Léon: The Professional

Watched: 8th January 2016

Top 250 Position: 27
Rating 8.6/10 from 699,044 IMDb users.
Correct at 28th March 2016

Who's in it:
Jean  Reno
Gary Oldman
Natalie Portman
Danny Aiello
Peter Appel et.al.

Directed and written by: Luc Beeson

Year: 1994

Duration: 1 hour 50 minutes

Accolades: No major film award nominations, but nominated for 7 César Awards (French awards).

Plot:
12 Year Old Mathilda (Portman) witnesses the aftermath of her family being murdered in their apartment. To avoid a similar fate she knocks on the door of her neighbour, Léon (Reno)as shown her mild compassion in the past. Reluctantly Léon takes her in, where she discovers that he is professional assassin and asks him to show her how to be the same. An unlikely friendship emerges as a result.

Interesting Facts About the Film:

• During the filming involving all of the police cars on the street, a man ran from a store he had just robbed. When he encountered the movie set by accident, he saw all of the "police" and gave himself up to a bunch of uniformed extras.
• This is Natalie Portman's motion picture debut. She was 11 when she was cast. She beat out 2,000 other actresses for the role.
• According to Jean Reno, he decided to play Léon as if he were a little mentally slow and emotionally repressed. He felt that this would make audiences relax and realize that he wasn't someone who would take advantage of a vulnerable young girl. Reno claims that for Léon, the possibility of a physical relationship with Mathilda is not even conceivable, and as such, during the scenes when such a relationship is discussed, Reno very much allowed Mathilda to be emotionally in control of the scenes.
• The scene in which Stansfield (Oldman) talks about his appreciation of Ludwig van Beethoven to Mathilda's father was completely improvised. The scene was filmed several times with Gary Oldman giving a different improvised story on each take.
• In a 2014 Playboy interview Gary Oldman said his screaming of the now iconic line 'Bring me everyone!' was improvised to make director  Luc Besson laugh. "In previous takes, I'd just gone, "Bring me everyone," in a regular voice. But then I cued the sound guy to slip off his headphones and I shouted as loud as I could." The yelled take is the one used in the film.
• Both Mathilda and Danny refer to Léon as a "cleaner". The front window of the bodega in Léon's apartment building prominently displays various cleaning products such as Brillo pads, bleach, Ajax, and soap.
• The code that Léon gives Matilda to knock on the door when she returns from getting more milk is two knocks, then one, then two knocks again. 212 is the telephone area code for Manhattan, which is where the story takes place.
• The potted plant Léon nurtures is an Aglaonema, or Chinese evergreen.

Source IMDb.com

Review

I don't know why, but I always thought this movie was French, which had put me off slightly in the past from watching it. How wrong I was. Even if it had been in French it  still would have been a corker of a movie.

The movie is melancholy and not just about ruthless killing. The addition of Mathilda to Léon's life shows his softer side and paternal instincts for the girl who entered his life almost by accident. Even the care he gives to the plant that moves with them wherever they go.

Gary Oldman shines through for his portrayal of a corrupt officer, he plays a very good nutter. (I also found him quite attractive which was slightly scary!)
Don't get me wrong everyone in this plays their parts believably and well. It's hard to believe that Natalie Portman was so young when she played this part, and you can see from this role that she showed great promise as an adult actor.

There are moments when the typical early 90s panpipes are heard, but do you know what, the music is not what this movie is about. You could have had any sort of music and it not matter one jot. The film is brilliant.

Love comes in many different forms which this movie shows and this is just at the right level of appropriateness.

The ending is not what you quite imagine and is a bit of a twist, but when you think about it afterwards you realise how perfect it was. It couldn't really have ended any other way.


For more information about the film visit the imdb.com page: www.imdb.com/title/tt0110413