LEON
France/US, 1994, 106 minutes, Colour.
Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, Gary Oldman, Danny Aiello.
Directed by Luc Besson.
Leon is a very striking film and made quite an impact in its time. Luc Besson had been making interesting films for adults including Subway, The Big Blue, La Femme Nikita. After Leon he was to make his Joan of Arc film, The Messenger. However, after that, with his own company, he spent more than a decade thinking up action stories, producing them and directing only a few: the Transporter series, Unleashed, Taken, From Paris with Love.
The film is a focus on hit men in New York City with Jean Reno excellent as the loner who is expert in despatching people but lives alone, enjoys watching Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain, is unable to write, communicates with his contact, Danny Aiello, who gives him the contracts. Where he lives is a family involved in drugs, with Michael Badalucco as the father. Their little daughter, played by Natalie Portman (who was to move into a significant adult career as an actress and sometime director). At twelve, she is more than precocious, sitting out on the stairs, smoking, observing everything.
When Gary Oldman, as a rather deranged DEA officer, massacres the family, he misses out on Matilda who is out shopping. She is saved by Leon. With her family gone, she begins to depend on Leon as a father figure, teaching him to read, in return he is teaching her how to be a Cleaner, explaining all the weapons, going to Central Park and targeting people.
Some audiences found the film very difficult in this relationship between the older man and the little girl, especially as she tells the hotel proprietor that he is her lover. However, while infatuated with Leon, he is an anchor in her world. She is over-precocious, has a use of strong language, is skilful with guns – and ultimately tracks down the murderer of her family and leads to a confrontation.
The film is interesting in its re-creation of New York City, the lonely Frenchman as a hit man in this alien city, the little girl who comes to depend on him, growing up far too fast for her own good.
1. The reputation of the film? A portrait of hit men? The United States? The visitor from the Continent?
2. The strong cast, Natalie Portman at the beginning of her career? Luc Besson, his skill in writing crime films, action?
3. New York City, the world of gangsters and hotels, the cheaper hotels, police precincts, restaurants? Eric Serra’s score and atmosphere?
4. The title, the focus on Leon, his eye and the focus when he got the commission? The gangster in town, again looking through the hole, the guns, the henchmen and their being massacred, the knife at the throat of the gangster, the phone call? His being spared? The fear of the gangster? Tony and the rendezvous, holding the money for Leon? His return home, Matilda outside, the cigarette, asking Leon not to tell her father? His apartment, alone, the shower, his isolated life, going to the cinema and enjoying Gene Kelly?
5. Matilda as precocious, twelve-year-old, not in school, dropping out? Her smoking, observing? Her father and his brutality, the family, the sifting of the drugs, the wife and her relationship to the father, the sister and her aerobics exercises on television, the four-year-old little brother, their way of life, shattered as they were massacred?
6. The father and Stan’s interrogation, sniffing him, the threats, the pure drugs and their being diluted? Stan believing him? The return the next day? The brutal killers, Stan and his conducting the massacre as if it were Beethoven, his comments on music, Mozart, Brahms? Matilda being away? Her return, Leon saving Matilda, taking her into his apartment? Matilda and her later encounter with Stan, following him in the taxi, discovering the DEA and corruption? Leon and the effect of Matilda on him?
7. Matilda’s reaction, being alone, telling the school principal that she was dead? The deal about becoming a cleaner? Leon’s reaction? The joke with the pig face? Sleeping on the decision? The challenge to Leon? His loneliness, his jobs, feeling, responsibility? Leon changing?
8. Life in the hotel, the literal cleaning, shopping, Leon teaching Matilda about the guns, giving her the information, going to the park, the target and her effective shooting? Her charades with Madonna, with Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin? His guessing Gene Kelly? Leon’s own attempt with John Wayne?
9. The hotel, the manager, the case and the alleged musical instrument, practising? Matilda filling in the forms for them both? Her talk with the manager? Her telling him later that Leon was her lover? Their coming to the door, ousting them?
10. Tony, his restaurant, arranging the jobs, minding the money, as a character in himself, the final talk with Leon, the arrangements, the talk with Matilda?
11. Matilda, her return to the scene of the crime, Stan investigating, getting the money, the hundred dollars for the taxi, going to the DEA office, finding the room, the meeting with Stan, the confrontation in the toilet, their talking?
12. Leon and his continuing with his jobs, wounded, the stitches? Getting the information about Stan?
13. Stan taking Matilda, making her knock on the door, Leon shrewd, his killing Stan’s assistants? Freeing Matilda?
14. Leon, wounded, Stan standing over him, the key to the grenades, the explosion?
15. Matilda, arranging to go to school, the discussions with the principal – and the irony of her telling the truth and its sounding like a lie?
16. The portrait of hit men – understanding Leon a bit better, not approving of his job, but sympathetic to him as a changing person?
17. The portrait of a New York girl, family, streetwise, infatuation, needing a father figure, crime and revenge? A precocious little girl? Adult before her years?
