Leon

If for nothing else I love this film because of the stillness of the camera. What a relief from the Bochco/Bay shaky/flying camera work that has become so commonplace. Yes it has a role in some work but it is so overdone Dramamine should be sold at the movie concession stand. Luc Besson thankfully chose stillness to tell this action filled tale of a professional hit man and the child he first protects and then comes to love. But there is actually much to love beyond just the cinematography of thus film. Jean Reno, Gary Oldman and Natalie Portman are all terrific. Each has carved such a distinct character in this piece and yet as they interact with each other they are perfectly synched. The love story between Leon and Mathilda could have been creepily unconventional, but Reno and Portman artfully portray the grown man and the 12 year old who are emotional peers due to the circumstances of their upbringings. And then there's Gary Oldman's Stansfield who is determined for business reasons to doom the romance. The film is shot in New York City, I am guessing in 1992 or 1993, due to the release date. The city looks especially cavernous and sunlit. It has the vague feel of a clean version of 1970s New York. I love how Besson and his cinematographer, Thierry Arbogast, captured the life and architecture of the city from this key transitional time for the City. At that time we were living in a city that still had lots of raw rough spots that gave an edge to daily life but money was starting to pour into the city via the financial services sectors, the sour economy of 1992 was turning around and the Tyrant Giuliani was on the verge of becoming the Mayor in order to tell us all how to behave. We were unknowingly about to enter NYC's most prosperous era and bear witness to its Disneyfication. Oh Christ I didn't realize till I saw this film how nostalgic I am for the early 1990s in the City. Besson has memorialized on film my ideal view of NYC while telling this story of his two cleaners.
Memorable moment: Mathilda's brother making a break for safety.