosive action. Director Gerard Krawczyk punctuates his gunfights with the Hong Kong school of recoil (bullets blast victims across the screen) and an undercurrent of humor. As long as you don't lean too hard on such niggling details as logic, legality, and the laws of physics, this silly, splashy, family bonding bulletfest is a spirited good time.
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Reno then starred in Besson's first English-language film, the haunting Leon (The Professional) with 12-year-old Natalie Portman. It remains Reno's most famous role, and perhaps his best performance. He basically reprises his cold-blooded 'Victor the cleaner' role with a new name and a smidgen more humanity, as he reluctantly comes to young Portman's aid after her parents are murdered by a corrupt DEA agent. Leon was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, despite having its heart gouged out -- 24 minutes were edited out, deemed unacceptable for American audiences.
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The coat worn by Jean Reno is the same coat he wore playing Victor in NIKITA (1990). Luc Besson has stated that the Leon character and Victor character in NIKITA (1990) are actually cousins.
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