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Luc Besson (France, 1959) grew up on the beaches of the Mediterranean
as his parents were instructors in beach resorts.
He dropped out of high school
to devote himself to filmmaking.
At 19, he emigrated to Hollywood, where he worked for three
years. Upon returning to France and completing his film studies, he directed his
his first film,
Le Dernier Combat/ The Last Battle (1983).
Subway (1985)
Le Grand Bleu/ The Big Blue (1988)
La Femme Nikita (1990)
is a stylish hybrid of "James Bond" and "Pygmalion".
Four teenage punks rob a pharmacy to steal drugs, but the police kills three
of them (two police officers are also killed).
The fourth one is a girl, Nikita, a drug addict and a sociopathic killer,
who doesn't even realize what is going on around her, as if she were brain dead.
But, when she gets a chance, she kills a cop, just for the fun of it.
She is tried and sentenced to life.
However, a secret agent, Bob, gives her a choice: she can avoid the life
sentence if she accepts to become a secret agent for the government.
She is not easy to tame, though: she takes his gun, kicks him ferociously,
and holds him hostage while trying to escape. When she realizes that there is
no way to get out, she points the gun to her mouth to commit suicide and
Bob is barely on time to grab the gun before she pulls the trigger.
Then Bob coldly shoots at her knee to make sure she does not make any more
trouble.
She is taken back into her cell and given a second chance. This time she
accepts. The cold and cynical Bob supervises her reformation.
She is brainwashed and trained to become an efficient spy and hitwoman
on behalf of Bob's special branch of the secret services.
Her savage homicidal instincts and the survival skills learned from the street
make her a model student.
A middle-aged woman, Amande, teaches her how to be also sensual and sophisticated.
The secret service, basically, builds the perfect agent. It takes three years,
during which time she lives alone in her cell (which she sprayed of graffitis)
with no friends and no contact with the outside world.
Her reliability is first tested on her 23rd birthday. Bob surprises her by
inviting her to a dinner in a real restaurant, the first time that she steps
outside in three years. She is happy and enjoys being a lady in a fancy
restaurant. But Bob has something else in mind. As she opens her birthday
present, she finds a gun and Bob tells her she has to shoot one of the
customers. Her face turns from happiness to shock to grief.
Bob walks out of the restaurant. Nikita takes the gun, shoots her target and
his bodyguards, then follows Bob's instructions to escape.
But it is a dead end: Bob sent her into a trap.
After a wild shoot-out in the kitchen, she dives into the garbage chute.
She gets out alive. It is dark and it is raining. She runs back in the empty
streets, dirty and wet. So much for her birthday dinner.
She finds the building and walks straight into the office of Bob, who makes
no mystery he knew about the trap.
Furious, she tries to hit him, but he explains to her that it was a test,
that she passed it and that she has finally graduated. She kisses him.
The following day she is released from the institute.
She is three years older and has a new name: Josephine. Nikita is officially
dead: the government faked a suicide and even a funeral.
The first thing she does with her freedom is indulge in shopping at a
supermarket and picking up the attractive male cashier, Marco, who becomes her
new boyfriend.
She is truly reformed, no longer a rebel, no longer a junkie, no longer
desperate. In fact, she lives like the average yuppie in a nice flat.
She is tender with her boyfriend and even got attached to Bob (she flies into
his arms when he accepts the invitation to a dinner with her boyfriend,
prenteding to be a relative).
A short "honey moon" with her boyfriend is actually a secret mission.
As he waits in the bedroom, she is busy in the bathroom arming the gun and
aiming it. She waits for orders, then coldly shoots and kills the target,
a woman. Then hides the gun and resumes the conversation with her boyfriend.,
who wants to know her past.
The new assignment is to recover the documents that a diplomat is hiding in
the safe of his embassy. The goal is to find out who is selling the documents
to the spy. It takes six months for Nikita to enter the apartment of the
diplomat's lover (a painter), put him to sleep and search his pockets for the
key to the safe. Unfortunately, something goes wrong and
the agency sends a "cleaner", Victor, a brutal hitman who kills everybody
except her, and makes the corpses disappear using some acid.
Dressed like the diplomat, Nikita enter the embassy, opens the safe
and photographs the documents.
Waiting outside in the car, Victor keeps killing any potential problem.
When a dog attacks Nikita and she has to run out of the building, Victor
is ready to kill the entire staff of the embassy. Nikita is fed up with
violence and cries like a child to get out of there.
Victor manages to drive away, but, wounded, dies a little later.
Nikita, relieved, gets out of the car and walks back to her lover.
Marco has figured out what is going on. She thanks him for loving her and
cries a little more. Now she loves life and wants to live a normal life.
Marco helps her make a deal with Bob and get back her freedom in exchange for
the microfilms.
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Leon/ The Professional (1994) is a heterodox gangster-movie that humanizes the gangster as a simpleton with no family who happens to be a supernatural
fighter while demonizing the police as a corrupt and vile organization.
Furthermore, the vigilante hero and femme fatale is a little girl.
If English is your first language and you could translate my old Italian text, please contact me.
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Leon/ The Professional (1994) e` un gangster-film eterodosso, che presenta il gangster nei panni del personaggio umano e i poliziotti nei panni degli esseri vili e spietati. Come se non bastasse, l'"eroe" giustiziere e` una bambina.
Leon e` un killer un po' eccentrico, che vive solo in un palazzo ed esegue
contratti su consegna. Per conto di un boss italiano, convince un
grassone a lasciare la citta` dopo aver sgominato la sua banda. Poi assiste
impotente e un po' preoccupato all'irruzione dei poliziotti antidroga (DEA)
nell'appartamento di un vicino. Il capo e` uno psicotico e i suoi uomini non
sono meno assatanati. Massacrano l'intera famiglia, compresi i due bambini.
Si salva soltanto la bambina dodicenne, che era andata a fare le spese.
Tornando, si rende conto di cio` che sta accadendo e suona alla porta di Leon:
questo esita, ma alla fine la fa entrare e in tal modo la salva dai poliziotti
che la stanno cercando.
La bambina, Matilda, e` decisa a vendicare la morte dei fratellini. Chiede
a Leon di insegnarle il mestiere e allieta la sua vita solitaria.
Finalmente Matilda scopre il nome e l'indirizzo del poliziotto psicotico e
decide di ucciderlo da se`. Si insinua nell'edificio, ma il poliziotto capisce
che si tratta di una trappola e la sta per uccidere quando un collega gli porta
la notizia che Leon ha ucciso il suo collega. Leon, tornato a casa, trova
una nota di Matilda, che gli dice dove sta andando. Leon prende un taxi,
irrompe nell'edificio della polizia, e libera la bambina.
Ma adesso il poliziotto psicotico e` deciso a incontrare Leon. Capisce che
il killer dev'essere un uomo del boss italiano e costringe questi a dirgli
dove vive. I poliziotti, camuffati in tute nere, fanno irruzione, catturano la
bambina, circondano l'edificio. Leon e` scomparso. Riappare all'improvviso
e comincia a massacrare poliziotti, finche' riesce a liberare la bambina.
Lui si e` sinceramente affezionato a lei e riesce a metterla in salvo in
un condotto dell'aria condizionata. Ma lui non puo` seguirla. La bambina esce
dalla cantina e si incammina verso la casa del boss mafioso. La polizia
usa un razzo per sfondare la porta. Leon si salva indossando una delle loro
tute. I poliziotti lo credono uno di loro, ferito, e lui quasi riesce a uscire
dall'edificio. Ma lo psicotico lo riconosce e gli spara a bruciapelo.
Leon sta morendo ma fa in tempo a togliere la sicura a una delle granate
che ha legato attorno al corpo: lo psicotico salta in aria con lui.
The Fifth Elementh (1996) is a concentrate of
farcical sci-fi parodies (of Star Trek, of Star Wars, of the
Indiana Jones movies). It packs a wild range of spectacles, including a
musical skit.
It is noteworthy that the "supreme being" is a woman and the galactic president is a black man.
Lo stile e` quello semi-parodistico dei Lucas e Spielberg piu` leggeri.
Il film e` un pasticcio confuso a meta` strada fra Star Wars e Indiana Jones.
Besson crea un mondo di fantasia con il production designer Dan
Weil, il director of photography Thierry Arbogast, il visual effects supervisor
Mark Stetson, e i grafici della Digital Domain. La visione di Besson e`
racchiusa piu` nella scenografia e nei costumi che nella sceneggiatura.
La quantita` di dettagli e` impressionante.
Influenzato tanto dai fumetti di "Heavy Metal" quanto dagli scenari apocalittici
di Blade Runner, Besson e` piu` interessato a immaginare il futuro che
a raccontare una storia.
Nel 1914 in Egitto un archeologo scopre geroglifici che spiegano come
il bene puo` difendersi dal male mettendo insieme cinque elementi,
i quattro tradizionali e un quinto, misterioso, che sta nel mezzo.
Un sacerdote capisce che l'archeologo sta per scoprire il segreto che lui
ha custodito per anni e tenta di avvelenarlo. In quel momento
un'astronave atterra nel deserto e i mostri che ne escono, muniti di una chiave,
vengono a prendere quattro pietre custodite nel tempio. I mostri ringraziano il
sacerdote dei suoi servigi ma hanno deciso che la Terra non e` piu` un
posto sicuro per il prezioso segreto. Il sacerdote e` spaventato perche'
non sa come difendersi dal Male senza quelle pietre, ma loro gli promettono
che, quando il Male tornera` in 300 anni, torneranno anche loro.
Uno dei quattro rimane pero` intrappolato nel tempio e riesce soltanto a
passare la chiave al sacerdote. Questi corre per consegnarla agli altri, ma
l'astronave e` gia` decollata.
Trecento anni dopo, un presidente nero fronteggia una crisi galattica:
una grande palla di fuoco minaccia i suoi territori e i suoi consiglieri
militari lo convincono a bombardarla, nonostante un sacerdote lo metta
in guardia. L'effetto del bombardamento e` di ingigantire la palla.
Il sacerdote spiega che la palla di fuoco rappresenta il Male, determinato
a sterminare la vita.
Il sacerdote consiglia adesso di chiedere consiglio ai mostri buoni (quelli
di trecento anni prima), i Mondoshawan, che
vengono pero` sterminati dai mostri cattivi e orrendi, i Mangalores, mercenari al servizio del perfido e ricco Zorg.
I soldati del presidente recuperano il braccio inanimato di uno dei mostri
buoni e gli scienziati riescono a clonarlo nel corpo di una ragazza.
La ragazza rinviene e si libera. Inseguita dalla polizia, salta nel vuoto
(le "strade" sono in cielo, le auto volano) e precipita dentro un taxi.
Il tassista, Korben Dallas, la aiuta a fuggire, rischiando non solo la vita
ma anche la fine della sua carriera di tassista.
Leeloo e` seminuda, parla una lingua incomprensibile ed e` bellissima.
Zorg riporta a Shadow, che risiede nella grande palla di fuoco, il grande Male.
La missione di Zorg e` di recuperare le quattro pietre, di cui nessuno sembra
conoscere l'ubicazione: questa era la missione dei Mangalores quando hanno
attaccato l'astronave dei Mondoshawan.
Leeloo mormora il nome di un sacerdote, Cornelius, quello che lavora per il presidente.
Dallas porta la ragazza dal sacerdote, il quale, rendendosi conto che la ragazza e` l'"essere supremo" ovvero il "quinto elemento", lo ringrazia e lo mette alla porta.
Il sacerdote spiega al suo giovane assistente che
Leeloo parla la
lingua originale dell'universo, e mette la ragazza di fronte a un computer da
cui lei assorbe rapidamente 5000 anni di storia della razza umana.
La ragazza rassicura Cornelius che le quattro pietre mitiche sono al sicuro
in un pianeta distante, Fhloston.
Al tempo stesso i Mondoshawan informano il presidente della stessa cosa: le
pietre sono custodite da una diva d'opera chiamata Plavalaguna su quel pianeta.
Infatti i Mangalores consegnano a Zorg una cassetta vuota, fatto che irrita
Zorg, il quale uccide alcuni dei Mangalores, fatto che irrita i Mangalores che
giurano vendetta: anche loro decidono di scovare la quattro pietre.
Intanto la minaccia della bolla del Male e` cosi` grave che il generale consiglia il presidente
di assumere un ex agente speciale, che si scopre essere proprio Dallas, che
si era dimesso sei mesi prima.
Fanno consegnare a Dallas un biglietto della lotteria, grazie al quale
puo` andare in crociera con Leeloo sul pianeta dove sono custodite le quattro
pietre.
Sia il sacerdote (che vuole salvare il mondo) sia Zorg (che vuole distruggerlo) sia i mostri mercenari (che vogliono ricattare Zorg)
tentano di sostituire un loro uomo a Dallas,
ma Dallas non si fa fregare.
La crociera e` gestita da un presentatore omosessuale nero, da una "drag queen",
Ruby, esuberante e esorbitante.
Il prete Cornelius riesce a nascondersi sull'astronave e arriva anche lui sul
pianeta della diva.
Il clou della crociera e` un'opera cantata da una celebre diva-robot, Plavalaguna.
Durante l'opera i mostri mercenari Mangalores attaccano, invano respinti da Leeloo e Dallas,
con Ruby che comicamente cerca di salvare la pelle e al tempo stesso trasmette
gli avvenimenti dal vivo a tutto il mondo. Il presidente nero ascolta con
trepidazione mentre la bolla del Male continua ad avvicinarsi alla Terra.
Nella carneficina al teatro dell'opera la cantante muore e prima di spirare bisbiglia
a Dallas come salvare il mondo: le pietre sono nascoste dentro di lei e a
salvare il mondo sara` l'amore di Dallas per Leeloo.
Zorg, che deve recuperare le pietre per il grande Male, arriva su una propria astronave e cerca invano le pietre.
Dallas, il sacerdote, il presentatore e Leeloo riescono a fuggire con le pietre, appena in tempo prima che una bomba attivata da un Mangalore morente,
per vendicarsi di Zorg,
faccia esplodere il teatro dell'opera e quindi uccida Zorg.
Intanto la palla di fuoco sta avanzando a velocita` spaventosa verso la Terra
e il presidente ha i minuti contati per fermarla.
Dallas, Leeloo, Cornelius e il suo assistente
si recano nel tempio nel deserto a compiere l'esperimento che potrebbe salvare
il mondo, e impiegano un po' a capire come funzionano le pietre e come
c'entra Leeloo: lei deve stare nel mezzo e funziona soltanto se viene amata.
Non appena Dallas la bacia, si scatena una forza colossale che blocca
la palla di fuoco pochi secondi prima che distrugga la Terra.
Il presidente si reca al laboratorio per ringraziare Dallas di persona, ma
Dallas e Leeloo sono in una camera di rianimazione e stanno facendo l'amore.
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The Messenger (1999) is his version of the story of Joan of Arc.
Angel-A (2005)
Arthur and the Invisibles (2006),
Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard (2009) and
The War of the Two Worlds (2010)
are adaptation of children's books,
partially animated.
Taken (2008)
The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec (2010) is an adatation of a comic book.
The Lady (2011) is a biopic.
Family (2013) is a mafia movie adapted from Tonino Benacquista's novel "Malavita".
Lucy (2014)
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
is the adaptation of a popular graphic novel series by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude M‚ziŠres, "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets"
By the time he made the spy thriller Anna (2019), Besson had become a master of suspenseful
convoluted thrillers, and a master architect of quasi-robotic masculine females.
The film relies on flashbacks to continuously alter the perceived truth.
The Matryoshka dolls is the perfect metaphor for the way Besson structures
the plot: a story within a story within a story...
Of course, it is not very credible that all these Russians talk to each other in fluent English, but the point of the film is not to be plausible.
The film opens in 1990 in Moscow, when five US agents are assassinated by Soviet agents. The cruel head of the KGB asked one of the five to deliver a message
to the CIA and the message consists in... the head of the woman!
The "message" is received by a CIA operative, which later we learn is agent Miller.
A French talent scout is in Moscow looking for beautiful Russian women to launch
at fashion shows. He walks into a market and meets Anna, a beautiful single
girl who sells Matryoshka dolls (dolls that contains dolls that contain...)
Days later Anna is flown to Paris and settled into an apartment where other
aspiring models live, notably the lesbian Maude. Work is intense and touch.
Anna ends up becoming Maude's lover. Anna meets Russian businessman Oleg at a party and they become lovers. One day she coldly shoots him dead.
Obviously she's done it before.
Now the film backtracks to 1987.
Anna is a humble housewife who lives in Moscow with a violent and abusive boyfriend, Pyotr, who rescued her from the street.
Pyotr is a criminal. One day he kidnaps a US citizen and tortures him to
get him to withdraw money from an ATM. Pyotr forces Anna to sit in the car
while he's doing this. The police sees him. Pyotr jumps in the car and runs
away, chased by police cars all over Moscow. Pyotr manages to lose the cops
but tells Anna to pack because they have to leave town in five minutes.
Pyotr doesn't realize that a man has entered their apartment. While Pyotr packs,
the man lectures Anna on making decisions quickly. And then he coldly kills
Pyotr. The man, Alex, reveals that he knows everything about her: she's an
orphan with no family, desperate, alone. But she was a chess prodigy as a
child. He offers her a job at the KGB, an offer that she cannot refuse.
Initially she refuses and slits her wrist, tired of everybody exploiting her, but then he convinces her that in five years she'll be free with a new life.
(Conveniently for us, these two Russians talk to each other in fluent English).
The film now forwards back to 1990. The CIA agent of the early scene, agent Miller, interrogates Anna about the murder of the Russian businessman.
Cameras caught her going in and coming out of the building.
She claim that she waited in vain for the man but he never showed up.
Another flashback, this time to six months earlier, shows us Alex championing
Anna to his superior, a tough old woman named Olga, who is initially skeptical
about Anna, but Alex vouches for Anna's kills after intense training.
They decide to test her in a dangerous operation. They take her to a restaurant
with the mission to assassinate a man. Anna walks in and tries to shoot but
the gun has not been loaded: she has been set up. Nonetheless, Anna manages to
kill scores of bodyguards and eventually kill the boss as instructed (a lengthy
violent sequence). Olga has given her five minutes to carry out the mission,
although it is clearly a mission that requires a lot more time. Olga abandons
Olga, who walks out after six minutes. Five hours later Anna shows up in Olga's
office with the man's office and... apologizes for being late.
Olga gives her a new mission, which consists in impersonating a seller of
Matryoshka dolls. Now we see the French talent scout who just arrived in
Moscow. A friend advises him to try the market. When the scout arrives at
the market, we realize that KGB agents are watching him and that Olga is
alerting Anna. We then see that Olga and her agents were watching when Anna
killed the businessman, every step of the way.
Back in Moscow she becomes Alex's lover. She also meets Olga's boss, the chief
of the KGB, the cruel man we met in the early scene. Anna tells him that she
intends to work for the KGB only for five years, as agreed with Alex, but the
chief pulls out a gun and tells her that the KGB will decide her future or he is
ready to shoot her.
Back in Paris, Maude is happy to see her in a brand new apartment.
They continue their modeling career.
Olga gives Anna a new assignment: to kill a German businessman.
Anna pretends to be a prostitute to get into his hotel room, then we see her
shooting at him and walking out of the room distraught. Olga is watching her
from surveillance cameras. Anna delivers the businessman's briefcase to Olga,
and Olga points out that Anna took unusually long to carry out the killing.
Olga demands that Anna also brings a finger of the businessman, so Anna has
to go back, cut a finger off the man, and brings it to Olga. Now satisfied,
Olga grants her two weeks of vacation in the Bahamas, taking Maude with her.
During the vacation Anna is in a strange mood.
When she returns, Olga gives her new bloody assignments: Anna is a killing
machine (while continuining her modeling career).
One day Olga tells her that the boss wants to see her in Moscow.
Anna flies back, has passionate sex with Alex and then walks into her
appointment with the chief. They play chess, she wins and then she coldly
kills him in front of Alex.
We don't see what happens next because the film rewinds to the assassination
of the German businessman. We now see that she didn't kill him: it was a trap.
Miller's CIA agents were waiting for her and gave her only a few minutes to
agree to switch sides in return for a new identity and a new life in Hawaii.
That's why it took her so long to carry out this killing.
When Olga sent her back to get the man's finger, Miller in person helped her
cut the finger from the helpless businessman.
We also see that Miller followed her to the Bahamas and in fact they became
lovers there, unbeknownst to Maude.
Back in Europe, Anna now is a double agent. Miller wants her to assassinate
the chief of the KGB.
It turns out that, when he became director of the KGB, Olga's boss betrayed
an unwritten rule to respect the CIA agents just like the CIA respected the
KGB agents. Instead the boss killed five of Miller's agents. Miller has plotted
his revenge ever since.
And now we see what happened when she killed the chief, after having wild sex
with Alex. She shot the chief and then paralyzed Alex, sparing his life for
good old days' sake. She was then chased all over the building by KGB agents
while Miller was waiting in vain outside. She never came out and Miller had
to abandon her.
One day Miller receives a message from Anna, giving him an appointment in Paris.
Miller sees that Alex is there too. Anna shows up, kissing Alex first and
Miller next. We see that a lot of CIA agents have followed Miller and a lot of
KGB agents have followed Alex, and Olga is watching everything remotely.
Anna tells them that she wants her freedom. Alex predicts that she won't
survive six months, but she replies that six months of freedom are better
than the slavery she has endured so far.
Anna leaves unharmed, while Miller and Alex point a gun at each other.
Olga walks behind Anna and shoots her.
Her body lies on the ground when French cops arrive.
A new flashback shows us what happened when Anna came back from the Bahamas
vacation. Olga told her that she knew she had joined the CIA: Olga sensed it
when it took so long for her to kill the German businessman. She now wants
Anna to tell her everything that Miller tells her.
And so when Miller asked Anna to kill the chief, Anna told Olga. And Olga,
fascinated by the idea, offered Anna a deal: kill the chief (so that Olga becomes
the new chief) and then leave in peace, forgotten by everybody.
We now see that Olga only pretended to kill Anna. In reality Anna walked away
through a tunnel.
Olga is now sitting at the desk of the chief and found a message from Anna
asking Olga to delete her (Anna's) file from the computer, which Olga does.
Anna also reveals that she taped her private conversation in which Olga asked
her to kill the chief, so that Olga cannot back out of their deal. Olga smiles,
proud of Anna's intelligence.
Dogman (2023)
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