THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 18, 1994 TAG: 9411170041
SECTION: PREVIEW PAGE: E4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
HOW BIG is ``Leon'' in Paris? Big enough to topple mighty ``Jurassic Park'' at the box office. The film, directed by Luc Bresson, took in $60 million its first two weeks, the biggest opening in French history.
Columbia Pictures is hoping the same thing when the movie, now called ``The Professional,'' opens today. Noticeably, it is opening in shopping malls, not art theaters. At the least, it destined for cult status for action fans; at the most, it may crossover into the mainstream.
Leon is full of contradictions. A cool, remorseless hitman, he makes big bucks but has no life, living alone in a tiny apartment with an equally rootless plant to water. He likes Gene Kelly movies. Leon softens when he ``adopts'' a 12-year-old girl whose family was murdered. The role is likely to be the most controversial for a child actress since Brooke Shields played a prostitute in ``Pretty Baby.''
Sitting across from Jean Reno, the French star who plays Leon, is not like meeting your average star. He's 46 and looks like he has a 10 o'clock shadow even when he's cleanly shaven. This is no Tom Cruise.
``When I have a gun, I have muscles,'' said Reno, in a thick French accent. ``All the fuss in Paris was unexpected. No, none of us expected this to be a movie that broke the records formerly held by `Jurassic Park.' ''
Born in Casablanca of Spainish parents, Reno's own background is as mysterious as the character he plays. He came to Paris in 1970 to study with a Greek drama teacher, ``the same guy who had taught the young Jane Fonda.'' He's divorced and the father of a 17-year-old daughter. Next, he'll appear in a romantic comedy with Meg Ryan and Timothy Hutton, directed by Lawrence Kasdan.
He can't walk the streets in Paris without being mobbed. ``Am I a sex symbol? Of course, but so what? I have been what you call a `movie star' for some years in France.
``It is Luc Bresson, the director of this movie, who made me a star. I met him in 1980 in Paris. I was making enough money in movies. To make a living is enough. Who needs more? I didn't care about bigger parts, but it was his movie `The Big Blue' that made me a star.''
``The Professional'' is the American debut for Bresson, who scored a hit here with ``La Femme Nikita,'' a violent movie about a female assassin. Americans took to it so much in art theaters that it was promptly dubbed and re-released in the malls. That was such a hit Hollywood churned out ``Point of No Return,'' a remake starring Bridget Fonda.
``After the success of `La Femme Nikita,' I wanted very much to make an American film,'' said the stocky, fair-haired Bresson, sitting for an interview at the Righa Royal Hotel in Manhattan. ``They raised $16 million to make this movie. That is not a lot of money for a movie in America, but it is more than I had for any other movie.''
Bresson's movies have been criticized for being too violent, but he has said, ``It is an undeniable part of life. I am the type who won't harm a fly, and I'm very forgiving. But if somebody in the streets tries to knock on my daughter, I would kill the guy in five seconds.
``I try to be a normal human being, but I'm a beast on this part - and everyone is like me in that way. We can't forget that the genetic things inside us are much, much, older than the Ten Commandments. I wanted to explore a story that has this dark beast in it.''
``The Professional,'' he said, is ``a confrontation between the colors. Dark color vs. pink color. This guy, Leon, is indestructible, a submarine that cannot be sunk, but this 12-year-old girl reaches him. The kid can move the mountain.''
Of his leading man, Bresson said: ``Jean is fresh. He is ready to give his soul to the movie. I feel very comfortable once I cast him.''
He wasn't so sure about finding the right child. Natalie Portman, a ballet student and daughter of a prominent New Jersey doctor, was chosen from more than 2,000 applicants.
``Natalie is very smart,'' Reno said of his eighth-grade co-star. ``You tell her how to play the scene, and she does it. But Luc was traumatized over whether she could hold the same strength over the six months it took to make the movie. I was glad I was not the director. I slept at night. Luc told me he didn't sleep until the last scene was shot.''
Bresson, 35, was born in Paris. ``In film, everyone talks about Hollywood as if it were the big church,'' he said. In 1978, he came to New York and decided to take a bus to Hollywood. He thought it was nearby. ``I was surprised that it took six days to get there.'' He liked the weather, but had to return to France to become a major director.
Both Gary Oldman, who plays a corrupt drug enforcement boss, and Danny Aiello, who plays a Little Italy powerbroker, took pay cuts to appear in ``The Professional.'' Reno explained the director's appeal.
``He believes the actor is the heart of the film, any film,'' he said. ``He sits right beside the camera and he talks to the actor during the scene. He taught me to act with my body, not just with my face or my lines.''
Bresson feels the controversy over violence, and a young girl who says ``cool'' when she learns how to operate a gun, will be greater in the United States. Coupled with a unique style of closeups and drum-beat music, ``The Professional'' is sure to be one of the more talked-about films of 1994. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
JEAN RENO AND NATALIE PORTMAN STAR IN ``THE PROFESSIONAL.''
by CNB