Léon (film)

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Léon
Official promotional poster
Directed by	Luc Besson
Produced by	Patrice Ledoux
Written by	Luc Besson
Starring	Jean Reno Natalie Portman Gary Oldman Danny Aiello
Music by	Eric Serra
Cinematography	Thierry Arbogast
Editing by	Sylvie Landra
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures Gaumont
Release date(s)	14 September 1994 18 November 1994 3 February 1995
Running time	110 min (theatrical) 136 min ('version intégrale')
Language	English
Budget	₣115 million (est.)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Léon (aka The Cleaner, The Professional, or Léon the Professional) is a 1994 film written and directed by French director Luc Besson. It stars Jean Reno and Gary Oldman, as well as Natalie Portman in her first starring role.

[edit] Plot

Léon (Jean Reno) is a lonely and emotionally detached hitman. He lives a solitary life and spends his time watching musicals in between training and taking assassin jobs for Italian mobster Tony (Danny Aiello). Léon is seen in a cinema, watching a musical with faint amazement at the joie de vivre depicted by the film's characters, something he himself is unable to express. He meets Mathilda (Natalie Portman), a twelve-year-old girl who lives with an abusive family in the same apartment building. After corrupt DEA agents, headed by agent Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman), kill Mathilda's family, Léon saves Mathilda by grudgingly opening his apartment door to let her in with the groceries.

Mathilda then pressures Léon into taking care of her, since she has nowhere to go. She tries to convince him to teach her his trade so she can avenge her brother's murder. In return, she offers herself to do all his house work. After an initial one night stay at his apartment, Léon accepts her offer. Working together, the two slowly build an emotional attachment to each other, with Léon becoming both Mathilda's friend and also a father figure. In taking care of her, Léon begins to find something more meaningful in his life than his job.

As Mathilda gains confidence, she tails Stansfield and enters the DEA building in an attempt to kill him. She is caught by him and held as a captive by his cronies. Léon finds a letter of her intent on revenge and heads to the building. He rescues her, killing a number of Stansfield's men in the process. At this point, Mathilda is desparate for revenge and Leon becomes sympathetic to her situation. He begins to assassinate the rest of Stansfield's men. Stansfield becomes enraged by the "Italian Hitman" and confronts Tony, who gives up Léon's whereabouts. As Mathilda returns home from grocery shopping, a SWAT team, headed by Stansfield, is waiting for her. Léon and the SWAT team battle and he leads Mathilda to safety by sending her down a ventilation shaft in the apartment kitchen. As he tells her to go on, Léon expresses his love for her and how they will meet up and live a normal life together.

As Mathilda escapes the apartment and heads down the block amidst the large police presence, Léon is left behind. He uses the confusion of a flashbang grenade to steal a vest and mask from a fallen SWAT member. The SWAT that rushes in sees him wearing the uniform and assumes he is a SWAT member. He is ushered out of the smoke filled apartment. Seeing an oppourtunity to slip out unnoticed, Léon takes off out the building, where is spotted by Stansfield. Stansfield sneaks up behind Léon and shoots him in the back of the head. As Léon lies in a pool of blood, Stansfield has a chance to speak with Léon face to face before he dies. During their exchange, Léon reveals the pulled pin of a grenade that is strapped to his chest, which explodes and kills the two. Mathilda is then seen returning back to school as the film ends.

[edit] Production

Léon is to some extent an English-language variation on the theme of Besson's earlier film, Nikita. Besson has said he considers Jean Reno's character of Léon to be a more human "cousin" of Victor in Nikita.^[1] According to Luc Besson's first script-draft, the hitman's full name is Leone Montana (making him of Italian origin), abbreviated to Léon. The acute accent is due to the influence of Besson's mother-tongue, French. [1]

'Leon's' apartment building in Manhattan on 97th street and inside the store from which he buys his two quarts of milk. Feb. 2005.

Across the street from 'Leon's' apartment building and local store. Photo taken Feb. 2005, 12 years after the movie was shot.

[edit] Cast

Mathilda plays Russian roulette

• Jean Reno as Léon Montana
• Natalie Portman as Mathilda Lando
• Gary Oldman as DEA Agent Norman Stansfield
• Danny Aiello as Tony

[edit] Version intégrale

There exists a longer edition of the movie, often referred to as the director's cut, "international version" or "version intégrale", that has approximately twenty minutes of additional footage that was removed from the original cut in response to American test screenings.^{[citation needed]} The additional material is found in the film's second act, and somewhat alters the tenor of Léon and Mathilda's relationship by delving more obviously into the notion that their interaction is more than just between a father figure and a daughter. In one scene, Mathilda plays Russian Roulette to try and get Léon to admit he loves her; in another, she openly asks him to be her first lover (the two are seen waking up in bed together after he refuses, though only the version intégrale gives the proper context to the scene by showing them falling asleep in the first place). Most of the other material in the longer cut involves Mathilda actually accompanying Léon on several of his hits; while she is never shown actually pulling the trigger of a real gun, she is obviously at least an accessory to several murders.

Luc Besson often releases extended versions of his movies after their original theatrical runs. They are usually called "long versions", or "version longue", and get limited runs in normal cinemas of large cities. The existence of an extended version does not necessarily indicate the original one having been somehow censored, although in Léon's case the shorter original edit was done minding the American audience.^{[citation needed]} Besson does not consider that cut defective or corrupt in any way, however, just more condensed and less elaborate.^{[citation needed]} Extended versions are targeted at fans who endure and enjoy a slower-paced show, Eric Serra's music and the general climate, like in The Big Blue.^{[citation needed]} Léon received its theatrical release in France and worldwide as the normal version, not the longer cut.

The "version longue" of Léon was show in 1996 in French cinemas (followed by VHS), and released - as "version intégrale" - on LaserDisc and later Region 2 DVD in Japan. It appeared as the "international version" on Region 1 DVD in North America in 2000, and was re-issued in 2005.

[edit] Parodies, remakes and homages

Hong Kong comedian Stephen Chow starred in a semi-parody of Leon called Out of the Dark, directed by Lau Jan Wai, in which Chow plays a ghost hunter who assassinates ghosts in a haunted building. Many scenes and elements are reminiscent of the original Leon, albeit poorly executed and campy. The Chow character is dressed in black trench coat with sunglasses and a black baseball cap (instead of Leon's skullcap) and he carries a sunflower pot, while his co-actress Karen Mok plays an older looking Mathilda complete with short skirt and similar hairstyle to Natalie Portman.

There is Bollywood remake of the film called Bichhoo, which stars Bobby Deol and Rani Mukherjee. The character of Mathilda, played by Mukherjee, has been altered significantly, as she is now 20 years old and is in a relationship with the protagonist. [2]

The Hong Kong action movie, Fulltime Killer, references The Professional in one scene, among other popular action films.

Noir is a 26 25-minute episodes Japanese anime which is inspired by Leon and Nikita. The story tells about two young female assassins who are teaming up together in an uneasy partnership to search answers about their mysterious pasts. One of the lead character, Mireille Bouquet, can be seen as a grown-up version of Mathilda Lando. She lost her family in a brutal murder just like Mathilda, and she keeps a plant like Leon. The show was a success in Japan, very well-received by anime and non-anime fans alike. It has been broadcast in France by CANALPLUS, dubbed in French, and receive similar success.

Leon S. Kennedy, a fictional character from the Resident Evil game series, was cited as being based on Léon himself by the series producer, Capcom. The character of Leon S. Kennedy was revamped for the recently released game Resident Evil 4, as he was no longer a police officer, but a trained operative working under the President of the United States. His new character shares characteristics of Léon, as the game shares characteristics of the movie, with the President's daughter, Ashley Graham, taking a Mathilda-esque role, though not for the same reasons. In addition, one can obtain a bonus weapon upon completion of the game; it is visibly a Heckler & Koch VP70, but is known within the game as the "Matilda."

[edit] Reference

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Léon

• Léon at the Internet Movie Database
• LEON - A Luc Besson film; includes discussion of the version intégrale