Léon: The Professional

Léon
File:Léon poster.JPG Official promotional poster
Directed by	Luc Besson
Written by	Luc Besson
Produced by	Patrice Ledoux
Starring	Jean Reno Gary Oldman Natalie Portman Danny Aiello
Cinematography	Thierry Arbogast
Edited by	Sylvie Landra
Music by	Éric Serra
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures Gaumont Film Company
Release dates	France: 14 September 1994 United States: 18 November 1994
Running time	110 min. (Theatrical) 133 min. (Director's Cut) 136 min. (Uncut)
Language	English
Budget	$16 million

Léon (also known as The Professional and Léon: The Professional) is a French 1994 action drama film written and directed by French director Luc Besson. It stars Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, and a young Natalie Portman in her first starring role.

Plot

Léon (Jean Reno) is a hitman (or "cleaner" as he would rather be known) living a solitary life in New York City's Little Italy. Most of his work comes from a mafioso named Tony (Danny Aiello), who operates from the "Supreme Macaroni Company" retail store. Leon spends his idle time engaging in calisthenics, nurturing a houseplant that early on he describes as his "best friend", and (in one scene) watching a Gene Kelly musical.

One day he meets Mathilda (Natalie Portman), a twelve-year-old girl with a black eye, living with her dysfunctional family in an apartment down the hallway. Mathilda's father (Michael Badalucco) attracts the ire of corrupt DEA agents, who have been paying him to store cocaine in his residence, after they discover that he has been stealing some of the drugs for himself. A cadre of agents storm the building, led by a ragged and drug-addicted Norman "Stan" Stansfield (Gary Oldman), and murder Mathilda's entire family, missing her only because she was out shopping when they arrived. When she returns with the groceries she was sent to buy, she calmly continues down the hallway past the open door of her family's apartment, and receives sanctuary from a reluctant Léon.

Mathilda, who soon discovers that Léon is a hitman, begs Léon to become her caretaker, and to teach her his skills as a "cleaner": she wants to avenge the murder of her brother, the only member of her family that she actually loved. In return, she offers herself as a maid and teacher, remedying Léon's illiteracy. Léon hesitantly accepts her offer and the two begin working together, slowly building an emotional attachment between one another, with Léon becoming a friend and father figure. As they work together, Mathilda admits to Léon several times that she is falling in love with him, but he says nothing back.

As Mathilda increases her confidence and experience, she locates Stansfield, follows him to his office in the DEA building in an attempt to kill him, only to be ambushed by Stansfield in a bathroom. Léon, discovering her intentions after reading a note left for him by Mathilda, infiltrates the building and rescues her, shooting several of Stansfield's men during the process.

Stansfield is enraged that what he calls the "Italian hitman" has gone rogue and is killing his own men. He confronts Tony and threatens him into surrendering Léon's whereabouts. One day, as Mathilda returns home from grocery shopping, an NYPD ESU (Emergency Service Unit) team, sent by Stansfield, takes her hostage and attempts to infiltrate Léon's apartment. Léon ambushes the ESU team and takes one of their members hostage, rapidly bartering him for Mathilda's freedom. As they slink back into the apartment, Léon rips open the wall to get at a small ventilation shaft in the kitchen and sends Mathilda down. He then tells her that he loves her, and she goes down to safety moments before a rifle grenade rips into the apartment.

In the chaos following the explosion, Léon sneaks out of the apartment building disguised as a wounded ESU officer. On his way out of the building, Léon is noticed by Stansfield, who silently follows him before shooting him from behind. Stansfield, looming over the dying Léon in a pool of his own blood, finally introduces himself. Léon hands Stansfield an object, which he explains is "from Mathilda". Stansfield opens his hand and recognizes it as the pin from a grenade. He proceeds to open Léon's vest to see not only the now-pinless grenade, but numerous others strapped to his chest. Stansfield mutters, "Oh, shit" right before a massive explosion kills them both and sends shock waves through the neighborhood.

Mathilda heads to Tony's place as she was instructed to do by Léon. Tony will not give Mathilda more than a few dollars of the fortune Léon had amassed, which was being held by Tony. His reasoning is that she is not old enough to receive the large amount of money and that school should be her priority until she's older. When Mathilda asks Tony to giver her a 'job', and insists that she can 'clean' as Leon had, Tony sternly informs her that he 'ain't got no jobs for a 12-year-old girl!'. Having no where else to go, she is then seen returning to school using the Roosevelt Island Tramway. The film ends in a scene on the school's grounds: Mathilda has Léon's houseplant in hand, a plant that Léon had dropped down the same shaft that Mathilda had used to make her escape. Mathilda digs a hole and plants the houseplant in the grounds of the school, as she had once promised Léon she would, "to give it roots."

Leon & Mathilda's apartment building on the northwest corner of E 97th St & Park Ave (Feb. 2005)

Production

Léon is to some extent an expansion of an idea in Besson's earlier film, Nikita (1990), in which Jean Reno played a similar character named Victor. Besson described Léon as "Now maybe Jean is playing the American cousin of Victor. This time he's more Human."

While most of the interior footage was shot in France, the rest of the film was shot on location in New York City.

• Leon and Matilda's original apartment building used two locations. The exterior entrance is the door next to St. Miriam Grocery at 71 East 97th Street (40.78738°N 73.95226°W / 40.78738; -73.95226). The interior stairs and hallways are from the Hotel Chelsea.
• Tony's restaurant (Guido's Restaurant in real life), was located in the Supreme Macaroni Co. building at 511 Ninth Avenue. The building was demolished in 2007 to make way for condo/hotel complex. (40.75616°N 73.99445°W / 40.75616; -73.99445)

Reception

The film was well received by most critics. The film has gathered a strong fan base and it is as of 22nd July 2008 ranked 39th on IMDB's Top 250 Films list, which reflects the best 250 films of all time according to votes from members.

Director's cut

There is also a long version of the film, referred to as the director's cut, "international version" or "version intégrale". It has approximately 23 minutes of additional footage that was removed from the original release. The additional material is found in the film's second act, and it depicts more of the interactions and relationship between Léon and Mathilda. In one scene, Mathilda plays Russian Roulette to try to get Léon to admit he loves her; in another, she openly asks him to be her first lover, but he refuses, although they do share a bed. He also refers to a past romantic relationship he once had that ended in tragedy that started his career as a hitman. Most of the other material in the longer cut involves Mathilda accompanying Léon on several of his hits, to further her training.

The "version longue" of Léon was shown in 1996 in French cinemas (followed by VHS), and released - as "version intégrale" - on LaserDisc and later Region 2 DVD in Japan. It appeared as the "international version" on Region 1 DVD in North America in 2000, and was re-issued in 2005.

In popular culture

• In the 2001 video game Max Payne, the scene where Alex gets shot and we see his point of view (falling, followed by a flash of white) is a reference to a similar scene in Léon. Saku Lehtinen, of the game's level designers, also stated this in a 2001 interview with Machinima.com.
• In the popular 2005 video game Resident Evil 4, after beating the game, the character Leon is awarded a handgun named Matilda. Additionally, the highest difficulty level in the game is titled Professional, which is also unlocked after beating the game.
• In the 2007 film Hot Fuzz, the Japanese peace lily that Nicholas Angel brings with him and takes care of is much like Leon's plant in the movie Leon. When he talks about it, similar dialogue is used.
• The main character of the Japanese manga Eat-Man is often mistaken for another character named Leon. He is tall, silent, and wears a similar hat to the Léon in the film.
• The final mission of Hitman: Contracts, begins with the player in an apartment under siege by various police forces, and is tasked with escaping. One of the methods the player may use is disguising himself as a SWAT member, much like in the film.
• In the interactive visual novel Phantom of Inferno, the character of Cal Devins is extremely similar to Mathilda and even wears a brighter, but similar outfit. She too loses a sibling she considers to be her only real family after being caught in a shoot-out neither of them really had anything to do with. The people responbsible are after her, and she is taken in by the assasin protagonist Reiji, whom she pays to avenge her sibling's death-in addition to cooking for him-and also learns some assassin skills from, accompanying him on a hit as well. There are also hints at a romantic relationship between the pair.

Remake

Bollywood produced a remake of the film released in 2000 and called Bichhoo, which stars Bobby Deol and Rani Mukherjee. The character of Mathilda, played by Mukherjee, has been altered significantly, as she is now 20 years old and is in a romantic relationship with the protagonist.

External links

• Location information for Supreme Macaroni Co.