Besson, Luc

Leon - The Professional (Deluxe Edition)

Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) made his American directorial debut with this stylized thriller about a French hit man (Jean Reno) who takes in an American girl (Natalie Portman) being pursued by a corrupt killer cop (Gary Oldman). Oldman is a little more unhinged than he should be, but there is something genuinely irresistible about the story line and the relationship between Reno and Portman. Rather than cave in to the cookie-cutter look and feel of American action pictures, Besson brings a bit of his glossy style from French hits La Femme Nikita and Subway to the production, and the results are refreshing even if the bullets and explosions are awfully familiar. --Tom Keogh

Gary Oldman Jean Reno Natalie Portman and Danny Aiello star in LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL a go-for-broke thriller about a professional assassin whose work becomes dangerously personal. Calling himself a "cleaner" the mysterious Leon (Reno) is New York's top hitman. When his next-door neighbors are murdered Leon becomes the unwilling guardian of the family's sole survivor - 12-year-old Mathilda but Mathilda doesn't just want protection; she wants revenge. Training her in the deadly tricks of his trade Leon helps her track the psychotic agent (Oldman) who murdered her family.System Requirements:Running Time: 133 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating: NR UPC: 043396098589 Manufacturer No: 09858

The Fifth Element

Ancient curses, all-powerful monsters, shape-changing assassins, scantily-clad stewardesses, laser battles, huge explosions, a perfect woman, a malcontent hero--what more can you ask of a big-budget science fiction movie? Luc Besson's high-octane film incorporates presidents, rock stars, and cab drivers into its peculiar plot, traversing worlds and encountering some pretty wild aliens. Bruce Willis stars as a down-and-out cabbie who must win the love of Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) to save Earth from destruction by Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman) and a dark, unearthly force that makes Darth Vader look like an Ewok. --Geoff Riley

The Fifth Element (Ultimate Edition)

Ancient curses, all-powerful monsters, shape-changing assassins, scantily-clad stewardesses, laser battles, huge explosions, a perfect woman, a malcontent hero--what more can you ask of a big-budget science fiction movie? Luc Besson's high-octane film incorporates presidents, rock stars, and cab drivers into its peculiar plot, traversing worlds and encountering some pretty wild aliens. Bruce Willis stars as a down-and-out cabbie who must win the love of Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) to save Earth from destruction by Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman) and a dark, unearthly force that makes Darth Vader look like an Ewok. --Geoff Riley

Ancient curses, all-powerful monsters, shape-changing assassins, scantily-clad stewardesses, laser battles, huge explosions, a perfect woman, a malcontent hero--what more can you ask of a big-budget science fiction movie? Luc Besson's high-octane film incorporates presidents, rock stars, and cab drivers into its peculiar plot, traversing worlds and encountering some pretty wild aliens. Bruce Willis stars as a down-and-out cabbie who must win the love of Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) to save Earth from destruction by Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman) and a dark, unearthly force that makes Darth Vader look like an Ewok. --Geoff Riley

New York cab driver Korben Dallas didn't mean to be a hero but he just picked up the kind of fare that only comes along every five thousand years: a perfect beauty a perfect being a perfect weapon. Now together they must save the world. Bruce Willis Milla Jovovich and Gary Oldman star in acclaimed director Luc Besson's outrageous sci-fi adventure an extravagantly styled tale of good against evil set in an unbelievable twenty-third century world.System Requirements:Running Time: 126 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396074385 Manufacturer No: 07438

The Professional

Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) made his American directorial debut with this stylized thriller about a French hit man (Jean Reno) who takes in an American girl (Natalie Portman) being pursued by a corrupt killer cop (Gary Oldman). Oldman is a little more unhinged than he should be, but there is something genuinely irresistible about the story line and the relationship between Reno and Portman. Rather than cave in to the cookie-cutter look and feel of American action pictures, Besson brings a bit of his glossy style from French hits La Femme Nikita and Subway to the production, and the results are refreshing even if the bullets and explosions are awfully familiar. --Tom Keogh

Leon - The Professional (Uncut International Version)

Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) made his American directorial debut with this stylized thriller about a French hit man (Jean Reno) who takes in an American girl (Natalie Portman) being pursued by a corrupt killer cop (Gary Oldman). Oldman is a little more unhinged than he should be, but there is something genuinely irresistible about the story line and the relationship between Reno and Portman. Rather than cave in to the cookie-cutter look and feel of American action pictures, Besson brings a bit of his glossy style from French hits La Femme Nikita and Subway to the production, and the results are refreshing even if the bullets and explosions are awfully familiar. --Tom Keogh

Angel-A

It's a Wonderful Life meets Wings of Desire in French director Luc Besson's Angel-A, a surprisingly charming fable of low-life redemption. The low-life in question is André (Jamel Debbouze, from Amelie), a mousy, disheveled Parisian scam artist who's deeply in debt to various underworld thugs. Suicide seems like the best available option, but just as he's about to leap into the Seine, he encounters Angela (Danish model/actress/filmmaker Rie Rasmussen), a leggy blonde beauty who's going to change André's life in ways he never expected. Filmed in gorgeous black and white in a shimmering Paris that seems almost completely depopulated (most of the filming took place in early-morning sunlight), Angel-A is a rough-edged yet ultimately sweet-natured tale of two chatty characters who find new hope through mutual devotion, and that's likely to disappoint any Besson fans who are expecting another high-octane crime thriller like Leon--The Professional. And yet, Besson's tenth film has a light, feathery quality that works in its favor, even when the characters lack interest and their scenes together grow slightly redundant. Debbouze is perfectly cast as a likable loser who deserves a break, and Rasmussen (who memorably appeared in Brian De Palma's Femme Fatale, wearing nothing but lavish diamonds and a killer smile) is, to say the least, angelically seductive. How well you respond to this romantic fantasy will depend on how attracted you are to these characters, but if you give Angel-A a chance, you might find it to be a worthy companion to Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, two other appealing films about love in the City of Lights. --Jeff Shannon

From the director of The Professional and The Fifth Element comes a stunning sexy tribute to the healing power of love. When Andr a down-on-his-luck gambler dives into the icy Seine to end it all he winds up instead rescuing Angela a gorgeous mysterious blonde. Filled with renewed passion for life they set out to settle Andr 's scores as they wander the City of Lights. Along the way Andr finds himself but he still has some questions about his leggy lovely companion -can she really be as heavenly as she seems? Filled with wit warmth and eye-popping visuals ANGEL-A shows just how high you can soar when passion takes flight.System Requirements:Run Time: 91 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: R UPC: 043396183773

The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc

1999 may be remembered as the year of Joan of Arc: NBC created a miniseries in her honor, Carl Dreyer's long-lost The Passion of Joan of Arc was discovered in a mental hospital, and Facets re-released Jacques Rivette's Joan the Maid. Luc Besson rounds out the corpus with his stylistic and vaguely heretical grand-scale feature, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc.

Besson (La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element) challenges established notions about the Maid of Orleans as he creates a decidedly more human heroine than have previous biopics. The story line is the same--a young, illiterate peasant girl convinces the dauphin of France to give her an army, and she leads them to victory in Orleans, only to be burned at the stake for heresy--but Milla Jovovich, in the title role, is a woman possessed. Her influences are less than heavenly; as a child she witnesses the murder of her sister by the English, a death caused by the sister's giving her hiding place to young Joan, which causes an intense desire for revenge. Yes, God still speaks to Joan, but even this is undermined, as Dustin Hoffman, playing The Conscience, questions her motives.

Cinematically, The Messenger is stunning, with fantastical sequences of Joan in communication with higher powers. Yet the graphic violence (scenes include random decapitation and a dog gnawing on a body); the uneven accents, which make it difficult to tell who is fighting on which side; and the rewriting of lore may make this version of Joan of Arc appeal only to Besson fans. Jovovich is convincing, and while at times the film may drag (at times you wish they'd hurry up and burn her), it is a remarkable and insightful retelling of a well-known piece of history. --Jenny Brown

The Big Blue (Director's Cut)

A hit in Europe but a flop in the U.S.--where it was trimmed, rescored, and given a new ending--Luc Besson's The Big Blue has endured as a minor cult classic for its gorgeous photography (both on land and underwater) and dreamy ambiance. Jean-Marc Barr is a sweet and sensitive but passive presence as Jacques, a diver with a unique connection to the sea. He has the astounding ability to slow his heartbeat and his circulation on deep dives, "a phenomenon that's only been observed in whales and dolphins… until now," remarks one scientist. Kooky New York insurance adjuster Joanna (Rosanna Arquette at her most delightfully flustered and endearingly sexy best) melts after falling into his innocent baby blues, and she follows him to Italy, where he's continuing a lifelong competition with boyhood rival Enzo (Jean Reno in a performance both comic and touching).

Besson's first English-language production looks more European than Hollywood, and it suffers from a tin ear for the language. At times it feels more like an IMAX undersea documentary than a drama about free divers, but the lush and lovely images create a fairy tale dimension to Jacques's story, a veritable Little Merman. More dolphin than man, he's so torn between earthly love and aquatic paradise that even his dreams call him to the sea (in a sequence more eloquent than any speech).

Besson has expanded the film by 50 minutes for his director's cut, which adds little story but slows the contemplative pace until it practically floats in time, and has restored Eric Serra's synthesizer-heavy score, a slice of 1980s pop that at times borders on disco kitsch. Most importantly, he has restored his original ending, which echoes the fairy tale he tells Joanna earlier in the film and leaves the story floating in the inky blackness of ambiguity. --Sean Axmaker

Experience the peril and intensity of free-diving the world s most dangerous sport in The Big Blue. Jacques (Jean-Marc Barr Breaking The Waves) and his friendly rival Enzo (Jean Reno The Professional) are considered masters of free-diving and have made a career out of this one-of-a-kind competition. Jacques life-long obsession with diving comes from his unusual bond with the sea while Enzo thrives on the challenges of its inherent danger. In his travels Jacques meets Johanna (Rosanna Arquette Pulp Fiction) who is attracted to his innocent qualities and follows him across Europe to share his adventures triumphs and ultimately tragic bond with Enzo. With breathtaking underwater photography and matching musical support from Eric Serra (The Fifth Element) The Big Blue immerses you in a life and death adventure you ll never forget.System Requirements:Starring: Rosanna Arquette Jean-Marc Barr and Jean Reno. Directed By: Luc Besson. Running Time: 168 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2000 Columbia TriStar Home Video.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 043396039278 Manufacturer No: 3927

La Femme Nikita (Special Edition)

French director Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) broke the commercial taboo against female-driven action movies with this seminal, seductively slick film about a violent street punk (Anne Parillaud) trained to become a smooth, stylish assassin. Though it amounts, in the end, to little more than disposable pop, the film has a cohesiveness in style and tone--akin to the early James Bond films--that gives it a sense of integrity. Parillaud is compelling both as a wild child and chic-but-lethal pro (trained in good manners by none other than Jeanne Moreau). Tchéky Karyo is also good as the cop mentor who develops feelings for her. --Tom Keogh

The Fifth Element (Superbit Collection)

Ancient curses, all-powerful monsters, shape-changing assassins, scantily-clad stewardesses, laser battles, huge explosions, a perfect woman, a malcontent hero--what more can you ask of a big-budget science fiction movie? Luc Besson's high-octane film incorporates presidents, rock stars, and cab drivers into its peculiar plot, traversing worlds and encountering some pretty wild aliens. Bruce Willis stars as a down-and-out cabbie who must win the love of Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) to save Earth from destruction by Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman) and a dark, unearthly force that makes Darth Vader look like an Ewok. --Geoff Riley

Ancient curses, all-powerful monsters, shape-changing assassins, scantily-clad stewardesses, laser battles, huge explosions, a perfect woman, a malcontent hero--what more can you ask of a big-budget science fiction movie? Luc Besson's high-octane film incorporates presidents, rock stars, and cab drivers into its peculiar plot, traversing worlds and encountering some pretty wild aliens. Bruce Willis stars as a down-and-out cabbie who must win the love of Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) to save Earth from destruction by Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman) and a dark, unearthly force that makes Darth Vader look like an Ewok. --Geoff Riley

New York cab driver Korben Dallas didn't mean to be a hero. But he just picked up the kind of fare that only comes along every five thousand years a perfect beauty a perfect being a perfect weapon. Now together they must save the world. Bruce Willis Milla Jovovich and Gary Oldman star in acclaimed director Luc Besson's outrageous sci-fi adventure an extravagantly styled tale of good against evil set in an unbelievable twenty-third century world.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396075740 Manufacturer No: 07574