Having only first watched this film quite recently this heartwarming feature made me not only realize a 12 year old has better fashion sense than me but also that I have a new favourite film.
Luc Besson's 1994 story of a hit man taking 12 year old Mathilda under his wing in the specialized area of assassination. Leon, who portrays a "batman" type of energy by taking out mob bosses and victims in broad daylight and no one bats an eye. No family, no friends. As he keeps his personal life to himself and has a close circle of himself and his best friend his Aglaonema Plant. While living in the same apartment as Mathilda and her broken family, Leon crosses paths with our female protagonist on the staircase as she smokes a cigarettes politely asking Leon not to tell her father.
With this first conversation starting off to be the start of their relationship, soon Mathilda knocks on Leon's front door seeking refuge after Norman Stansfeild a DEA Officer has raided her house and brutally murdering her whole family without remorse as her father was accused of taking a bag of cocaine for himself instead of selling it, she is more upset they killed her younger brother than the rest of her family. She wants Leon to teach her how to use guns so she can get revenge on the people who killed her brother.
Regarding the narrative structure, Leon The Professional adheres to Todorov's Theory profusely. Say we were to break down each section in the film that would marry to the relevant component of Todorov's Theory. The "State Of Equilibrium", Leon is comfortable in his quiet life as a "cleaner". Not long we discover the "Disruption of Equilibrium", when Mathilda's family is killed while she is out getting groceries. The "Recognition of the Disruption" component adhere's to when Mathilda seeks refuge in Leon. Mathilda "Attempts to Repair The Damage" by getting Leon to show her how to use a gun so she can get revenge on the people that killed her brother. This leads to a huge manhunt for Mathilda and Leon so Norman can kill them both, the final action scene follows Mathilda and Leon trying to escape a mass of cops as Leon uses is specialized hitman skills killing them as she escapes. The "Restoration of Equilibrium" aspect of Todorov's Theory finally comes into place when Mathilda goes back to school and peace is restored. In a way the narrative structure of Leon could cohere to Campbell's Narrative Structure.
To only compliment the amazing works of Thierry Arbogast's cinematography, the film is set in New York in the 90's but having a Parisian undertone in terms of Leon being french, the french music that plays in some scenes as well as the director Luc Besson being French. The colour palette has a balance of yellows, reds and greens perfectly balanced and not extremely colour graded to the extent that it distracting from the story.
1994 was certainly a year for great films with Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction and Ace Ventura all released within a couple of months between eachother, Leon The Professional is the underdog of 1994's films. Action balanced with romance (kind of) and drama it is the perfect mix to make a classic, heartwarming film that everyone needs to watch at least once in their life.
The Pink Soap Review Rating: 10/10 beautiful stuff!
