Luc Besson

Luc Paul Maurice Besson (; born 18 March 1959) is a French filmmaker. He directed and produced the films '' Subway'' (1985), '' The Big Blue'' (1988), and '' La Femme Nikita'' (1990). Associated with the '' Cinéma du look'' film movement, he has been nominated for a César Award for Best Director and Best Picture for his films '' Léon: The Professional'' (1994) and '' The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc'' (1999). He won Best Director and Best French Director for his sci-fi action film '' The Fifth Element'' (1997). He wrote and directed the sci-fi action film '' Lucy'' (2014) and the space opera film '' Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets'' (2017).

In 1980, near the beginning of his career, he founded his own production company, Les Films du Loup, later renamed Les Films du Dauphin. It was superseded in 2000 when he co-founded EuropaCorp with longtime collaborator . As writer, director, or producer, Besson has been involved in the creation of more than 50 films.

Early life

Besson was born in Paris, to parents who both worked as Club Med scuba-diving instructors. Influenced by this, he planned to become a marine biologist. He spent much of his youth traveling with his parents to tourist resorts in Italy, Yugoslavia, and Greece. The family returned to France when he was 10. His parents divorced, and both remarried; of this, he said:

"Here there is two families, and I am the only bad souvenir of something that doesn't work," he said in the ''International Herald Tribune''. "And if I disappear, then everything is perfect. The rage to exist comes from here. I have to do something! Otherwise I am going to die.""Luc Besson: The most Hollywood of French filmmakers"
''International Herald Tribune'', 20 May 2007

At age 17, Besson had a diving accident that left him unable to dive. In a 2000 interview with ''The Guardian'', he described how this influenced his choice of career:

"I was 17 and I wondered what I was going to do. ... So I took a piece of paper and on the left I put everything I could do, or had skills for, and all the things I couldn't do. The first line was shorter and I could see that I loved writing, I loved images, I was taking a lot of pictures. So I thought maybe movies would be good. But I thought that to really know I should go to a set. And a friend of mine knew a guy whose brother was a third assistant on a short film. It's true. So, I said: 'OK, let's go on the set.' So I went on the set. The day after I went back to see my mum and told her that I was going to make films and stop school and 'bye. And I did it! Very soon after I made a short film and it was very, very bad. I wanted to prove that I could do something, so I made a short film. That was in fact my main concern, to be able to show that I could do one."Luc Besson interviewed by Richard Jobson
''The Guardian''; accessed 20 July 2018.

Career

Besson reportedly worked on the first drafts of '' Le Grand Bleu'' (''The Big Blue'') while still in his teens. Out of boredom, he started writing stories, including the background to what he later developed as '' The Fifth Element'' (1997), one of his most popular movies, inspired by the French comic books he read as a teenager.

At 18, Besson returned to his birthplace of Paris, where he took odd jobs in film to get a feel for the industry. He worked as an assistant to directors including Claude Faraldo and Patrick Grandperret. He directed three short films, a commissioned documentary, and several commercials. He then moved to the United States for three years, but returned to Paris, where he formed his own production company. He first named it ''Les Films du Loup'', then changed it to ''Les Films du Dauphin''.

Cinéma du look

Critics such as Raphaël Bassan and Guy Austin cite Besson as a pivotal figure in the Cinéma du look movement—a specific, highly visual style produced from the 1980s into the early 1990s. His early films '' Subway'' (1985), '' The Big Blue'' (1988) and '' La Femme Nikita'' (1990) are all considered of this stylistic school.

The term was coined by critic Raphaël Bassan in a 1989 essay in ''La Revue du Cinema n° 449''. A partisan of the experimental cinema and friend of New Wave ("'' nouvelle vague''") directors, Bassan grouped Besson with Jean-Jacques Beineix and Leos Carax as three directors who shared the style of ''"le look".'' These directors were later critically described as "favouring style over substance, and spectacle over narrative".

Besson, and most of the filmmakers so categorised, were uncomfortable with the label. He contrasted their work with France's New Wave. "Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut were rebelling against existing cultural values and used cinema as a means of expression simply because it was the most avant-garde medium at the time," said Besson in a 1985 interview in ''The New York Times''. "Today, the revolution is occurring entirely within the industry and is led by people who want to change the look of movies by making them better, more convincing and pleasurable to watch.

"Because it's becoming increasingly difficult to break into this field, we have developed a psychological armor and are ready to do anything in order to work," he added. "I think our ardor alone is going to shake the pillars of the moviemaking establishment."

Popular success

Many of Besson's films have achieved popular, if not always critical, success. Reviews were mixed for '' Le Grand Bleu (The Big Blue)''. Kevin Thomas of the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote that the movie was "too long and initially awkward but is clearly the work of a visionary.''"''

"When the film had its premiere on opening night at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, it was mercilessly drubbed, but no matter; it was a smash," observed the ''International Herald Tribune'' in a 2007 profile of Besson. "Embraced by young people who kept returning to see it again, the movie sold 10 million tickets and quickly became what the French call a 'film générationnel,' a defining moment in the culture."

Besson's ''La Femme Nikita'' (1990) is one of his earliest action films, and Besson went on to write and produce numerous films in this genre, including the '' Taxi'' series (1998–2007), the '' Transporter'' series (2002–2008), and the Jet Li films '' Kiss of the Dragon'' and '' Unleashed''. He also worked on '' Lockout'' (2012).

From 2002 to 2005 Besson created the hugely successful Arthur series of children's fantasy novels, which comprises ''Arthur and the Minimoys'', ''Arthur and the Forbidden City'', '' Arthur and the Vengeance of Maltazard'' and ''Arthur and the War of the Two Worlds''. He directed '' Arthur and the Invisibles'' (2006), a feature film adaptation of the first two books of the collection, starring Madonna and Robert DeNiro. Combining live action and animation, it was released in the UK and the US, as well as in France.

His English-language films '' Taken'', '' Taken 2'', and '' Taken 3'' have been major successes; ''Taken 2'' became the largest-grossing export French film. Besson produced the promotional movie for the Paris 2012 Olympic bid.

Studio ambitions and failures

In 2000, Besson superseded his production company by co-founding EuropaCorp with Pierre-Ange Le Pogam, with whom he had frequently worked since 1985. Le Pogam had then been Distribution Director with Gaumont.

With EuropaCorp, Besson wanted to compete with the American major studios, but to maintain a stable of French directors and technicians producing in France, even if their films are most often in English with a foreign international star in the lead role. EuropaCorp went public in 2006 to finance, with the help of the State, its own studios at the Cité du Cinéma. It also sought financing and distribution partnerships in Japan and China.

By 2011, when he directed a biopic of Aung San Suu Kyi called '' The Lady'' (original title ''Dans la Lumiere''), Besson was spending most of his time at EuropaCorp as a writer and producer, rather than a director: he had 44 writing credits and 103 producer credits, but only 17 directing credits.

The film was a departure from Besson's favoured directorial genres, and from his preference to write the films he directs; the screenwriter was Rebecca Frayn. Western critics singled out Besson's direction for negative comments; Roger Ebert said: "Perhaps, given his strengths in genre films, he should have chosen not to direct this one…"

After several failures, Besson returned to creative form and to international success with '' Lucy'' (2014), which became the world's most successful French feature film, earning $469 million worldwide, superseding the previous record holder '' The Intouchables'' ($426 million).

The blockbuster '' Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets'' (2017) had a budget of around $180 million, making it both the most expensive European and the most expensive independent film ever made. But by the summer of 2017, Chinese critics were snubbing it and the investment seemed impossible to make profitable.

Besson's failure was repeated with his next film, '' Anna'' (2019), placing his company in near bankruptcy and forcing him to sell it to a creditor and then close the free, no-degree-require
school for screenwriters and directors
that he had founded in 2012.

Recent work

Besson's film ''June & John'' (2025) was shot guerrilla-style in Los Angeles in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Building on a shelved pre-pandemic project Besson had been developing for a Chinese smartphone brand, the film was shot using only smartphones and a 12-person crew, and stars then-unknown actors Matilda Price and Luke Stanton Eddy.

He told ''Deadline'': "It was very joyous. It was really two actors and a director because of the lockdown … It felt good to be uniquely creative without the pressure of money."

In 2022, Besson experimented with another kind of filmmaking when he shot '' Dogman'' (2023) in a virtual production facility in France, as well as on location in New Jersey.

''Dogman'' was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 31 August 2023. It was released in French cinemas on 27 September 2023 by Apollo Films Distribution and EuropaCorp Distribution, and had mixed reviews: at Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 59% based on 71 reviews, with an average rating of 5.5/10; while Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 45 out of 100 from 23 critics.

In summer 2024, Besson directed '' Dracula: A Love Tale,'' an adaptation of '' Dracula'' starring Caleb Landry Jones and featuring Christophe Waltz. As of April 2025, the film is still in post-production, but is set for a July 2025 release.

In 2025 Besson was announced as the director of ''The Last Man'', a post-apocalyptic science fiction film starring rapper Snoop Dogg.

Regular collaborators

In the early 1980s, Besson met Éric Serra and asked him to compose the score for his first short film, ''L'Avant dernier''. He subsequently had Serra compose for other films.

French actor Jean Reno has appeared in several films by Besson, including (1983), '' Subway'' (1985), '' The Big Blue'' (1988), '' La Femme Nikita'' (1990), and '' Léon: The Professional'' (1994).

Besson directed and co-wrote the screenplay of his science fiction thriller ''The Fifth Element'' (1997) with American screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen."Luc Besson", ''International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, Volume 2: Directors'', 4th ed. St. James Press, 2000.

He later collaborated with Kamen on the '' Transporter'' action series (2002–2008), and they co-wrote '' Taken'' (2008), '' Taken 2'' (2012), and '' Taken 3'' (2014), which all starred Liam Neeson.

In 2024, Besson mentioned his "fascination" with American actor Caleb Landry Jones after working with him on ''DogMan'': "We got on so well on ''DogMan'' and since then I’ve only had one wish and that was to make another film with him. He’s crazily talented. It’s something I haven’t seen since Gary Oldman."

Critical evaluation

Besson has been described as "the most Hollywood of French filmmakers". Scott Tobias wrote that his "slick, commercial" action movies were "so interchangeable—drugs, sleaze, chuckling supervillainy, and Hong Kong-style effects—that each new project probably starts with white-out on the title page."

American film critic Armond White has praised Besson, whom he ranks as one of the best film producers, for refining and revolutionizing action film. He wrote that Besson dramatizes the struggle of his characters "as a conscientious resistance to human degradation".

In 2012, film critic Eric Kohn wrote in ''Indiewire'': "Luc Besson’s filmography has been spotty for years, littered with equal amounts of sensationalistic pop art and flashy duds, a tendency that extends beyond his directing credits."

Personal life

Besson has been married four times; first, in 1986, to actress Anne Parillaud. They had a daughter, Juliette, born in 1987. Parillaud starred in Besson's '' La Femme Nikita'' (1990). They divorced in 1991.

Besson's second wife was actress and director Maïwenn Le Besco, whom he started dating when he was 32 and she was 15 after having met 3 years earlier. They married in late 1992 when Le Besco, 16, was pregnant with their daughter Shanna, who was born on 3 January 1993. Le Besco later claimed that their relationship inspired Besson's film '' Léon'' (1994), where the plot involved the emotional relationship between an adult man and a 12-year-old girl (played by then 12-year-old Natalie Portman). Their marriage ended in 1997, when Besson became involved with actress Milla Jovovich, then 19, during the production of '' The Fifth Element'' (1997). "We sensed the special chemistry between us immediately at the auditions and it just intensified during the filming of the movie," said Jovovich.

He married Jovovich on December 14, 1997, when he was and she was 21. They divorced in 1999.

On August 28, 2004, at age , Besson married film producer Virginie Silla, 32. They have three children, including the actress Thalia Besson.

Since 2025, he is in relationship with lawyer thirty-two years younger than him.

Rape accusation

In 2018, Dutch-Belgian actress Sand Van Roy, who appeared in ''Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets'', accused Besson of rape.

The director's lawyer Thierry Marembert stated that Besson "categorically denies these fantasist accusations" and that the accuser was "someone he knows, towards whom he has never behaved inappropriately".

In February 2019, French prosecutors dropped the case against him, citing lack of evidence. In December 2021, a judge dismissed the case against Besson following a second investigation. The public prosecutor's office in Paris stated that "the investigations clearly establish that the criminal facts of rape were not committed, that the absence of consent of the civil party is not established and the existence of a constraint, threat, violence, is not characterized". In April 2022, Van Roy submitted a complaint against the magistrate in charge of the case. In June 2023, Besson was definitively cleared of all charges, following a ruling by the Court of Cassation, the highest judicial court in France. This ruling prevents Van Roy from suing him on the same charges in France or elsewhere in Europe.

Several other women, including a former assistant, two students of Cité du Cinéma studio, and a former employee of Besson's EuropaCorp, who all wished to remain anonymous, described "inappropriate sexual behavior" by the director. Having no physical evidence to support their stories, they did not press charges and avoided a defamation countersuit. Their stories were not used by the investigating judge.

Selected filmography

Directed features

Legacy and honours

Besson won the Lumière Award for Best Director and the César Award for Best Director, for his film '' The Fifth Element'' (1997). He was nominated for Best Director and Best Picture César Awards for his films '' Léon: The Professional'' (1994) and '' The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc'' (1999).

Among Besson's awards are the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film Critics Prize, Fantasporto Audience Jury Award-Special Mention, Best Director, and Best Film, for ''Le Dernier Combat'' in 1983; the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Silver Ribbon-Best Director-Foreign Film, for ''La Femme Nikita'', 1990; the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film, ''Nil by Mouth'', 1997; and the Best Director Cesar Award, for ''The Fifth Element'', 1997.

Besson was awarded the Inkpot Award in 2016.

Music videos

* "Pull Marine": Isabelle Adjani (1983)
* " Mon légionnaire": Serge Gainsbourg (1988)
* " Que mon cœur lâche": Mylène Farmer (1992)
* " Love Profusion": Madonna (2003)
* " I Feel Everything": Cara Delevingne (2017)

References

External links

*

Luc Besson Interview, Angel-A

JewReview.net video interview with Luc Besson and Rie Rasmussen about Angel-A



The films of Luc Besson
''Hell Is for Hyphenates'', 28 February 2014

Les Films du Loup (France)
€” uniFrance Films

Les Films du Dauphin
– uniFrance Films

{{DEFAULTSORT:Besson, Luc

1959 births
Living people
20th-century French screenwriters
21st-century French screenwriters
Film directors from Paris
BAFTA winners (people)
Best Director César Award winners
Best Director Lumières Award winners
French science fiction film directors
French male screenwriters
French-language film directors
French music video directors
Inkpot Award winners
French film production company founders