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Leon The Professional
There are a couple of movies that are so dear to me that I keep watching the end credits all the way through. Often crying through them. And Leon: The Professional is one of those movies.
In France the movie was released as just "Leon" and that's what I am going to call this movie here. I don't want to be typing "The Professional" every time I want to mention the name of the movie. Also I have to make it absolutely clear that this movie is half French. Yes, the film is about an Italian man. But he is played by Jean Reno, a French actor. The director of the film Luc Besson is a French director. And a lot of the crew were French as well. I'm saying that because there is a certain cultural divide between the United States of America ( where the movie is set ) and France ( or Europe ) where the movie was conceived. And therefor some decisions made in the film, for an American person would feel strange. Also I will be reviewing the extended director's cut of the film. Some people prefer this version to not exist. But I believe that this is the definitive version of the movie and if I re-watch Leon I make sure that the version I watch is the extended director's cut. To be honest I saw the original maybe only once. So I don't even remember what were the differences. For me, the theatrical cut of this movie does not exist.
Let's go straight into the controversial part, to get it out of the park. In my review of May December I mentioned how Natalie Portman was perhaps trying to think through her experience during and after Leon. And that the arc of that movie was a kind of journey for her to understand people like Luc Besson who could make such a thing as Leon. Natalie, or at the time Neta Li, was born in Jerusalem of all places ( I have 4 brothers who were born there ). But most of her life she was an American. Therefor we can think of her as an American for the sake of this argument. I think that her confusion with the experience had to do a lot with the fact that she was American. And the large majority of the controversy that this movie has, has to do with American perspective on the subject.
The main dramatic story-line in the film is a love story between a grown man and a little girl. The man is Leon. And the girl, Matilda, is played by Portman, in her debut role. At that time Luc Besson was married to a French film actor and director Maïwenn Le Besco, who he met when she was 12, if I remember correctly. And she was pregnant from him at 15, giving birth ( at 16 ) to a girl named Shanna. The movie Leon opens up with an action scene where you are introduced to Leon as a character. But in the same time it has a very interesting inclusion. There is girl in that scene played by Maïwenn, Luc Besson's wife at the time. I think it is important.
Matilda is a kind of Lolita type character in the movie. A little underage girl, which is the main love interest of the protagonist. I think playing Matilda and seeing the outrage it caused in America made Portman ask a few questions. Which prompted the need for something like May December now.
I wrote an article some time ago about censorship and in there I discuss a difference in mentality between America and Europe. Specifically in relation to violence and sex. To be short, Americans tolerate violence more than sex. And Europeans vice versa. Therefor you get more action films with shooting and killing in America and more intimate stories with way too many sex scenes ( sometimes pornographic ) in Europe. In a documentary about the making of Leon there was a section specifically to explain this difference in mentality. And how this explains the calmness of French people to Luc Besson's personal life. And to Luc Besson's writing in Leon. And to some extend to Luc Besson's directing of Portman in Leon.
It seems like Besson was completely shutting off the idea of age when deciding on shots in this movie. For Besson's camera in Leon, Matilda is just a woman. It does not discriminate between children and adults. There is no particular consideration about how to frame something which would end up more "appropriate". If Besson would have a 21 year old, for example, in a different movie having the same story beats, he would shoot her with the same exact kinds of compositions as he shoots Portman in this film. And it seems like it's obvious. Like what is the difference anyway? But this means that he constructs a visual psycho-sexual tension in this movie involving a child. Matilda is extremely sexy in Leon. Even though she is like 11. And that would rub the wrong nerves to a lot of people. But that is intentional. Because the story is about that in a way. Leon has such a stiff personality that a psycho-sexual conflict of magnitude no less than that within him is what's needed to give him an arc. In a way it is genius. But it is kind of uncomfortable if you are an American.
There is some ageism in the movie. The original script of Leon contained a lot less censorship. There was a sex scene in one version. But until the movie got to a point that it could have been made a lot of the stuff was taken out. For example, Matilda is a heavy smoker. But in the movie we never see her actually smoke. She just kind of holds the cigarette. It was a decision made to satisfy Portman's mother.
Violence-vise the movie is a normal action film. We see blood and gun shots. But we don't see people with torn limbs yelling from pain. Most of the film is gun violence, or tension of it soon beginning. There are a lot of good very tense scenes in the film. The opening scene where we see how effective Leon is, is a little Hitchockian thriller within the movie.
Bessons directing seems strangely calm for Besson. His other movies have more oomph to them. More beauty shots. This one is more normal. More static shots. Less camera moves. Until the action starts. And then he gives you the good stuff. It seems like he is intentionally trying to deprive you from beauty shots or dynamic cuts or slow motion until there is impact to be had with those. He is not shooting a conversation like an action scene. ( Spielberg would shoot a conversation like an action scene ). He shoots an action scene like an action scene. Though there are funny or interesting compositions in the movie that I like. One of them happens toward the beginning when we see Leon taking a subway. The posture that Jean Reno did in that shot spoke so much. Before that shot I thought that Leon is a kind of 90s Hollywood action hero type. But the posture is so melancholic and broken, while trying to be the opposite that it gave a promise of a completely different movie. On which it then delivered. One more good shot is toward the middle of the film where Matilda gives Leon a hug and Besson decided to point our attention to the fact that her shoes do not touch the floor. Or in one place during an action scene you get a very funny extreme close up of Leon's nostrils.
The movie introduced me to three great musicians that I very love. It has a very good song by Bjork called "Venus as a Boy". Which is an interesting choice. The lyrics are about sex. Though the song is sang by a woman that in those times looked like a young teenage girl. Bjork avoided and still avoids the sexuality aspect of being a famous singer. In the 90s she focused more on cuteness. The music video for the song "Venus as a Boy" has her making food. There is nothing sexy about it. Only cuteness. With age she transitioned from cuteness to weirdness. I guess it is hard to be cute at 60. But back in those days she could be and was as cute as she could be. And that was her image. The song being about sex though, kind of perfectly fits the movie. Where there is a real sexual tension, of cute people.
Then there is the "Shape of My Heart" by Sting that comes in the end of the movie. Whenever the first notes start I start crying. The song is so perfectly melodic and melancholic that I don't know if there is anything more perfect for the ending of Leon. Perhaps only some legend like John Williams could do a custom soundtrack for it that could rival this song. But there was a different composer on the movie.
Which bring me to the third musician. And it is Eric Serra. At first it seems like the music in the movie is kind of strange. And it is. It is not your typical Hollywood score with orchestra and stuff. Eric Serra is a bit more creative than that. Though what he did was interesting. He merged the style of composing of Bjork and the style of Sting and made the score of the movie in such a way that both "Venus as a Boy" and "Shape Of My Heart" sound completely natural within the broad sonic landscape of the movie. And it is very interesting because those are very different songs on their own. Bjork, for example is an experimental artist. She goes fucking crazy. If you listen the stuff that she produces now, you will start hearing her creative insanity even in the early stuff like "Venus as a Boy". How the hell did Eric Serra merged it with Sting? I guess he is just genius. To be frank, Leon's score is not my favorite music from Serra. I think it would either be the opera piece he wrote for the Fifth Element ( also directed by Besson and the song performed by his wife Maïwenn ), or the soundtrack of Le Grand Bleu, a Besson movie about dolphins and people who like to swim a lot, also starring Jean Reno, and by chance starring Jean-Marc Barr who played in a Lars Von Trier movie starring Bjork herself. For which she received an acting award at Cannes from Besson. What a circle of madness!
Writing of Leon is strange. At times it seems like Besson just gets bored with the characters and invents a problem for them out of the thin air. Though there is a narrative structure that comes pretty much from the beginning till the end. Apart from the main love story, there is also a revenge story. But the movie ( especially the director's cut ) is more interested in just observing the two main leads interact with one another. It has pointless ( on the surface ) scenes. Like for example the scene where Matilda gets drunk and starts laughing hysterically. The amount of cringe-inducing stuff in the movie makes me think that a portion of it was written by Lars Von Trier. Though on the other hand, the movie also has a lot of moment of just pure joy. There is a scene where Leon just starts spraying Matilda from a spray bottle and she returns by dropping on him a bucket of dirty water. They are just having fun. And I want that scene to continue forever. I want a 3 hour long version of that scene.
There is a lot of talk about how pointless some of the stuff is in Avatar and Avatar 2. Especially in the second one with all the water swimming scenes. When I saw it for the first time it reminded me a lot of Le Grand Blue, the dolphins movie from Besson. And it seems like James Cameron learned this technique from Besson. The goofing around scenes in Leon is just another example of this same technique. It doesn't make any sense to be there on paper. But it injects to much awesomeness into the movie that it makes the movie instantly a million times more re-watchable. There is no big reveal in Leon. It's not about the plot. You come back to Leon to see Leon and Matilda drop water on each other.
There was one thing I remember being disappointed in, in this movie when I was younger. When I was looking for the most intense stuff I could ever find. And that was that he doesn't show much of the murders in the second shooting. The second shooting involves a 4 year old boy getting killed. And I was mad at Besson choosing not to show it. Today I'm glad that he is not showing it. After I saw The House That Jack Built I don't want to see it. One time was enough. Thank you Besson for thinking about me.
Today, I found out something that was very strange. I have 4 brothers that were born in the same city as Natalie Portman. One of them has a face that looks almost identical to Matilda's face in Leon. I was watching the movie and it's my fucking brother walking around in a skirt. That was strange. Also considering that they both were born in the same city. It is even more strange. Maybe there is a possibility that Natalie Portman is some kind of far removed aunt of mine, or something. That would be insane. Or am I insane? Did I loose my mind? What is going on?
Happy Hacking!!!
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