The Big Blue (4 Stars)

This is the latest film in the "Best of Cinema" series, in which a classic film is shown on the first Tuesday of every month. I've seen most of the films in the series, but this was a new film to me. It was directed by Luc Besson, and there was some confusion (to me at least) what the original language was. I finally discovered that the film was made in English, but for years the only DVDs available were dubbed into French. Even the version shown today was confusing. Some of the dialogue spoken by Americans was shown with French subtitles.

The film is about the two diving champions, Jacques Mayol and Enzo Molinari. They're both real life divers, but the film doesn't tell their true story. It could be argued that they're two fictional characters who just happen to have the same names as real world divers.

Jacques is French and Enzo is Italian, but they grow up on the Greek island of Amorgos. No reason is given for this. They're close friends, and they both love the water. Even as children they're both skilled divers.

23 years later, in 1988 (the year the film was made), Enzo is the world diving champion. There's a diving championship in Sicily, and Enzo insists on Jacques taking part, because he considers him to be the only other diver on his level. In the championship Enzo sets a new world record (108 meters), but Jacques defeats him with a 115 meter dive. Their friendly rivalry continues, each breaking the other's records in turn, until Jacques finally dives 122 meters.

Jacques falls in love with an American insurance investigator called Johanna; or rather, she falls in love with him. He loves his pet dolphins more than he loves her, and even when she tells him she's pregnant he would rather remain in the water with them.

I've heard people call "The Big Blue" the best French film ever made. It doesn't deserve that title if it was filmed in English, but I'll let it stand. It's an enjoyable film, but the brief comic interludes are out of place. It could have been better if it had been kept completely serious. Apart from that, I doubt that one of the scenes is technically possible. Jacques and Enzo are on the floor of a swimming pool. They open a bottle of champagne, pour it and drink it. Is that possible? 

At some point I'll make a complete list of the first 24 films in the "Best of Cinema" series. Not tonight. It's too late, and I'm tired.

Success Rate:  - 3.8

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Leon (5 Stars)

"Leon", called "The Professional" in America, is a deeply emotional film despite its violence. It tells the story of a hitman in New York who lives alone in a poor apartment. He's earned a lot of money, but he's never touched it, apart from buying the most basic needs of food and clothing. Why should he need luxury? He never goes on holiday because he's always working. He's a professional who lives for his job and nothing else.

Leon's peaceful professional life is shattered when he meets a 12-year-old girl called Mathilda. He takes her into his apartment after her family has been murdered by corrupt policemen. She doesn't care that her parents died, because they were abusive anyway, but she's angry that her four-year-old brother was killed. She wants revenge.

Mathilda wants Leon to kill the police officers (DEA agents) who killed her brother. He refuses because the job is too heavy. She says she'll do it herself and asks him to train her. Again he refuses, but she says she'll do it anyway, so he reluctantly agrees to teach her everything he knows. For the next few months she accompanies him on his jobs. (This is missing from the American version of the film).

Mathilda is impatient and goes out to take revenge by herself. Leon is forced to follow her and protect her.

I mentioned above that there's an American version. There are two versions of "Leon": the international version (132 minutes) and the American version (110 minutes). Sometimes the shorter version is called the theatrical version and the longer version is called the director's cut. That's incorrect. The longer version is the original theatrical version that was shown in cinemas worldwide. The shorter version is a version only shown in American cinemas. The main omissions from the American version are the scenes where Mathilda declares her love for Leon and attempts to seduce him. Americans don't like things like that. Mathilda's training missions are also cut, for reasons unknown to me.

The international version is superior to the American version. There's a poignancy in Mathilda's feelings for an older man that the American version loses. If you've only ever seen the American version, please watch the international version.

I included "Leon" in my list of 30 films to watch before you die, and it's currently in 93rd place in my top 100 films list.

Success Rate:  + 0.9

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Leon (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #96

"Leon" is a magnificent film that could never have been made in America. The subject matter is too sensitive for American audiences. The film was made in France, but in English. It's about an Italian hitman called Leon who adopts a 12-year-old girl after her family is slaughtered. Over the course of the two hour film an awkward relationship develops. Mathilda wants him to teach her how to become a killer, so that she can take revenge on the men who killed her younger brother. (The rest of her family meant nothing to her). She also begins to fall in love with Leon. His age isn't stated, but the actor Jean Reno was 46 when he made the film.

The American cut of the film is inferior to the international version. The romance had to be toned down for American audiences, so 22 minutes was removed from the original international version. I don't see why this was necessary. Leon is a perfect gentleman and rejects Mathilda's romantic overtures. He refuses her whenever she says she wants to sleep with him, as any normal man would. She's just a child.

Leon has always worked alone, but now he takes Mathilda with him as his partner. I'm sure he could do the jobs alone, but it's part of her training. Leon chooses the targets...

... and Mathilda makes the shot.

It's not stated how many men she kills, but based on the quick sequence in the middle of the film it must be at least 15.

The film has outstanding performances from Jean Reno and Natalie Portman in the two main roles. They're so outstanding that I forgot to mention Gary Oldman as the corrupt policeman Norman Stansfield. He's an exaggerated figure in the film, and Gary could be accused of over-acting, but he fits into the film perfectly.

Success Rate:  + 0.9

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The Promise (4½ Stars)

This is a film that takes place in the Ottoman Empire (modern day Turkey) at the beginning of the First World War, from 1914 to 1915. We see the country as a place of beauty, peace and prosperity, especially Istanbul.

Mikael Boghosian, a young Armenian apothecary from Sirun, in the far south east of the empire, goes to Istanbul to study medicine. He lives with his uncle, a rich merchant. At university he makes friends with Emre, the son of a high ranking Turkish official. Emre has no talent as a student and will almost certainly fail to graduate, but his father has told him that if he doesn't study he will have to join the army.

Mikael's uncle has a private teacher for his children, Ana, an Armenian who has spent many years in France. Mikael falls in love with her, even though he's already engaged to Maral, a woman in his village. Ana already has a lover, Chris Myers, an American journalist, but this doesn't dissuade Mikael from pursuing Ana. At this point I already hated him.

Then the problems start. The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire declared a holy war against the Christians in his country. This began on 24th April 1915. The able-bodied Armenian men in Istanbul were conscripted into the army. For their so-called military service they were sent to work camps where they were treated like slaves. Men who were too old to work were shot. Women and children were sent on marches into the desert, where they were left to survive without food and water.

After Istanbul was cleansed of Armenians, the army moved eastwards, killing Armenians wherever they were found. There were long columns of refugees fleeing from the army who didn't know where they were going. Sometimes refugees from the East met refugees from the West, and the refugee groups told each other there was no point in continuing in their direction.

Mikael escapes from his labour camp and manages to walk back to Sirun. He's persuaded to marry Maral. Together they live in a hut in the mountains, but the army comes and they have to flee.

In the meantime Chris and Ana are at a Protestant orphanage caring for Armenian children whose parents have been killed. They have plans to take the children to the coast, where boats will be waiting to evacuate them. Before they get there the army has destroyed the boats. All Armenians must die.

I admit to knowing very little about the Armenian genocide, except that 1.5 million Armenians were killed. The film shows the sheer brutality of it. It wasn't just the army that did the killing. An evil government persuaded its population that it was their duty to Allah to kill Christians. They had probably been racists for years, but as soon as the government said it was okay to kill Armenians they rushed into the streets with their torches and fancy headgear. Isn't it remarkable how racists look the same, whatever country they come from, whatever their religion is?

Not all Turks are bad. Emre uses his father's influence to assist Mikael and Chris on more than one occasion, but when it's discovered he's executed as a traitor.

The film shows that the Turks were very sloppy with their genocide. The Germans were efficient in World War Two. The Jews were sent to camps, they were killed in the showers, and their bodies were burnt in ovens. All very clean and tidy. The Turks simply shot the Armenians and left their bodies piled up on the road or in the woods. They didn't even attempt to bury them. Didn't they consider that the rotting corpses could start diseases?

After watching the film tonight I read the Wikipedia article on the Armenian genocide. It was depressing. It was even worse than what was shown in the film.

Notably, the Turkish government still denies that the Armenian genocide ever happened. President Recep Little Prick Erdogan is too busy killing his present day opponents to listen to allegations that his predecessors committed mass murder.

I enjoyed the film as a presentation of the Armenian genocide, but I couldn't relate to the love triangle (actually a love square, if you include Marla). I disapproved of Mikael being unfaithful to his fiancée, and Chris wasn't a very pleasant person either. At least they were both heroic in trying to save the Armenian orphans when they finally met again.

Leon (5 Stars)

"Leon" is a film I've watched many times, even though I've only watched it once in the last five years (as my blog readers can verify). I'm not sure why I ignored it for so long. That's the problem with having a large film collection like mine. When I want to pick a film I'm confronted with 1875 films on my shelves and it's easy to overlook something. 1875 isn't a random number. I keep an inventory of my films in an Excel spreadsheet, so that's the exact number of films that I own on Blu-ray and DVD, unless I've accidentally omitted something. I actually only have about 1100 films on my shelves. The rest, which I probably won't watch soon, are packed away in boxes. I emphasise the word "probably", because twice in the last year I've had to search my boxes for a film that wasn't on my shelves when I wanted to watch it.

As far as I can remember, I've only ever watched the Director's Cut of "Leon". That's the version I watched when I reviewed it in November. However, on reading up I discovered that it isn't a Director's Cut at all. The longer version, which my disc calls the Director's Cut, is the international version that was shown in France and most other countries. The shorter version, which my disc calls the theatrical version, is the American version.

The American version isn't actually censored. When the original version was shown to test audiences certain parts were criticised, so 25 minutes of footage was cut before the film went on general release. I viewed the short version today for the first time, and I watched carefully to spot the differences. Full lists of the differences are available on other sites, but I'll only name what was obviously missing to me when I watched it.

1. The scenes in which Mathilda expressed her love for Leon and attempted to seduce him are missing.

This was probably removed because it was offensive to American sensibilities. Throughout the film Leon is a very decent man who doesn't take advantage of the young girl. However, the scenes where Mathilda tries to embark on a romance are probably cutting it too close for prudish Americans who like to see perversion in everything. Europeans have no problems with scenes like this. If anything, it strengthens Leon's character, because we see how he resists her advances without the slightest hesitation.

2. The scenes in which Mathilda works as a hit-man in training are missing.

I'm not sure why the American test audiences didn't like this. Maybe they didn't like the idea of a young girl shooting people? Removing these scenes speeds up the film and makes it tighter, but at the cost of more character development.

Shall I watch the American version again? Probably not. The international version, i.e. the original version, is better.

Is this screenshot of Mathilda's older sister working out in front of the television relevant to the film? Not really, but I find Elizabeth Regen very attractive, so I thought it would be worth posting the picture.

Leon (5 Stars)

30 films to watch before you die, #16

"Leon" was made by the director Luc Besson in 1994. In America the film was renamed "The Professional" for reasons beyond my understanding. It tells the story of Mathilda, a 12-year-old girl who falls in love with Leon, an older man who just happens to be a professional hit man. After her family is murdered by corrupt police officers she asks Leon to train her so that she can take revenge.

This is a bizarre film that unsettles the viewer by not letting him know what type of film it is. It seems to be a realistic crime thriller, but the aspect of a 12-year-old girl working as a contract killer looks like something out of a comic book movie. The oriental background music seems out of place, but it adds to the surreal nature of the film.

Jean Reno and Natalie Portman have a natural chemistry which shows up in the characters they play. Mathilda is an intelligent but rebellious girl. Leon is lacking in intelligence, he can't even read, but he knows how to kill. That's all he can do, and he does it well.

This was Natalie Portman's first film, and she's now become one of Hollywood's top actresses. Nevertheless, I consider this to be her best film.

If you like this film, take a look at the following films directed by Luc Besson.

• Nikita (1990)
• Lucy (2014)

Nikita (5 Stars)

I'll start to discuss the film in a moment. First of all some general rambling. I assume most of my readers have noticed a change in my blog in the last week. I finally managed to persuade a friend, Kaylena, to write reviews for me as a "guest writer". It seems like I've created a monster. She has practically hijacked my blog. She's writing five times as many posts as me. But I don't care. Her posts are informative and entertaining. She's bringing fresh wind into my blog. The films I watch are a mixed bag, from the 1940's to today, with the majority being films from the 1980's and 1990's. Kaylena is reviewing almost exclusively modern films from the last two years. I hope my readers will enjoy her posts as much as they do mine, and more than that I hope that it will encourage others to contribute posts as well.

Now to the film. It was made in 1990 by Luc Besson, who both wrote and directed the film. The film has spawned two television series, "La Femme Nikita" (1997-2001) and "Nikita" (2010 to present). I watched and enjoyed "La Femme Nikita" when it was first broadcast. I haven't seen the new series yet. Today was the first time I watched the film. And I wish I hadn't waited so long. It's amazing.

The film and the first TV series don't deal with the same character. The film takes place in France. The TV series is set in America and just borrows the concept. The plot: A 19-year-old girl is in a gang that robs a pharmacy. After a shootout with the police she is the only surviving gang member. She is sentenced to life imprisonment on multiple counts of murder. Someone who works for the government sees potential in her. Her death by suicide is faked and she's transferred to a shady organisation where she's trained to "do something for her country". The first half of the film deals with her training to be a professional killer. The second half shows her being sent on missions to assassinate strangers, without even being told why they have to die.

An interesting premise, that can spawn a story taking place in any country. All of us in democratic countries – especially America? – suspect that our governments have secret organisations that carry out dirty jobs. Jobs that are for the good of the country, but can only be carried out by disregarding the law. Those who commit crimes but are too rich or too clever to be sent to court have to be killed. Quickly. Discreetly. That's what the film is about.

Jean Reno only appears in the film for about 20 minutes towards the end, but as soon as he entered I sat up in excitement. What an actor! His natural charisma immediately eclipsed everyone else in the film. I haven't seen many of his films. At the moment I can only think of "Leon" and "Godzilla". I need to check out what else he's made.

"Nikita" is a French film. I began to watch it in with English dubbing, but it sounded so silly that I changed to the original French dialog with English subtitles. To dub or not to dub? This is a controversial subject. A lot of serious film fans reject dubbing, saying it spoils a film. This might be the case with "Nikita", but I don't agree in general. I prefer dubbing if it's done well. If I don't have to read the text at the bottom of the screen I can concentrate on the rest of the picture. But can dubbing be done well? Let me give an example. I've seen three versions of the French film "Z". The first time I saw it was in the cinema with English dubbing. A few months later I saw it on television in French with subtitles. The quality of the dubbing had been so good that the subtitled version added nothing to it. Then I rented the film on video, it was dubbed, but to my great surprise it was dubbed differently. In the cinema the dialog had been dubbed by English speakers, on the video the dubbing was by speakers with American accents. The American dubbing grated on me, not just the accents themselves, it seemed to be of lesser quality.

Over the years I've seen many dubbed films. Usually the quality of the English dubbing is poor, but in a few cases I appreciated it. But what about other countries? In Germany almost all foreign films are dubbed, and the dubbing is very high quality. Maybe the reason is that in Germany dubbing is a bigger industry. In England most films shown, even foreign films, are already in English. In Germany the majority of films are not in German, so there are big companies that work on dubbing dialog. Not just films, even whole television series are dubbed. As a fluent German speaker I was pleasantly surprised by the dubbing of the series "Dawson's Creek". When I watched the DVDs with the original sound the dialog was often difficult to understand, because the characters spoke fast and often unclearly. Out of curiosity I changed to the German soundtrack. I was amazed. The dubbing was done by speakers who sounded similar to the original actors. Apart from this the dialog was spoken clearly, so I could understand the German dubbed version better than the original!

My advice is that you keep an open mind. If you have both versions of a film available, try the dubbed version first. If you don't like it change to the subtitled version.

Leon (4½ Stars)

This unusual film breaks all the rules, but is a phenomenal success. Leon is a professional killer who has no personal life. He lives to do his job. One day he saves the life of a 12-year-old girl called Mathilda. He decides to take care of her, acting as a father figure to her, but she falls in love with him. The film is shocking, but riveting from beginning to end. No offence meant to Natalie Portman, who plays Mathilda, but this was the peak of her career and I doubt she will ever reach these heights again.