1. Léon: The Professional
Currently known as a cult film, Léon: The Professional was written and directed in 1994 by Luc Besson and stars French actor Jean Reno as the titular Léon. The film is an action-thriller, and also features Gary Oldman as the antagonistic Norman Stansfield, whilst serving as the feature-film debut of American actress Natalie Portman. Without exaggeration, Léon: The Professional is a cinematic masterpiece. Luc Besson crafted a moving and well-paced story into a visually stylistic and emotionally powerful film. The coupling of Jean Reno with Natalie Portman in the leading roles produces a dynamic duo which despite its oddity works incredibly well. The film is set in New York City, and follows the story of assassin Léon, played by Reno, whose extraordinary life is added another complication in the form of Mathilda, played by Portman. Mathilda's family are killed by Gary Oldman's corrupt DEA officer Stansfield, and together, Léon and Mathilda work together to try and bring justice and normality to their two disrupted lives. The film was the brainchild of Luc Besson, and can be seen to be an extension of his successful film Nikita. In Nikita, Jean Reno appears as a near-identical character, playing a lethal assassin, Victor, operating in the French underworld. In Léon: The Professional, he plays the same role, though Besson himself acknowledges there is a key difference. "Now maybe Jean is playing the American cousin of Victor. This time he's more human." The humanised Léon is a compelling character, and together with Natalie Portman's Mathilda, an innocent yet violent relationship is formed. Stylistically the film can be seen to draw upon the values of Cinéma du look. The visual realisation of New York City is crisp yet the emotive drama is jagged. There is an edginess to the story which is appealing, and the young protagonist of Mathilda makes for a unique action hero. The exploration of the themes of love, death and justice are produced with the stylish European flair of Besson, but the film is unmistakeably Americanised. The blurring of boundaries between French and American film-making produces an oddly evocative sense of Trans-Atlanticism, which is compounded by the fact that Besson filmed the interior shots in studios in France, and exterior shots on location in Manhattan. The creativity of Luc Besson is once again brought into focus, as he points out that the entire idea of assassins, urban shoot-outs and corrupt DEA officials are purely from his own imagination. In a behind the scenes interview, he points out that when he makes stories, he simply writes what comes to him. Referring to his childhood of growing up among Mediterranean islands and clear blue seas, a stark contrast to the cityscape of Léon, he simply states that he is a storyteller. Léon: The Professional is a brilliant film, and from a personal perspective, it is Luc Besson's definitive work. For all of the fans of great cinema, and for those unaware of Luc Besson, there is no better place to start than by watching Léon. There are of course, a huge amount of films which Besson has produced, directed or written, so I would love to hear your favourites. Please feel free to comment below, and perhaps suggest other lesser-known film-makers who go relatively unacknowledged.