Historical Figure
Luc Besson
b. 1959
French filmmaker (born 1959)
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Biography
Luc Paul Maurice Besson is a French filmmaker. He directed and produced the films Subway (1985), The Big Blue (1988), and La Femme Nikita (1990). Associated with the Cinéma du look film movement, he has been nominated for a César Award for Best Director and Best Picture for his films Léon: The Professional (1994) and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999). He won Best Director and Best French Director for his sci-fi action film The Fifth Element (1997). He wrote and directed the sci-fi action film Lucy (2014), the space opera film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017), Dogman (2023), and the fantasy romantic movie Dracula (2025).
Timeline
The story of Luc Besson, told in moments.
Directs The Big Blue, a film about competitive free diving. It flops in the U.S. but becomes a cult phenomenon in France, playing in Parisian theaters for over a year. Young French audiences see it dozens of times.
Releases Leon: The Professional. Jean Reno as a hitman. A 12-year-old Natalie Portman in her film debut. Gary Oldman chewing every set piece to splinters. It makes $46 million worldwide and launches Portman's career.
The Fifth Element opens. Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Chris Tucker in orange hair. Jean-Paul Gaultier designs the costumes. It costs $90 million and makes $264 million. Critics are split. Audiences don't care.
Founds EuropaCorp, a studio built to make French films that compete globally. Over the next two decades, it produces the Taken and Transporter franchises, turning mid-budget action films into a reliable export business.
In Their Own Words (17)
Sometimes I see people finish a film and they go, "Yeah, that was good. Where are we going to eat?" - Interview for The Slashfilm (2016)
2014
Loving a film is like falling in love with a woman or with a man like you never expect it. It's not the one you think you will be in love with, you know. You think always that he will be with a beard, and black, and big and finally he's Chinese and you know it's the same thing. There's something very organic about the film and if you forgot it, if you don't have this seed in it...this organic flavor in it the film doesn't work it's wrong. - Interview for The Collider (2016)
2014
Learning's always a painful process.
2014
“If you’re a race runner, and you run, and progress, and you have the feeling that, yeah, you’re pretty good. You watch your time, and every week you make it better, and there’s a certain moment that you feel that maybe you can go to the Olympic games because you feel good. And then you watch TV and you see Usain Bolt. And then you say, ‘I’m not going to go this year, I’m going in four years’. - Interview for The Alarabiya (2017)
2014
"I would rather stop too soon than too late." - Interview for The Guardian (2011)
2014
Artifacts (15)
when I entered the Army, it was one of the greatest things in the world
cause it was one of the few unifying forces which represented the whole of French society. He later wrote that "when I entered the Army, it was one of the greatest things in the world", a claim...
My first colonel, Pétain, taught me the art of command
l (and future Marshal) Philippe Pétain, whom de Gaulle would follow for the next 15 years. He later wrote in his memoirs: "My first colonel, Pétain, taught me the art of command". It has been...
Les Aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec: un film de Luc Besson : le roman du film
Pour ceux qui ne connaîtraient pas Adèle Blanc-Sec, voici l'occasion de découvrir ce personnage mystérieux de la Belle Epoque, femme moderne avant la lettre, et justement écrivain, journaliste et...
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