This is a beautifully written and incisive article that I chanced upon this evening. I don’t know how we happened on the subject of the film, but my wife wondered aloud if there was a chance that the diva’s performance was authentic, meaning voiced by a single person in real time. To my knowledge, there’s no way for a human to be polyphonic to the extreme degree of the diva, but I tried to dig up some info on the subject anyway, eventually coming across this lovely piece. I hope you’ll find it, as I did, an brief respite from the terrible reality in which we find ourselves. ✌️
Fantastic fucking movie.
Aged very well
bad news for luc besson
“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).”
Wikipedia actually uses the word “abusing”, not “dating”.
Besson’s second wife was actress and director Maïwenn Le Besco, whom he started abusing when he was 32 and she was 15 after having met 3 years earlier.
Latest revision as of 06:28, 22 February 2025
Looks like that was changed just a few hours ago.
But yes. I watched Leon and was absolutely blown away by how blatantly pedophilic it was. Like, truly disturbing, completely inappropriate. I don’t know how Besson has escaped unscathed by the court of public opinion. Portman was sixteen in that movie and he had her singing happy birthday in her underwear, imitating Marilyn Monroe. Leon sits in bed with her and she caresses her exposed midriff while talking about how she loves him and how it feels warm in her stomach or some shit. Sixteen, man. There was an entire movie production crew there and no one fucking thought this was abusive to compell a child to do? I enjoyed Fifth Element just like everyone else, but knowing now what I know about Luc and his fucked up history, that shit’s cancelled, man. And all the actors in that movie are on serious waiver.
Not to mention multiple accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior and a rape allegation.
such a romantic 🧔💞👶
There are a few people on yt doing the song-- there’s a vocal coach doing reviews who says one singer hit all the notes as written and one made only slight adjustments while maintaining high operatic quality.
starts @14:30 if the time stamp doesn’t work
Just incredible. Thank you kindly for the link.
Is anything else of Luc Besson’s worth watching? We haven’t heard much of him since Fifth Element here in America, but Americans are ignorant about cinema generally.
A lot of them, in no particular order:
The Big Blue
Leon
District 13
Taxi
Nikita
TransporterLeon aka The Professional is pretty good, but haven’t seen his other films. Gary Oldman has a good role in this. I have to rewatch though to see how it’s aged.
Leon: The Professional is pretty good.
“Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” was OK… but the two leads were miscast and the script got a little bland. Still, the movie definitely has its moments.
