#peter appel

The two main characters, aren't automatons. They're human beings, they're allowed flaws and imperfections. They're allowed emotions and feelings, here emotions and feelings aren't as in so many action films seen as something that makes the hero weak, or not even particularly strong, just simply human.

And that's what I loved about the film. It is an action film, but the action is rather something complimentary, It's first most about the characters their relationship and their evolution.

Any impressive action scene in the film, is not random and arbitrary, It's been motivated by the characters, it never feels like they're just fishing for impressive visual effects. Yet Léon, is still a beautiful, very aesthetically pleasing film with some gorgeous effects, that simply stay imprinted in your mind after you've seen it, It's quite unique.

Another thing that makes it special and unique, is that at times it feels like one of those charming, quirky French dramas, where It's all about the people in the film and in the next it can feel like one of those big American action films, just a tad less dramatic, but more schizophrenic, and It's marvelous.

There's a scene where it seems Léon and Mathilda are drinking glasses of milk in what could be an apartment in Montmartre in Paris. The next moment it looks like you're in Manhattan, It's very hard to explain, but it almost feels like a French drama hiding under the surface of an American action or the other the other way around.

You have elements of both French, European cinema and elements of American cinema, It's a perfect blend of both countries in one film. And in fact it makes perfect sense, and is a lot less chaotic than it sounds. Luc Besson the director is French and opted to film both parts in Paris and some parts in New York. So you have a Parisian New York, or a New Yorkian Paris.

And It's something that's unique, when you're watching the film you know It's not New York like you've seen it before, yet it feels utterly real and coherent, so real in fact that you think you could just step into the film and walk around in that city.

Now I've given the film a lot of praise, in what I've discussed so far, but funnily enough I had never seen it until yesterday. It's one of those films that I've heard that It's considered as one of the best films of all time, and also as one of the best action films ever made.

At my home we actually have it on DVD, so when my eye fell on it I just had to see it, it always felt like I was missing out on some big secret that everybody else was in on and I just didn't want to feel that way anymore. And I am immensely glad I finally saw it it!

I can already tell that It's going to become one of those films, that I'm going to watch over many times. And that it might become one of my favorite action films and one of my favorite films in general.

This is one of the rare action films, where excuse my French, I actually give a fuck about the people in it, where I feel like I've become connected to them over the course of the film and where I felt, where I cried.

So what makes it special for me? It has a heart and a soul, it plays in on our sympathy and our compassion, our humanity, our ability to feel, rather than our ability to enjoy violence and bloodshed.

Léon is in action film with a heart and a soul, with humanity. It doesn't try to make It's hitman cool, it humanizes him, he can care about a little girl and he's not lowly enough to abuse her, and you also never think that he would, he simply sees her as a daughter that he has to protect, placing her life above his own, like realistically probably quite a lot of fathers would, if it ever came down to his life or the life of his daughter.

While still giving us some trés cool action sequences, and they're cool, because of how ridiculous and over the top they are. Think of Tarantino, but rather than gross, It's at the same time sometimes genuinely funny and creepy.

As the name indicates, Léon the professional is about someone who's a professional in something, in this case a man who's a hitman, thus a professional killer. In Europe it was originally just simply called Léon, (the version I have at home is simply the director’s cut, that includes everything from the original apparently considered more “risqué” European version, and It only says Léon)  but for American audiences it later became The Professional, until the director’s cut was released there too I imagine. 

In America there was apparently quite a bit of ambiguity and controversy concerning, the nature of the relationship between Mathilda and Léon, I personally never really experienced it as anything disgusting or gross, yes there were undertones.

But they weren’t meant to entice in any sexual way at all, and they are there for a reason that can be explained perfectly clearly, without falling into pedophilia, so Luc Besson is contrary to some popular belief, not a pervert who lusted after 11 year old Natalie Portman. 

I think it maybe says more about certain people, that they’re so willing to sexualise a young girl,honestly  sickening comments like “Natalie Portman has never been hotter than she was here” kind of make me want to spend the evening leaning over the toilet, she was 11 years old for fuck’s sake! But I’ll come back to that later. 

Léon works alone, he has no girlfriend, no family that he sees, and not that many friends. Life is quite lonely and boring for him, and he spends a large time of his day killing people, It's perhaps his only diversion, but there's something heartbreaking about that too.

You never get the chance that he actually actively takes pleasure in taking life, for him It's a job that he gets paid for and that's it, he doesn't torment his victims, doesn't taunt them or stands there laughing in their face before he kills them. And he observes one golden rule, no women, and children.

Léon might be a professional killer, but he's in a lot of ways very child like, he's naive and somewhat emotionally repressed, maybe from a trauma he suffered. He can't read, he knows how to kill people, yet he doesn't really know how people or the world for that matter work.

Mathilda on the other hand is a 12-year-old girl. But she's sadly a lot older emotionally than she should be, she knows far more about the world an human nature than a girl her age should.

Her home life has forced her to build a self-defense and survival technique, and so nothing that people do to her surprises her anymore, because she is not used to kindness, It's almost lime she's mentally prepared for and expecting a hit.

She gets completely neglected by her father and his girlfriend, has a half sister who thinks she's Jane Fonda and basically bitches and only does aerobics all day, she does most of the chores, and on top of that also regularly gets yelled at if she accidentally walks in on her father and his girlfriend in the stages right before sex, to say It's dysfunctional would be the least but this poor girl is used to it.

Her father was involved in drugs, and one day while Mathilda is out the entire family is murdered, including her four year old brother. Mathilda has nowhere to go afterwards, so she does the only thing she can think of which is go knock on Léon's door and beg him to take her in, which he does.

Léon doesn't know what to do with her, and at first contemplated killing her himself. But he knows that the girl has no way of surviving on her own, that she needs an adult care, so he takes her in and begins to care for her as if she were his own daughter and as a true equal.

Mathilda teaches him to read, meanwhile she declares that she wants revenge, really only because of her little brother who hadn't done anything wrong since he was only four year's old. Mathilda has a father figure for the first time, she receives care, warmth, and kindness.

And she has never been given kindness before, and It's also the first time that she's really allowed to feel those sort of emotions, which are normal human emotions that we should all be allowed to feel and should all receive from at least someone in our lives, people need and thrive on love, no matter what kind.

So It's the first time that she's allowed to have that kind of emotions and that she receives them from someone. Léon is the first person in her life that gives her kindness, that treats her like a human being, and he's a man.

She's about to hit puberty, her feelings confuse her so she thinks she's in love with him. She's still too young or inexperienced, or she's been neglected so much that It's difficult for her to discern between romantic love and just love, like love from a friend or a parent. And for many people this was gross or unnatural, but in fact It's not really that much.

It's not uncommon for young girls, that can't quite yet grasp things like age difference or that have difficulty discerning their emotions, to fall in love with an older man, they don't grasp that there's something wrong and apprehensible. And usually if the man in question is a good man, with a moral compass that functions properly he'll explain to the girl that it is not correct.

And this is also the case with Léon, he could never think of Mathilda that way, he's a hitman, but even he is able to recognize that she's a child and not a woman and that taking advantage of her, even if she has attempted to seduce him would be morally apprehensible, so he declines her advances, and even distances himself a little from her because it scares him that she sees him in this way, maybe he doubts his own restraint.

Yet he also understands that It's not her fault and that she needs to be cared for. He loves Mathilda, with all his heart, but It's not a romantic love, he never expresses a desire to sleep with her. He sees her as his daughter and would give his own life over hers, if she lives he's happy. He loves her because he now finally has a reason to be happy, to live, a place to call home. 

Notice Leon says he is like his plant because he has no roots, meaning he is always traveling and never settling down because he is a hit-man. But in the end, when Mathilda plants Leon's plant in the ground to grow roots, Leon will get "roots". He has finally settled down to Mathilda's mind, living in her memories forever (the best place he could have settled down). The director did a good job adding this into the film.

He protects her from a number of threats, over the course of the film. But the most impressive is the villain played by Gary Oldman, the man who killed Mathilda's brother, who she wants revenge on so badly, that she at one point even seeks him out herself, and ever since he was confronted by a little girl, who is subsequently rescued by Léon, he wants both of them dead.

This has to be one of Oldman's best roles and simply one of the best villains in film history, despite the fact that a lot of film critics hated his performance because It’s over the top, but personally I’ve always loved Oldman best when he’s overacting.

He's a psycho, a murderer with no mercy. You've got to love the line: "Bring me, everyone, what do you mean "everyone"? EVERYONE!" What's so scary about him is that there is absolutely no explanation for his mania, he swallows chill pills right before murdering someone, and he conducts him slaughters like a director would his orchestra.

Before I delve into any of the other aspects, I'll leave you guys with the storyline:

Mathilda, a twelve-year-old New York girl, is living an undesirable life among her half-family. Her father stores drugs for two-faced cop Norman Stansfield. Only her little brother keeps Mathilda from breaking apart. One day, Stansfield and his team take cruel revenge on her father for stretching the drugs a little, thus killing the whole family.

Only Mathilda, who was out shopping, survives by finding shelter in Léon's apartment in the moment of highest need. Soon, she finds out about the strange neighbor's unusual profession - killing - and desperately seeks his help in taking revenge for her little brother. Léon, who is completely unexperienced in fatherly tasks, and in friendships, does his best to keep Mathilda out of trouble - unsuccessfully.

Now, the conflict between a killer, who slowly discovers his abilities to live, to feel, to love and a corrupt police officer, who does anything in his might to get rid of an eye witness, arises to unmeasurable proportions - all for the sake of a little twelve-year-old girl, who has nearly nothing to lose.

The character development in Léon is one the reasons that It’s such a good action film, that the two main characters aren’t just remorseless killing machines, but actually evolve and grow as human beings are beautiful to witness.

In a way, you’re by the end as touched, as when you’d just have watched one of those heavy, complicated emotional dramas. Of course, even if there’s good character development, if you don’t have good actors It’s still gonna fail.

And that’s precisely what fails in a lot of action films, but in Léon it prevails and makes the film into the emotionally potent and hard-hitting and humane film it became.

Without the acting, it would have just been a mediocre film, that lots of people would have disliked for its lack of action. But Léon is filled with three utterly brilliant performances.

There’s young Natalie Portman as Mathilda, Portman would, of course, go on to become the very talented, multifaceted actress, she is today. But this one is still one of her best performances and probably one of the best child performances of all time!

Portman simply embodies Mathilda and absolutely becomes her. Often with child stars they are either way too childish and moronic or mature beyond their years in a way that’s absolutely hair raising, and I haven’t even mentioned the kid that’s supposed to be adorable but that’s actually an abominable, spoiled brat yet, one of my most hated cinematic clichés, it makes my blood run cold in terror…

That’s not the case here with Portman, as I said she really becomes the character, and she has an elegant effortlessness, that foreshadows her later acting range, she’s unforced and so natural that you forget where the character ends an where the actress starts.

That line of separation, where you can clearly tell what’s really acted is completely obliterated. Portman’s emotional range is amazing here, perfectly and believably embodying both a fragile, damaged girl and a street-wise kid.

Not a child anymore but also not yet a woman, who yet believes she already is a woman. This is precisely why Léon takes her with him, when he goes to kill, his victims are all male ( he doesn’t kill women and children) and she’s perfect bait, to get them out their door. She looks completely innocent, yet she can sound and act a lot older than she is, usually a simple “Mr, the lights are all out, I’m scared” suffices.

French actor Jean Reno is also impeccable in his role as Léon. Throughout the film, he portrays his Léon in a tranquil, calm way, despite the fact that he’s a hitman.

Léon has a kindness and a naivety and a childlike innocence about him that transfers into the way he carries himself. Until he meets Mathilda, the one thing he really cares about is a plant, but the plant shows how loving he can be when he allows himself, and Mathilda makes him grow emotionally by allowing his tender side to come out.

My favorite scene with him alone is probably the one in the cinema, where he completely relaxes and lights up as he sees Gene Kelly dance on screen.

Then there’s Gary Oldman, as Stansfield the crazed killer. And like I said It’s one of my favorite roles of him, he’s completely compelling, as he literally disappears into the characters, and he’s funny and utterly terrifying in his unpredictability and in the genuine pleasure he seems to take in taking human life.

The best thing about Oldman’s performance is simply that it shows that he gave it his all and that he was having fun. All good performances are of course also due to the great direction, this is still widely considered Besson’s best and I won’t argue with that.

If there’s good collaboration between actors and the director you get good performances usually. And Léon is one is one of those films, where famously all the actors had a great time working on the film. Because the director respected them a great deal, allowed them a lot of freedom, allowed them a lot of input and creative freedom, basically he saw them as creative equals, whose ideas are just as worthy as his own.

Oldman’s fan favorite line “EVERYONE”, was famously playfully improvised by Oldman, as a way to make director Luc Besson laugh, who liked it so much that he kept it in.

Something else that for me is perfect about the direction, is the pacing and timing, more precisely the balance between slower more emotional scenes and fast moving scenes.

The transition from one into the other feels completely unchaotic and natural, one scene flows beautifully into another, the film knows perfectly when to be slower and faster, in such a precise fashion that each emotional blow still feels like an utter surprise that you didn’t see coming for miles, or in this case better kilometers.

This also translates into the cinematography. Léon is absolutely undeniably beautiful to look at. But it differs from other action films in the sense that it has a clean and simple look about it.

It all looks rather tranquil, but at times quite deceptively so, these are the moments of the grand action scenes, the tranquility conflicts with the violent nature of these scenes, lots of light, sunlight and white, sunny colors don’t usually mix with violence.

You could argue that soft, light colors have no place in action films. But I think it fits perfectly here, as it reflects Léon softer nature. One of my personal favorite scenes is when Mathilda is begging at Léons door to be let in when lets her in, an almost celestial, white light floods the hall.

Symbolizing that she’s found a home and that she’s safe with him. The film also has excellent use of closeup, used in ways that really connects you with the characters and that causes an emotional impact. And the action-packed sequences are shot in precisely the right way, meaning for me at least, that they’re riveting and that they make you both pumped and on edge at times.

The soundtrack of Léon is probably even if I’ve only seen it once, already one of my favorites. It’s actually very sober in the musical department. And It’s certainly not the first action film, that’s ever used classical music.

But where it usually gets very bombastic, here it stays calm, which stands in contrast once again with the violence, It’s like calmness before the storm.

Then throughout the film, a short fragment, of a piece of classical music keeps repeating itself, I absolutely love the use of it, because it adds highly to the atmosphere and the emotions, unfortunately, I can’t find the name of it anywhere, and I’ve hunted for it quite a bit.

To end the review, Léon is for me now also one of the best action films ever made, because of its emotion and It’s heart. It’s utterly touching, beautifully filmed and full of wonderful performances, what’s not to like? To anyone that hasn’t seen it I wholeheartedly recommend it, a beautiful film in every sense. 

I loved this article, so I’m just going to include it:

http://screenprism.com/insights/article/in-leon-the-professional-how-are-sexual-and-mature-concepts-presented-betwe