Luc Besson

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Biography

Luc Besson is a famous French film director, screenwriter, and producer. Critics cite Besson as a pivotal figure in the Cinéma du look movement, a specific, highly visual style produced from the 1980s into the early 1990s, exemplified by his Subway (1985), The Big Blue (1988) and La Femme Nikita (1990). Besson was nominated for Best Director and Best Picture César Awards for his films Léon: The Professional and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc. He won Best Director and Best French Director for his sci-fi action film The Fifth Element (1997). His sci-fi thriller film Lucy (2014) is France's biggest export success.

Besson has been involved with filmmaking for more than 50 films since 1978, as writer, director, and/or producer. He has also been declared the John Hughes of action films because his screen writing skills are more famous than his directing.

Luc was born 18 March 1959 in Paris, to parents who both worked as Club Med scuba-diving instructors. Influenced by this milieu, as a child Besson planned to become a marine biologist. He spent much of his youth traveling with his parents to tourist resorts in Italy, Yugoslavia, and Greece.

The family returned to France when Luc was 10. His parents promptly divorced and each remarried.

At the age of 17, a diving accident that left him unable to dive ended his first career aspiration. Then thinking about getting into filmmaking, he was able to first get onto a set because a friend of his "knew a guy whose brother was a third assistant on a short film. It's true," he said in a 2000 interview with The Guardian.

At 18, Besson returned to Paris and took odd jobs in filmmaking, and directed three short films, a commissioned documentary, and several commercials.

After a three-year move to the United States in the late 1970s, Luc again returned to Paris, where he formed his own production company, Les Films du Loup, but then changed it to Les Films du Dauphin. This was later superseded in 2000 by his co-founding EuropaCorp film company with his longtime collaborator, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam.

In the early 1980s, Besson began collaborating with composer Éric Serra.

Luc Besson has been married four times; first, in 1986, to actress Anne Parillaud who would star in Besson's La Femme Nikita (1990). Besson and Parillaud had a daughter,

1. Juliette, born in 1987, and now a successful film actress.

The couple divorced in 1991.

Besson's second wife was the French actress and later award-winning director Maïwenn Le Besco. They were married in late 1992 and had a daughter

1. Shanna, who was born on 3 January 1993.

On 14 December 1997 he married 22-year-old actress Milla Jovovich, whom he had met during the filming of The Fifth Element (1997). They divorced in 1999.

Luc Besson is married to film producer Virginie Silla since 28 August 2004. The couple has three children.

Sources

• Wikipedia article: Luc Besson