Luc Besson

Biography: life and films

Luc Besson was born in Paris in 1959. He grew up on the Mediterranean coast, in Greece and Yugoslavia, and through his parents, who gave diving lessons, he developed an intense love of the sea and marine life. His dreams of becoming a marine biologist were shattered when he had a diving accident at the age of 17. Having returned to Paris to finish his studies, he developed an interest in cinema and film making, founding his own film-making company Films du loup (which later became Films du Dauphin and then Leeloo Productions).

After his military service, Besson travelled to Hollywood at the age of 19, where he worked as a studio hand. By the time he returned to France, the following year, he was determined to become a film maker. He worked as an assistant on a number of films, working with such directors as Patrick Grandperret, Claude Faraldo, Maurice Pialat and Régis Wargnier.

Besson was 20 when he made his first film in 1980, a short film in black and white entitled L'avant-dernier. This first film, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama, won a number of prizes and, encouraged, Besson re-made it as his first long film, Le dernier combat. This film won Besson a brace of prizes, including two prizes at the Avoriaz science fiction film festival in 1983.

Besson's next film was Subway, an atmospheric black comedy set in the Paris Metro and populated, as in many of Besson's subsequent films, by social outcasts. This was to be the first in a series of major box office successes, and the film won an astonishing 13 César nominations.

Even greater success followed with Besson's next film in 1988, The Big Blue. With this film, Besson was able to revisit his happy childhood and draw on his passion for the sea. The film, his first to be made in English, has an astonishing commercial success in Europe (in fact, it was the highest grossing film in France at the time, attracting nine million spectators). It won four Césars and was praised by the critics. However, clumsy editing (involving removing one hour of film and a drastic change to the ending) resulted in the film having no impact in the United States.

1990 saw the release of Nikita, the first in a series of highly popular action films which would achieve cult status. These are the films with which Besson is probably most associated today. Nikita starred his then wife Anne Parillaud playing a drug-addict social drop out who is trained to become a lethal secret agent. The film was so successful that it inspired an American re-make starring Bridget Fonda and a television series (neither of which had the power and style of Besson's original film).

In 1991, Luc Besson returned to his love of the sea with Atlantis, a film that had similarities to The Big Blue, and included some astounding marine photography.

Next, in 1994, came Besson's most contentious film to date, Léon, also known as The Professional. The film is about a young girl who forms a friendship with a professional hitman so that she can avenge the death of her family, ruthlessly killed by drugs traffickers. With some fast-moving, adrenaline-pumping action scenes, the film established Besson as France's most capable director of the action movie genre. However, the graphic images of carnage and, worse, the undercurrent of paedophilia, made it easy pickings for the censors and critics alike.

Besson had a far easier ride with the censors for his next film, The Fifth Element, a lavish, tongue-in-cheek science fiction extravaganza based on a story he wrote when he was a teenager. Although the critics were divided, the film was enormously popular and quickly acquired a world-wide cult following. Besson won a Cesar in 1998 (the best director award) for this film. Through The Fifth Element, Besson met Milla Jovovich, whom he would marry (although the marriage soon ended in divorce) and cast for the leading role in his next film, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc.

This film was the latest in a long line of doomed film adaptations of the story of the French heroine Joan of Arc. Luc Besson was no more successful than his predecessors. Panned by the critics and shunned by cinema-goers, the film was Besson's first commercial failure, although it contains some impressive production values (most notably some stunning recreations of the battle scenes).

Although Luc Besson is most visible for his work as a director, he is also pursuing a successful career as a producer. His productions include Gérard Pirès's 1997 box office hit, Taxi, and the 1997 film Nil by Mouth, directed by his close friend Gary Oldman.

Luc Besson's output as a film director has not been enormous but his influence and presence on world cinema has been phenomenal. Loyally served by his favourite actors, including Jean Reno, Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman and Milla Jovovich, he has created some major works of cinema, distinguished by a strong visual style and an astounding creative flair. Alternating between a childish sense of fun and a voyeuristic relish of danger, his films are simultaneously shocking and intensely compelling.

Filmography

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