I’ve just watched Léon, a film from 1994 directed by Luc Besson. The movie’s just been aired on one of the Norwegian TV-channels, and I’m stunned. As a rule, I find big doses of gangsters, violence, blood, gore, corpses, drugs, and senseless killing utterly unappealing and certainly not very entertaining. Léon is a movie about a pro hitman (excellently played by Jean Reno) and is full of it, yet I was riveted from beginning to end. Visceral and intelligent, this is an action thriller for lovers. A true masterpiece, and probably Besson’s best, beating even Nikita and The Fifth Element. Gary Oldman as Stansfield is fabelous, as is a very young Natalie Portman as Mathilda, marking Portman’s feature film debut.
