Blockbuster.co.uk - Luc Besson

With his tenth film, family fantasy Arthur and the Invisibles, finally available on DVD, mainstream French director Luc Besson chats with Blockbuster.co.uk's Marshall Julius about his colourful life and incredible career.

Luc Besson loves to travel. A celebrated all-round filmmaker currently touting his tenth film, children's adventure Arthur and the Invisibles, around the world, the Parisian auteur simply can't get enough of friendly foreigners. "I've been everywhere with Arthur," enthuses Besson, 47, "and I'm always thrilled when people are nice to me. I'm touched every time. I can't believe how they treat me. I feel like a king. Then you go back to your own country," he pauses for emphasis, his brow crumpling slightly, "and they treat you like merde."

Maybe he shouldn't go back there so often. As the writer/director of cult hits Nikita, Leon, The Big Blue and The Fifth Element, there are scores of other countries that would proudly call him their own. "A lot of people think they hate me in France because my films are considered purely commercial. It would be easy if it was just that, but even when I made Angel-A, which was black and white and not commercial at all, they still didn't like it. I think it's just pure jealousy. We always hate the winner." Same as in England, really. We're much more comfortable with failure. "So you see," says Besson, a smile creeping across his beardy features, "our countries do have something in common!"

Raised in the oceans of Croatia, Greece and Morocco by his scuba diving parents, Besson was a fish at heart. "We had no TV when I was young so I spent most of my time in the water, swimming from morning till evening. It was like that as far back as I can remember. My mum told me I could swim before I could walk."

Long before he set his sights on cinema, Besson planned to be a marine biologist specialising in dolphins, the show-offs of the sea. "I love the creature," he says with a passion. "Basically the dolphin does three things during his days. He plays, he eats and he makes love. It's a good life. They are the kings of the ocean. They have no predators. At the same time, they never built anything, or destroyed anything. They show us you can be the master without changing or ruining anything. In a way, I think more of dolphins than I do of human beings. Of course, there are plenty of people who amaze me with their generosity, kindness and intelligence, but many more who do just the opposite. Dolphins are more consistent I think."

A teenage diving mishap saw Besson consider alternatives to a life beneath the ocean wave. "I was diving down about 40 metres. I came up too fast and it affected my optical nerve. I went blind for a while. My doctor at the time told me I wouldn't dive again, and though it turned out to be a wrong diagnosis, it got me thinking of other careers, and encouraged me to follow a different path. I love marine biology but it's not my only passion. Through my films I've been able to explore the oceans, but also do much more."

Even considering all the time he spent with his dolphin chums, it still comes as something of a surprise to learn the celebrated filmmaker rarely went to the movies in his youth. Turns out that was a good thing. "If I'd grown up watching a lot of movies it might have blocked me," explains Besson. "When you're aware of the work of too many great artists, you can't help comparing. Maybe then you end up failing to express yourself. Me, I had no notion of cinema. What made me decide to become a filmmaker was a visit to the set of a short film. I fell in love with it. I wanted to stay there and learn as much as I could, and then I wanted to make a short film of my own. It was that simple."

Rather less simple were the movies Besson went on to make, complex, explosive thrillers, striking underwater epics and even a mythic sci fi spectacular. Clearly, he isn't one to shy away from a challenge. "If I have an idea and I love it, I don't care what it takes to make it work. I may not know how I'm going to do it, but I know I'll figure it out. On The Big Blue, when there was no camera capable of shooting what I needed, I spent a year and a half inventing it. When I did The Fifth Element, I had no clue about special effects. The only thing I knew was that I wanted to see this girl diving in the middle of flying cars. Eventually, I did."

Realising his visions with sheer force of will, Besson has more recently set his sights on gentler fare, spending the last five years on his largely computer generated fantasy Arthur and the Invisibles, available now to add to your list. "As you get older you want to turn back and talk to the young generation. I think it's a normal process. When I was younger I wanted to kick arses. I wanted to be strong and hard and prove myself. I wanted to point at society and say, 'this is wrong and that is wrong'. And then you get older and start to think about the younger generation. About the world they're growing up in. I watch the news every night, I see the world we've made for them. One that we're destroying a little more every day, where there are wars and unemployment, drama everywhere, and I'm not so proud. The only thing I could think of to do was spend a couple of years making a great film for children. To talk about ecology, racism, friendship and love. To try to feed them properly, so they'll have some good things to grow up with."

So far the kids appear completely nourished by Besson's latest. Arthur is officially delicious. "I saw it yesterday in London. There were 300 kids in the room and it was insane. It was so charming. When they got out of the screening at the end, the looks on their faces, they were lost! Like they'd just come from another planet and weren't back on earth yet!"

Encouraged by the response to his first Arthur adventure, Besson is currently planning the next two. "I'd make more just to have Freddie Highmore and Mia Farrow back together again. It'll be like going back to the same place for your holidays! I just want to go there again and again. Even though it was a long, hard journey, we had such a good time."

As for the future, Besson insists that while he's happy to continue directing, ".it wouldn't make me sad if I stopped tomorrow. I always dreamed of making ten films, and I'm surprised I achieved that. I'm very proud of them. I'm not sure today, after 30 years of making movies, that I have the strength to do something fresh and new without repeating myself. I'm too honest to make something just for money or power. Otherwise I'd be in Hollywood. I'm too in love with film to make any old thing."

Luc Besson Filmography