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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Léon (film)

Léon (also known as The Professional and Léon: The Professional) is a French-producedEnglish-language 1994 thriller film written and directed by French director Luc Besson. It starsJean Reno as a mob hitman, Gary Oldman as a psychotic DEA detective, and a young Natalie Portman, in her feature film debut, as a 12-year-old girl who is taken in by the hitman after her family is murdered by corrupt police agents.



Summary

Leone "Léon" Montana (Jean Reno) is a hitman (or "cleaner," as he refers to himself) living a solitary life in New York City's Little Italy. His work comes from a mafioso named Tony (Danny Aiello), who operates from the "Supreme Macaroni Company" restaurant. Léon spends his idle time engaging in calisthenics, nurturing a houseplant that early on he describes as his "best friend,"[3] and (in one scene) watching old Gene Kelly musicals.
On a particular day on his way home, he sees Mathilda Lando (Natalie Portman), a twelve-year-old girl with a black eye and smoking a cigarette, living with her dysfunctional family in an apartment down the hallway. Her abusive father and self-involved mother aren't even aware that Mathilda has stopped attending class at her upscale school.
Mathilda's father (Michael Badalucco) attracts the ire of corrupt DEA agents, who have been paying him to store cocaine in his residence, after they discover that he has been stealing some of the drugs for himself. A cadre of DEA agents storm the building, led by a sharp-suited and drug-addicted Norman "Stan" Stansfield (Gary Oldman), who murders Mathilda's entire family, missing her only because she was out shopping when they arrived. When she returns and notices the carnage, she calmly continues down the hallway and receives sanctuary from a reluctant Léon.
Mathilda discovers that Léon is a hitman. She begs him to become her caretaker and to teach her his skills as a "cleaner;" she wants to avenge the murder of her four-year-old brother, the only member of her family she loved. Léon shows her how to use firearms, including a scoped rifle. In return, she offers her services as a maid and teacher, remedying Léon's illiteracy. Mathilda admits to Léon several times that she is falling in love with him, but he says nothing back.
After increasing her experience with firearms, Mathilda fills a shopping bag with guns from Léon's collection and sets out to kill Stansfield. She bluffs her way into the DEA office by posing as a delivery person, only to be ambushed by Stansfield in a bathroom. Léon, discovering her intentions in a note left for him, rushes to rescue Mathilda, shooting two of Stansfield's men in the process.
Stansfield is enraged that what he calls the "Italian hitman" has gone rogue. He threatens Tony, coercing him into surrendering Léon's whereabouts. As soon as Mathilda returns home from grocery shopping, an NYPD ESU team, sent by Stansfield, takes her hostage and attempts to infiltrate Léon's apartment. Léon ambushes the ESU team and barters one agent for Mathilda's freedom. In the apartment, Léon creates a quick escape for Matilda by chopping a hole in a slender air shaft. He reassures her and tells her that he loves her, moments before the police come for him.
In the chaos that follows, Léon sneaks out of the apartment building disguised as a wounded ESU officer. He is unnoticed save for Stansfield, who recognizes the hitman and shoots him. Stansfield jeers him haughtily. Léon places an object in Stansfield's hands, which he explains is "from Mathilda," then he dies. Opening his hands, Stansfield recognizes it as the pin from a grenade. He rips open Léon's vest to discover several grenades on his chest, right before a massive explosion kills him.
Mathilda heads to Tony's place as she was instructed to do by Léon. Tony will not give Mathilda more than a small amount of the fortune Léon had amassed, which Tony was holding for him. He offers a monthly allowance and says school should be her priority for now. Mathilda asks Tony to give her a job, insisting that she can "clean" as Léon had. Tony sternly informs her that he "ain't got no work for a 12-year-old kid!"
Having nowhere else to go, Mathilda makes her way to New Jersey in an attempt to return to school. After telling her and Léon's story to the headmistress, and seemingly being readmitted, Mathilda walks into a field near the school with Léon's houseplant in hand. She digs a hole and plants it, as she had told Léon he should, "to give it roots."
Léon & Mathilda's apartment building on the northwest corner of E 97th St & Park Ave (February 2005)

[edit]Cast

[edit]Production

Léon is to some extent an expansion of an idea in Besson's earlier 1990 film, La Femme Nikita (in some countries Nikita). In the older filmJean Reno played a similar character named Victor. Besson described Léon as "Now maybe Jean is playing the American cousin of Victor. This time he's more human."[4]
While most of the interior footage was shot in France, the rest of the film was shot on location in New York. The final scene at the school was filmed at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. [5]

[edit]Critical response

The film was well-received critically and commercially. On Rotten Tomatoes the film is "certified fresh" with an aggregate rating of 77% based on 38 reviews.[6]
Some aspects of the film were criticized. Roger Ebert offered a mostly positive review, but wrote: "Always at the back of my mind was the troubled thought that there was something wrong about placing a 12-year-old character in the middle of this action." "In what is essentially an exercise—a slick urban thriller—it seems to exploit the youth of the girl without really dealing with it."[7] On the show At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger EbertGene Siskel harshly criticised the film, calling it a "truly annoying picture, all style, no substance, all fake emotion and even questionable in its would-be sexy portrayal of a pre-teenage girl."[8] Gary Oldman's overstated performance as corrupt DEA officer Norman Stansfield divided critical opinion upon the film's release. Richard Schickel, for example, praised the performance as "divinely psychotic,"[9] while the Deseret News' Chris Hicks, one of its many detractors, called it "utterly ridiculous."[10] Mark Deming at Allmovieadopted a neutral stance, describing it as "a love-it-or-hate-it, over-the-top turn."[11] Director Luc Besson was pleased with the performance, leading to his hiring Oldman for 1997's The Fifth Element.[12] In 2002, Stansfield was ranked #43 in the Online Film Critics Society's "Top 100 Villains of All Time."[13]

[edit]Versions

There is also a long version of the film, referred to as "international version" or "version intégrale". Containing 25 minutes of additional footage, it is sometimes called the "Director's Cut" but Besson refers to the original version as the Director's Cut and the new version as "The Long Version".[14]
According to Luc Besson, this is the version he wanted to release, but for the fact that the extra scenes tested poorly with L.A. preview audiences. The additional material is found in the film's second act, and it depicts more of the interactions and relationship between Léon and Mathilda, as well as explicitly demonstrating how Mathilda accompanies Léon on several of his hits as "a full co-conspirator," to further her training as a contract killer.[15]
The new scenes[16] include:
  1. Mathilda telling Léon she is 18 years old.
  2. Mathilda threatening to shoot herself playing Russian roulette if Léon doesn't teach her how to become a killer.
  3. Léon taking Mathilda to meet Tony.
  4. Léon and Mathilda hitting a drug dealer's home, with Mathilda setting fire to his supply of drugs with rubbing alcohol.
  5. A montage of training missions where Mathilda learns the ropes of becoming an assassin.
  6. Léon and Matilda celebrating her first hit at a restaurant, where she gets drunk.
  7. Léon explaining why he left Italy and went to New York at the age of 19.
  8. Mathilda asking Léon to be her lover (with Léon refusing, saying "I wouldn't be a very good lover").
  9. Mathilda and Léon sleeping next to each other in a bed.



Léon: Version Intégrale was released in France in 1996; in the U.S. it was released on DVD as Léon: The Professional in 2000. Both versions contain the additional footage

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