Luc Besson: the best films versatile masters and their common features

If you do not know in advance, it is difficult to believe that the same man has created "Leon", "The Fifth Element" and "Angel-A". Director himself explains this by saying that any movie requires complete dedication and after work I want to switch to something else entirely.

During the filming of "Atlantis" we had a motto: "Take a camera and a little dive." After filming for three years I could not talk about water. Therefore, all my films are completely different - I can not bear to go back to the old theme.

Luc Besson

But still possible to identify some techniques that distinguish Luc Besson's other famous directors and traced in a seemingly completely different style paintings.

The unity of opposites

Starting with one of the first feature films Besson's "Subway" catches almost obligatory theme of the meeting and the closeness of the two completely different people in the eye. And it's not just a man and a woman. They have to be the exact opposite of each other. And the brighter and more interesting is their friendship and convergence.

Girl and a professional killer in "Leon", a strong but young and naive Lila and cynical, tired Korben Dallas "Fifth Element", the fraudster and mysterious girl black-and-white film "Angel-A". Heroes just have to be of different sexes, different ages, different character, even of different heights. And against the background of their ability to find a common language becomes a real achievement.

What to see

"Leon"

• Drama, crime thriller.
• France, USA, 1994.
• Duration: 110 minutes.
• IMDb: 8,6.

A ruthless killer Leon is the only one who can rely on the little girl Matilda after police shot her family. Cold alone to find a common language with her, attached to the girl and teach her to his skill.

View in iTunes →
View in Google Play →

"Angel-A"

• Romance, comedy, film noir.
• France, 2005.
• Duration: 88 minutes.
• IMDb: 7,1.

Loser Andre bandits owed a huge sum of money, he decides to commit suicide. But suddenly, when it jumps from the bridge a very beautiful girl. Andre saves her, and she promises to help him with money and creditors. But who she is and whether they met by chance?

View in iTunes →
View in Google Play →

Love of nature

The cinema has two great director who like underwater shooting. it James Cameron and Luc Besson. And if Cameron is fascinating primarily scope and unexplored depths of the Besson probably stretches for unity with nature and total immersion in the elements.

It has a very concrete explanation: he was born in the family swimming instructors, all childhood spent on the coast, and he loved to dive. But in 17 years, Besson was injured and the doctors forbade him to dive.

A passion for the water element has not disappeared, just reincarnated in cinema. In 1988, Besson produces the film "The Big Blue" (not to be confused with the "abyss" of the same Cameron) - part biopic about the champions of free-diving, diving to a depth of no air. But three years later he released his documentary film "Atlantis", dedicated to the inhabitants of the underwater world.

Besson concerned not only water - environmental problems of the planet and the adverse human impact on nature can be traced in many of his films.

Even in the "Fifth Element" Lila I doubted whether to save humanity after seeing what people do with the earth and with each other. This topic comes up again now and in the "city of Valerian and thousands of planets." But most clearly "green" idea appears in the movie "Lucy." Here Besson on the background of philosophical fiction and drayvovye action is trying to convey, it would seem, simple, but very important truth: man is only a part of nature, and should be able to find her common tongue.

What to see

"Big Blue"

• Drama, romance, adventure.
• France, USA, Italy, 1988.
• Duration: 132 minutes.
• IMDb: 7,6.

The film is about two friends who have become eternal rivals in diving to a depth of no air. Everyone wants to beat the record of the opponent, even at the risk of life. But in parallel with the rivalry and a love story unfolds.

View in iTunes →
View in Google Play →

"Lucy"

• Fiction thriller.
• France, 2014.
• Duration: 90 minutes.
• IMDb: 6,4.

Lucy girl running drug courier and one day after being hit in her blood of an unknown substance, realizes that her brain works much faster than other people. Gradually, Lucy discovers his almost supernatural powers, and even learn to control the forces of nature and time.

View in iTunes →
View in Google Play →

quoting the classics

Like many contemporary directors, Luc Besson regularly quotes cinema classics. But if others often make remakes or copy the costumes and characters, it prefers to do the whole scene, sending directly to the great films, often in black and white or even mute.

Finale "Subways" is almost completely copies the ending of the movie "Breathless" by Jean-Luc Godard. Moreover, repeated not only the scene itself. Angle, length of each frame, emotions - all one to one. A scene of the creation of Leela in "Fifth Element" clearly refers to the classic film "Metropolis" in 1927, one of the most famous examples kinoekspressionizma and Futurism.

"Joan of Arc" also refers to whole pieces classics, namely the silent film "The Passion of Joan of Arc" of the famous Carl Theodor Dreyer. Repeated close-ups, the combination of crosses and fire, and more.
But looks particularly elegant scene in the movie "The Family", where the hero of Robert De Niro in the cinema watching the movie "Goodfellas" by Martin Scorsese, in which De Niro himself once and played a major role.

What to see

"Joan of Arc"

• Drama, Biography, History.
• France, 1999.
• Duration: 160 minutes.
• IMDb: 6,4.

The history of the famous Maid of Orleans - pious girl heard voices and became the commander of the French army. Mental anguish of the protagonist replaced by large-scale battle scenes.

View in iTunes →
View in Google Play →

"The Family"

• Black comedy.
• France, USA, 2013.
• Duration: 111 minutes.
• IMDb: 6,3.

The former head of the Mafia moved with his family to a quiet town where he lives under the legendary writer, collecting material for a book. But in any conflict he can not control his temper - and old habits take over. In addition, enemies of the past will learn about the new place of residence of the family and want to get even.

View in iTunes →
View in Google Play →

Creativity for children

At the beginning of the two thousandth Luc Besson began to seriously engage in creative activities for children.

The process of creating the world of "Arthur and the Invisibles" was long and quite unusual. It all started with the fact that the artist Patrice Garcia brought him some drawings with small creature sitting on pieces of paper. Besson wrote about their world and wanted to Garcia made a film about it. As a result, he did not cope and director took the job himself. The process of creating the film dragged on for years, so to maintain interest Besson released in 2002 two books from the series "Arthur"Based on a script, and the first film of the future series, was released only in 2006.

People often say that in my heart I was a child. In fact, I think I just have access to my childhood, I remember him very well. All we were once children. And this quality should be respected.

Luc Besson

The entire series of films about Arthur - purely children's cinema, without flirting with adult humor. filming technology is very interesting, all the natural background is a real digital photo processing, but the characters themselves computer. This creates the effect of greater realism of what is happening.

What to see

"Arthur and miniputs"

• Fantasy, adventure.
• France, USA, 2006.
• Duration: 103 minutes.
• IMDb: 6,0.

Ten-year Arthur wants to help his grandmother and goes in search of treasures that are hidden in the country of miniature creatures. Faced with the Minimoys, Arthur goes on an adventure, full of dangers and wonders.

View in iTunes →
View in Google Play →

Appeal to the French comics

Often the basis Besson film takes the classic comics. But it is not traditionally popular in the world AmericanNamely those that read it myself as a child.

"The Fifth Element" is almost directly can be associated with comics "Valerian and Lorelin". On the set of this film with Besson about six months, the artist worked in this series, Jean-Claude Mezieres. Yes, and some visual images and scenes, such as a flying taxi or escape character on the windowsill, one in one of these images resemble comics.

In 2010 he published a picture of "The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec", also based on the popular 70s French comic Jacques Tardi. "Adele" is quite unlike the "Valerian," is an adventure story of writer-journalist, who is constantly faced with supernatural beings and mysterious stories.

But in 2017, Besson produced the film "Valerian and the city of a thousand planets" - an adaptation of his favorite comic book as a child. For France, this is a true legend, the series was published almost 40 years and sold around the world with a circulation of 10 million copies.

What to see

"Fifth Element"

• Action, adventure, fantasy.
• France, 1997.
• Duration: 126 minutes.
• IMDb: 7,7.

On the ground approaching the great evil that threatens the destruction of the whole world. Beat it is possible, only by bringing together five important elements. But the fifth element is a naive girl Lila, which help in saving the world should Korben Dallas - a taxi driver in New York.

View in iTunes →
View in Google Play →

"The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec"

• Adventure, fantasy.
• France, 2010.
• Duration: 105 minutes.
• IMDb: 6,3.

Journalist Adel sent to Egypt, to find there the ancient mummy. Meanwhile, in Paris, from prehistoric pterodactyl eggs hatch cub. At Adele have their own plans and a mummy, and the professor who made this revival.

View in iTunes →
View in Google Play →

Work on scripts

If Luc Besson and disappears for a while from the post of director, it does not mean that he gave up the cinema. for his script for the film come out all the time, you can even say that this is its main activity. Just sometimes taken Besson to shoot himself, and sometimes gives projects to other filmmakers. As he filmed scenarios all the films from the series "Taxi", three "Transporter", "Wasabi", "Crimson Rivers", "13th District" and dozens of other more.

What to see

"Taxi"

• Comedy, thriller, crime.
• France, 1998.
• Duration: 86 minutes.
• IMDb: 6,9.

The taxi driver-driver Daniel and absolutely does not know how to drive a cop Emilien decide to help each other and try to catch the elusive gang of bank robbers who are hiding from the police to the Mercedes. But Daniel is able to catch a taxi even the fastest gunman.

View in Google Play →

Permanent team

Like many eminent directors, Besson likes to work with the same people. And in his case, it's not just the actors. For most of the film music writes the same composer - Eric Serra. The operator is also almost always the same - a long-time partner director Thierry Arbogast. And the fact that the films, so different visually and stylistically, works the same team adds a lot of points in the treasury of talent Luc Besson.

As for the actors, it is most often in the paintings Besson either on his scripts, you can see Jean Reno films. He first appeared as early as the first feature film directed by "Penultimate", and after repeatedly appeared in his paintings in the main, and in supporting roles.

---

Most recently, the screens out the new film by Luc Besson, "Valerian and the city of thousands of planets." Despite the seeming simplicity of the plot and the brightness, the issue is this - a long-standing dream of the director. As already mentioned, Besson read these comics since childhood, and had long wanted to move them to the screen. The first version of the script was ready 10 years ago, but at that time to make a film of this magnitude was not possible. Now, thanks to advances in technology, it appeared.

Wanting to do everything exactly the way he wants to, even went to the director of financial risks. He again took the most expensive film negollivudsky (previous was his "The Fifth Element"), but it refused to cooperate with major studios, because they began to dictate terms. And so in the new film of the Besson very much: the two heroes with opposite characters, comics, again sharply raised the question of the protection of nature. But the main thing - many of the scenes and characters from the comic book moved to the screen just one to one.