LUC BESSON: The Hollywood Interview

An in-depth interview with the director on Angel-A, Arthur and the Invisibles, and why Jean Reno better not use a cell phone on his set.

Besson is Back in the Director's Chair with Angel-A
(…..although he doesn't exactly believe in director's chairs.)

By Terry Keefe
Note: This article originally appeared in the April 2007 issue of Venice Magazine.

Fans of Luc Besson have had to wait since The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc in 1999 for him to step back into directing, although he's had his hands on an almost innumerable amount of projects as both a producer and a writer since that Milla Jovovich-starring epic. In fact, he's had so many credits in the intervening years that it might be easier to list the films Besson hasn't been involved with. Through his company Europa Corp, he's been a producer or executive producer on at least 20 different features during the last two years alone and has also received a writing credit on many others since The Messenger, including The Transporter and Bandidas. He's also become the author of a successful series of children's books, based around the character named "Arthur," with the series selling over a million copies worldwide thus far. The first feature film based on the "Arthur" series, Arthur and the Invisibles, a combination of live-action and animation, was released theatrically on these shores late last year, and it was written, directed, and produced by Besson. And now his directorial feature Angel-A, which was actually distributed in France prior to Arthur, in 2005, is finally getting its domestic release in the United States. So, whether you want to mark the return of Besson the director with Angel-A or Arthur, one of the most colorful and original filmmakers (and best interviews) around is back at the helm.

Angel-A is a poetic little two-hander about a hustler named Andre (Jamel Debbouze), who meets the supermodel-beautiful Angela (Rie Rasmussen, in a starmaking lead performance), when they are both attempting to commit suicide off a bridge over the Seine in Paris. It turns out that the appropriately-named Angela is an angel who has been sent with the mission of teaching Andre a few lessons. The actor and character-driven Angel-A is on the other side of the filmmaking coin from the spectacle of Besson's The Fifth Element and The Professional, but although the scale is smaller, Besson still crafts a visually dazzling film, with gorgeous black and white photography that makes Paris the third lead of the piece. The city is just waiting for Andre to embrace it, like a spurned lover, but although its beauty surrounds him always, he cannot see it.

How long did it take you to feel comfortable directing again, once you started production on Angel-A?
Luc Besson: Even if you don't brush your teeth for a few days, you still know how to do it [laughs]. I mean, I started when I was 17, so I've sort of had the feeling that I've been doing this all my life. But, you know, after doing Joan of Arc, I started working on Arthur for about five years. So I didn't get the feeling that I had stopped [directing] really. Because making the storyboards for Arthur took nine months, to do the references for the film took nine months, and then I did this film for the government to promote Paris for the games, and I worked on that for seven months. And I was doing Angel-A at the same time, so I've kept pretty busy.

You had the idea for Angel-A over ten years ago. You weren't able to finish the script at that point though.

I wrote 15 pages, but I couldn't write the dialogue. I was too young. I knew what I wanted to say, but I couldn't say it. And then you wait for 10 years, and life makes you older [laughs], and you get some smacks in the face. You get some pains in your joints, and some truth. And 10 years later, you write the script in 2 weeks.

You sat down and it just came out?

I was surprised, but [whistles] boom. Like that, it came out. But let's take an example for comparison: when you're 17 and you want to tell a girl "I love you," [laughs] it takes forever. You prepare; you send flowers; you don't know her; finding the right time; it takes forever. Believe me, when you're 40, you know things. You know there's a moment when you feel you have to say it. You say, "Darling, I need to talk to you. You know, I love you." You're going to be more straight at 40. You know life. You know the words. You're going to say things differently.

10 years prior, did you know the beats of the story at least?

I knew the bones, the structure, yeah. It was just the dialogue I couldn't do.

When you were shooting Angel-A, you took the unusual step of keeping the beats of the story from much of the cast and crew, until you were ready to do those scenes.

I did that with some of the cast and crew. Some of them, I didn't want them to know [all the plot]. When it was useful, I [used this technique], but not to be mean or anything. So, for example, the guy who plays the villain [Gilbert Melki], he sees Jamel like a sheep at the beginning. And then the next time he sees Jamel, later in the movie - Jamel is so powerful. I didn't want him to know what happened to Jamel in between those scenes. We were shooting in order, and so he was very confident in the first scene with Jamel. And then suddenly, in their next scene together, he sees Jamel coming in and Jamel is totally different. Jamel's dialogue is very "in charge." So he's wondering, "What the fuck is going on?" Because he doesn't have a clue as to what happened to Jamel. He was frustrated when he shot it, but when he saw the film, he said, "I think you were right." Because he was totally confused as to what happened to this guy, just like his character would be. I did the same thing with the set designer, who I had worked with before. I knew that if I gave him the script, he would come back to me with ideas that I liked. But I said to him, "I'm not going to give you the script." He said, "How do you expect me to design things if I don't have the script?" I said, "Okay, I'm going to tell you. There are two bars, one toilet, one rest room, that's it." He said, "Guide me." I said, "No, just do what you want." And he came back with ideas that he would have never had if he read the script. Never.

The bathroom was incredible. Very Clockwork Orange Milk Bar-esque.

He never would have come up with that bathroom if he had read the script. Because he went at it with no references. If you have no references, you just come up with something interesting. That's what I wanted. Because if he had come up with something which wasn't so good, I could have just given him the script anyway. So, why not try this way?

What was your rehearsal process like with Jamel and Rie?

With Rie, it was very different than with Jamel. Because Rie didn't speak French. The biggest concern with her was being able to learn French and say the lines right in French. Jamel is a stand-up comedy guy, so he's used to playing with words, usually his own words, and reacting to things. But he's not used to doing a play, basically, and the idea that "this is the line." That you can't change the line. Because it's like ping-pong with Rie. If you change your line, she has to change her line. But she won't change her line, because she's from Norway. And you'll look stupid [laughs]. So he had to stick to the lines and learn them, and that was difficult for him. I really pissed him off, both of them actually, by making them learn all the lines by heart. I told them that I wouldn't be happy until I could say a line from anywhere in the script, at any moment of the day, and that they could cut right into the scene from there. Which I did. Sometimes we were out at dinner, and Jamel was laughing, and I would say a line, and he'd have to answer it, and start the scene right away from there.

And that memorization helped because you were shooting all over Paris with a small crew, and thus, if you found a great location on the fly, you could quickly shoot a scene.

Yeah. The fact was, I wanted them to get rid of the text. So that they knew it so much by heart, that when we're on location, and the sun was good, and the bridge is perfect, and we're kind of going guerilla with a Steadicam, with nobody knowing we were there….I could just go "Action!" and we'd go. Sometimes, we'd shoot for like 2 hours of the day and that would be it. In those 2 hours, we might do 10-12 pages of script. It was so fast.

And it's impressive that your crew was also able to keep up with that schedule.

Oh, they had to [laughs].

You've talked about shooting Angel-A guerilla-style. Did you know where most of your locations were going to be prior to shooting?

Yeah, except a few times. You know, for example, where he's by himself at night? We had no authorization at all to shoot then. We just got in a single truck, got the Steadicam, got out and all looked around, and said, "Okay, here!" Jamel is quite popular in France, and I am too, so if you started to put lights around on things, you'd have a crowd.

You achieved the affect of having virtually no pedestrians in the backgrounds of your exterior shots. Largely from having shot pretty early, I assume?

Yeah, from 7-10 AM in the summer. Everyone in Paris is on vacation. The tourists arrive around 11.

Was any lighting done when you shot outside at some of the famous Parisian monuments, or did you go guerilla at those places as well?

All natural light. It's just like shooting a sunset. You have to wait for the perfect time. Most of those scenes, we knew what time we had to be there to get it right.

The film feels like a visual love letter to Paris. Was that the intention right from the beginning?

[long pause, thinks] It's a little different when you're French, and it's your city. I'm living there, and I do care for Paris. And I always care that my locations are cool and nice. And I can understand the perspective of someone from America, or China, or…when people say, "Oh my god, Paris is…!" It's a little different for me though. Of course, I love Paris, but for me, it's more about the guy and the girl. I wanted to show this beautiful city, because I wanted to show that Jamel can't see beauty.

Right, towards the end, he says that he never realized how beautiful the city was.

We see it, but he can't. That's what I wanted. Someone who can't see it. She's telling him, "Breathe, look, it's so beautiful." And he's just like, "I don't know how to swim." [laughs] But the city could be Rome, or Venice, or another beautiful city.

Although I haven't seen Paris look this lovely and enticing since Bande a Parte.

Paris is such a pleasure to film. In contrast, New York is a nightmare. Everything there is vertical. In CinemaScope, it's a nightmare. You just can't put the thing in a bottle. Paris is like 3 or 4-level buildings. It's very flat. The monuments aren't very big, because they're a few centuries old. And everything goes into frame. It's perfect for shooting. In CinemaScope. And even the scenes by the river, all the bridges go into frame.

Had you always intended to shoot in black and white, or were there financial considerations that could have caused you to scrap that plan and go color?

Of course I heard some complaints from TV around the world. [does "obnoxious businessman voice"] "Are you sure you want to do it in black and white?" [his own voice] "Yep." [obnoxious businessman voice] "We might not be able to take it then." [his own voice] "Don't take it then." [obnoxious businessman voice] "Okay, we'll take it!" [laughs]

Did you and your cinematographer Thierry Arbogast do a lot of tests in preparation for the black and white shooting?

Oh yes. The blue, the yellow, and the red…they don't react the same in black and white. You have to look at the construction and setting and the clothes, everything. The funny thing is, this film didn't look good in color. On the set, it wasn't looking good at all. Especially the costumes.

Looks great in black and white. How did you discover Rie?

She came to me with a short film that she wanted to have produced. I said "No" a few times. But she kept coming with more scripts and more scripts. And so I said, "Okay, she's a serious girl." Then I produced her first film and she was lucky enough to get nominated for Cannes. And then a year after that, I said, "Oh, by the way, I'm going to do this new film. Do you want to be in it?" It was kind of unexpected for her.

Were you reading a lot of other girls other than Rie, or had you planned on using her from the beginning?

No, it was just her. But I pretended that we were talking to other girls [laughs].

This summer you're shooting the next two Arthur films back-to-back. How long do you anticipate production to take on those sequels?

The actual live-action shooting only takes 12-13 weeks. The rest of it takes four years [laughs].

Do you know what you're directing after the Arthur films?

No. Probably nothing. Those are going to take me 3-4 years anyway. We'll see where we are in three years [laughs].

You've knocked out a lot of screenplays recently. How fast are you?

I'm fast. As long as I have my structure. If I have my three pages in front of me, and I know all my sequences, and I know the story, I'm fast. But to get those three pages can take me five years. Ten years. Twenty years. If I have my three pages, it'll take me two weeks. It's like turning on the computer and hitting "Print." [laughs]

With all the projects you're producing through your company, how hands-on are you in terms of script notes, during production, and into post when dealing with other director's projects?

I think I'm very present before the shooting and after the shooting. But not during the shooting. During the shooting, there is one boat and one captain. I don't have any ego about that. When I write a script, and give it to a director, it's his film. It's like, "It's your baby. Do what you want." I will judge it as a moviegoer, not as a writer. We're shooting Taken with Liam Neeson. I went to see the director on the set last night. You know, I went to say hi, have coffee, and then I left. That's what I do. Because, not here, but when I'm in France, if I go on the set, all the technicians get so nervous [laughs]. They're like, "What is he doing here? Oh my god, what is going to happen?" On the set, I'm unpredictable. I love to have people on their toes, from the moment they come on the set, to the moment they leave the set. Otherwise, stay home! You're not going to have the time to sit. I don't have a seat with my name on it. Ever. I'm always standing. And I'm always looking for everything I can steal, bring, or change. You know, my senses are, like, extra-developed when I'm on the set. So you'd better not sleep when you're working with me. [laughs] I started to laugh because I just remembered this: my first assistant once came to me on the set and said, "Tell me when is a good time for me to pee." I said, "James, it's okay. Go pee." [laughs] I definitely put the pressure on people, because I'm under pressure too. And I want some help. I don't want to be by myself under pressure. I don't want people to be like, [does a pretentious voice, mimics actor talking on a cell phone] "Yeah, I'm on the set with Luc Besson." Don't come around me on the set with a cellular phone. I smash phones.

Good!

Jean Reno? I took the phone out of his hand in the middle of a conversation and I slammed it down. I said, "Are you kidding? We're prepping this film for months, and that's all you have to do – giggle around? You have nothing to prepare? You're sure you're the best? Get back to work. Otherwise, I'm going to phone my girlfriend during the take when you're speaking. I'm going to go, 'Yeah, I'm shooting with Jean Reno here, and…'" I hate that. Because shooting is so tough. You have to concentrate. I never go overtime. If we're shooting until 5, I'm done by 4:50 and say that's the end of the day. That's how I respect my cast and crew. I'm not here to have them exhausted and dead. But if we're working for six hours, I want you for six hours. Fully 100%. That's all. Give me your best.