It’s been a tumultuous few years for French filmmaker Luc Besson, to put it mildly. But with #MeToo allegations outwardly behind him and the director seemingly exonerated, it appears to be full steam ahead for the “Fifth Element” and “Leon: The Professional” director. After a four-year absence from the screen, his latest effort is the drama “DogMan,” starring Caleb Landry Jones, about a boy bruised by life who finds his salvation through the love of his dogs.
The director was on an upcoming episode of our The Discourse podcast, and while he already told us he gave Quentin Tarantino the idea to retire and might only make three more films, there’s more from this interview and one film that’s been reported that might not be one of his final movies.
While a sequel to his actioner “Lucy” with Scarlett Johansson was announced around 2017, in our interview, the filmmaker said all of it is news to him.
“Yeah, I heard that [was happening],” he said with a slightly sarcastically. “I even read that. Yeah, I was glad to hear [it.] I said, ‘Oh? Give me the script.’ You know, that’s the problem sometimes with the internet is I don’t know where [the information] comes from. Sometimes, I see that my name is on a movie that I haven’t been aware of.”
So perhaps don’t count on “Lucy 2” happening anytime and potentially not being part of the last three films Besson says he’s going to make.
Speaking of another one of Besson’s previous films, Natalie Portman has recently been speaking out against her appearance in his 1994 film, “Leon: The Professional.” In the thriller, a 13-year-old Portman co-starred as a preteen child who becomes the protégée of a hitman, Léon (Jean Reno), after her family is murdered. And in recent interviews, reflecting on the film, she’s called it “cringey” to watch now and says she has a “complicated” relationship with it.
Asked about her reconsidered view of the film Besson submitted it was easy to criticize while looking back on a film you did 30 years ago and suggested everyone has a complicated relationship with the past because they’ve grown and changed.
“Are you the same [as you were at] 19 years old, at 25?” he asked rhetorically. “I mean, my first short film, I was 17. My parents divorced, and they put me in boarding school; I had no education. I am living 60 kilometers from Paris. I know nothing about life. I don’t know anything about love. I know nothing about anything. And I’m just in love with movies. So, then you learn, and you go to different countries and start speaking English and meet great people. You’re able to lose and fall in love, then break your heart, and then fall into love again, and you have a child and a normal life. So, you always go with society the way it is at the moment.”
“We can always criticize,” he continued with a defense of the film. “It’s very hard for me to [look back] like 30, 40, 50 years ago. What’s the point? I don’t understand. Things change, lots of things change for the better. A few things are worse. And that’s society, in the end. And then we have to adapt. I’m not the same today at 65, for sure. I have five kids—and I was left alone from zero to basically 14.”
Besson has something of a point; some films and pieces of art don’t age well, and that’s just a product of cultural changes, shifts, and time. #MeToo and the age of empathy have made us all greatly reckon and reconsider what we used to think was acceptable. At the same time, Portman’s experience is her experience, and one doesn’t want to deny her feelings on the matter.
Ultimately, it’ll be up to the viewer to decide. “Leon: The Professional” was an entertaining crime classic in 1994, with a memorable Gary Oldman supporting role, but it’s probably not exactly a film many revisit that often these days. As times change, and perhaps settle a bit more, maybe more cineastes will revise their opinion of the film, but it might just be a subjective cineaste appraisal.
More from this interview soon, so keep your eyes peeled. “DogMan” opens in theaters today.