ThoughLa Femme Nikitawould prove to be his breakthrough,Luc Besson’s feature debut,The Last Battle, presages almost everything about the filmmaker’s career and artistry. The stark black-and-white dystopian tale is an encompassing work, most notable for its scrappy, efficient, and hugely unpredictable world building, orchestrated by the young director. There was skepticism and adventure in that movie, and those would come to be the trademark characteristics of his oeuvre, though he’s not without his oddities.
No one speaks inThe Last Battleand a similar tactic might have elevated the upcomingValerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. LikeJames Cameron, one of Besson’s rare genuine compatriots, the French-born filmmaker is best when he’s allowed to build planets, cities, species, and universes, but his insistence on writing many of his own films on his own has undermined much of his most entrancing work. When he worked withRobert Mark KamenonThe Fifth Element, the result was his most expansive and wondrous work to date. Then again, working withMichael Caleobrought uponThe Family…
As a stylist, however, Besson has always left his mark, and he has a preternatural understanding of pacing that rivalsMichael Baybut is far more fluid, Cameron without the classicism and charisma. WithValerianhitting the multiplexes this weekend, I decided to rank all of Besson’s movies, from the bleak desert-world ofThe Last Battleto the crowded conglomeration of cultures inValerian.For the record, I didn’t countThe Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec(only released on DVD in America) or his documentaryAtlantis(hard to get a copy of these days) but all of his other features, evenThe Messenger, are here. Enjoy!
13. The ‘Arthur’ Trilogy
Besson arrived at adapting his children’s tale about a young boy who dreams up the monkey-like “Invisibles” or “Minimoys” without any knowledge of animation and his indifference shows. More than evenThe Family, these three movies feel powered solely by the hopes of engineering a hit for kids to look at vacantly rather than wrangle with genuine ideas. I won’t get into the weird undertones involving colonialism in Africa and the discomfiting use of race in the story in general, but it’s enough to say that it’s unpleasant for any movie, nevermind one meant primarily for young minds. A rare, but not unprecedented trio of fiascos.
12. ‘The Family’
You can almost hear the pitch in your head: “Look, Robert DeNiro is the best fucking Italian assassin in the world and his family is badass too and they go into witness protection or something but are too badass for that even!” And that, more or less, is what you get withThe Family, the movie that inexplicably first called the greatMichelle Pfeifferback to the fold. Besson works mostly with humor here and very little of it plays as much more than dismissed D-grade jokes from the early drafts forAnalyze Thisor, more accurately,Analyze That. Soaked to the bone in clichés, the movie coasts by on its cast’s charms and the fleet-footed pacing, adding another unfortunate chapter to DeNiro’s post-1990s output.
11. ‘The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc’
Those who did not like the modern-day liberties thatRomeo + Juliettook from the classic texts of Shakespeare may want to avoid Besson’s take on Joan of Arc in total. True, there’s no Radiohead on the soundtrack and I did not spy one Hawaiian shirt amongst the cast, butThe Messenger, in whichMilla Jovovichplays God’s favorite French woman, is just as ridiculous a spectacle in its unhinged tonal shifts and ludicrous embellishments on the story as Baz Luhrman’s. For instance, within the first 15 minutes of the film, Joan’s beloved sister is raped, run through with a sword, and then becomes an object of necrophilia for godless English soldiers, acts that the film show’s little interest in beyond how they fuel Joan’s furious driver to battle and dismantle the English. A cast that includesDustin HoffmanandJohn Malkovichhelps a little but not enough to validate sitting through 130-plus minutes of truly historic nitwittery.
10. ‘Angel-A’
A problematic movie, similar toLa Femme NikitaandValerianin that the delightful, noir-tinged imagery is betrayed by thoughtless, indirect dialogue. In this case, the odd relationship that blooms betweenJamel Debbouze’s lovable oaf Andre and the titular giant force of nature, played byRie Rasmussen, becomes a shambling reason for the narrative to continue on and for Besson to continue to craft these breathtaking compositions. Suicide and a need for attention and vindication found almost exclusively in men are subjects of interest but nothing sticks here other than the look of things. One has to wonder if that was all Besson, who also wrote and produced this alone, had in mind when he called action on the set.
09. ‘The Big Blue’
This movie reminds me a lot ofRon Howard’sRush, another amiable mediocrity about a truly gripping rivalry. Besson amplified the interpersonal melodrama of the dueling free divers Jacques Mayol and Enzo Molinari (in reality, Maiorca), played with engaging theatrical oomph byJean-Marc BarrandJean Reno, but he did little to lend insight into the nature of competition, outside of sex and scandals barely fit for soap operas. Again, to his benefit, this puppy flies and is never as boring as you might imagine a drama about two really good swimmers would be. Reno and Barr make the best of the circumstances but there’s a resounding flimsiness to the entire endeavor, and its ambitions outside of style go no further than the audacity of making a movie about competing divers. All that being said, this one deserves points for simply existing and not being a complete disaster.
08. ‘La Femme Nikita’
Full confession: I’ve always thought this movie was a mess. It’s a good example of Besson’s style and tendency toward a breathless pace can overwhelm more emotionally sensitive material, such as a trained and mercilessly broken female convict turned into a killing machine, ordered around by condescending, withholding men. This would be a slam dunk for almost any director given leeway on the violence quotient and squib budget, butLa Femme Nikitafeels empty from minute one. The main character, portrayed with fearless physicality byAnne Parillaud, is utilized as a weapon by her handlers and that’s exactly what Bresson does, creating a few dazzling action sequences but a stultifying lack of intimacy. Even when revelations begin to hit the titular assassin, there’s no resonation, no sense of how the truth changes or challenges her worldview. As a mindless action film, it’s better than average but there was much more potential here than what’s on screen.
07. ‘The Lady’
Working fromRebecca Frayn’s involving yet rigid screenplay. Besson does a dutiful job shining a light on an underreported chapter of Burmese history inThe Lady. This 2011 drama focuses on Aung San Suu Kyi, the longtime Burmese democracy advocate and eventual politician, putting specific emphasis on her first return to Burma with husband, writer Michael Aris (David Thewlis), and uses their relationship for bearing as she ascends in rank amongst the people of Myanmar. On the whole, The Lady is standard-issue biopic fare, cut with a bit more rhythm and daring by Besson, but this is one of those cases where the importance of the subject matter slightly outweighs the lack of directorial bravado. That the movie is essentially a two-hours-plus showcase forMichelle Yeohin the lead role should serve as reason enough, frankly.
06. ‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets’
The kind of variety of textures, snorts and guffaws, shades of color, and made-up languages that populate this wild world is a prime example of why Besson has been around for so long. The staggering ineptitude of the dialogue and the clumsy way that the central relationship is built betweenDane DeHaan’s gutsy space agent and his smart, scrappy partner (Cara Delevingne), whom DeHaan’s titular hero is trying to get to marry him during a space refugee crisis, makes it barely as surface-level serviceable as most big-screen hits these days. That being said, there’s a unique naiveté to Besson’s film that is infinitely preferable to the cynical posturing that has infected most big-studio summer fare.
05. ‘The Last Battle’
Within the first 30 minutes of Besson’s deliriously creative dystopian debut, one man has killed off a local villain, pillaged from him, and escaped reprisal via a makeshift plane.The Last Battle, for all its limitations, is not boring and Besson, working with co-writerPierre Jolivet,smartly makes the movie more about style, mood, and tone than narrative intricacy or payoff. The black-and-white cinematography, courtesy of the late DPCarlo Varini, who reteamed with Besson inSubwayandThe Big Blue, casts its own spell but the cast, includingJean Renoand Jolivet himself in the lead role, near-silently builds up an evocative world, using their physiques speak as much as the cock of the eyebrow or a well-timed snort. As calling cards go, it’s hard to top.
04. ‘Lucy’
Easily the most interesting action movieScarlett Johanssonhas appeared in, unless you countUnder the Skinunder this rubric. Johansson’s titular heroine begins to understand, well, everything, utilizing the effects of a neurological drug to break down the exterior world and dismantle the criminal agency that first abducted her and gave her the powers.Morgan Freemanis around to deliver exposition eloquently, andOldboyhimselfChoi Min-sikis a fantastic lead nemesis. The action is gravity-defying and wildly imaginative, to the point thatLucybecomes borderline experimental in its use of montage and spectacle. If you try to keep ahold of the story and don’t get drunk on Besson’s nonsense, it’s laughable fun at best. For those who have no issue drinking Besson’s kool-aid, however, this 2014 hit is a rare jolt of ecstatic filmmaking energy in a desert of stiff, predictable explosion porn.
