10 Accidental Masterpieces From Otherwise Bad Directors

6. Leon: The Professional €“ Luc Besson

Luc Besson may not be an obvious choice for this list. Certainly, his film Leon: The Professional is his greatest piece of work, telling the story of a hit-man who befriends and mentors a young girl who is orphaned by the very men he is trying to assassinate. Besson's portrayal of the relationship by this hardened hit man (Jean Reno) and a young, vulnerable girl (a young Natalie Portman) is both complex and touching. Their relationship treads delicately as the realities of the pending violence loom's around them in the face of a crooked-cop, played deliciously by Gary Oldman. Besson's other significant film, The Fifth Element, is a toss-up. It has polarized many audiences: some seeing it as the greatest sci-fi film since Star Wars while others see it as self-indulgent drivel drowning in its own excesses. While the masterpiece here is Leon: The Professional, The Fifth Element hovers somewhere between classic sci-fi and overbearing sci-fi pulp. Other than these two films, Besson has given the world a decent list of mostly forgettable cinema fair: films ranging from ambitious epics like The Messenger: The Story Of Joan Of Arc to last year's risible crime comedy The Family. In the twenty years since Leon: The Professional, his name has long been removed from the list of hot, young directors and he has since been relegated to just another name in the pile.