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Luc Besson: Director Luc Besson
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Director Luc Besson's (THE FIFTH ELEMENT, LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL) first feature tells the tale of a bleak post-nuclear war world where survival is a day-to-day struggle. One man (known only as The Man) struggles to build an airplane so that he can fly about in search of a mate.
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Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) made his American directorial debut with Leon, a stylised thriller about a French hit man (Jean Reno) who takes in an American girl (Natalie Portman) being pursued by a corrupt killer cop (Gary Oldman). Oldman is a little more unhinged than he should be, but there is something genuinely irresistible about the story line and the relationship between Reno and Portman. Rather than cave in to the cookie-cutter look and feel of American action pictures, Besson brings a bit of his glossy style from French hits La Femme Nikita and Subway to the production of The Professional, and the results are refreshing even if the bullets and explosions are awfully familiar.--Tom Keogh
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Working with his frequent collaborator, cinematographer Thierry Arbogust (The Fifth Element, La Femme Nikita), Luc Besson stepped behind the camera for the first time in six years to film a story that he had begun writing more then ten years ago. Besson and Arbogust have crafted a dream-like Paris as the backdrop for Angel-A and, in Besson’s own words, ”my first great thrill in making this film was to rediscover Paris.” The director calls the result “a declaration of love” to that city.
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The French director Luc Besson could be accused of many things, but speaking too much wouldn't be one of them. Like his best characters [The Man in Le Dernier Combat (1983), Jacques in Le Grande Bleu (1988) and the hitman in Leon (1994)] Besson's words have been few and far between, directing only eight feature-length films in the past 24 years. Besson it would seem is a grand orator scared of saying too much, a director acutely aware of overstaying his welcome. In an interview with the journalist Richard Jobson, Besson stated his intention to direct no more than 10 movies during his career – he believed that that would 'be enough' and would save him from the pitfalls of having nothing left to say.
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Most noted for their stunning visuals, Luc Besson's films often invite scrutiny of the blurred line between the artistic and the commercial. Making his directorial debut with Le Dernier Combat, Besson's beautifully executed black-and-white cinematography earned him a chance to make his first major feature, Subway, a film described by Michael Wilmington as "Steven Spielberg gone existentialist." Shot mostly at Beverly Center Cineplex, Subway creates an underground world of the Paris Metro, both eerie in its fluorescent darkness and charming in the interweaving of fast-paced editing and charismatic characters. A seemingly complex narrative of three separate strands is treated with a simplemindedness that makes it almost comic-book-like. It is at its best a skillful show of light and shadows, and at worst a flashy skeleton of a film that befits its inhabitants.
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Vice president of international sales for Euphonix, Russell Waite commented, "Luc Besson has shown continual foresight in his field. His decision to go with Euphonix reflects his status as a leader--he was one of the first directors to start using Avid as a film-editing tool and again, first in his field with the Euphonix System 5. The fact that Luc Besson will have the world's largest console, coupled with the recent sale to Pinewood-Shepperton Film Studios confirms Euphonix as a major player in the European film industry as well as in technology. Special mention should be made of Paul-Henri Wagner and his team at 44.1 in Paris who were integral in consolidating the sale."
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Director Luc Besson