Four decades have passed sinceLuc Bessonfound fame as an emerging 26-year-old director with thrillerSubwaystarring Isabelle Adjani and Christopher Lambert.
It was really two actors and a director because of the lockdown.
It felt good to be uniquely creative without the pressure of money.
Luc Besson filming skydiving scene from June & John with a smartphoneEuropaCorp
Luke Stanton Eddy co-stars as downtrodden officer worker John opposite Matilda Price as the free-spirited June.
We cant go out, we cant film, we cant do anything.
Thats not possible for me.
Luc Besson shooting June & JohnEuropaCorp
Im like a wolf in a cage, recounts Besson with a laugh.
Just prior to the pandemic, Besson had been developing a project for a major Chinese smartphone brand.
They wanted a short film of 15 to 20 minutes.
They gave me carte blanche.
It offered enormous freedom.
You take your phone in your hand, and you shoot, he continues.
Thats what interested me above all.
Ive done 21 films, big films, with big budgets and crew.
The scene in the little tent, for example, that was incredible.
It was just us three.
One day we were talking about life and birds and she started crying.
I asked her why, and she said: Because I will never fly.
It struck me at the time because she was so emotional.
It was the loss of dreams.
We think when were 10, 12 that one day well fly.
Then we arrive at 18, 20 and understand well never fly.
It always stayed with me and came out 30 years later in a film.
The city worked well with the story.
That pop in of pressure… its very Los Angeles.
In France its not quite the same atmosphere… everyone shouts and then we come back and say sorry.
Warner followed Stanley Kubrick for 30 years.
Maybe well win, maybe well lose but were going to follow him.
Today, the studios dont follow artists at all, zero.
They only follow excel spread sheets and the outcome is that they make less money.
They need to have confidence in artists again.
Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose but at least they make good films.
Just because they control the purse strings, it doesnt mean they understand everything.
I remember takingThe Fifth Elementto Sony.
Its too big and too mainstream for Cannes, he says.
Shoots are always difficult for me, apart fromJune & Johnwhich was so light and easy.
As soon as a film is $45 million… theres pressure.
Besson says that rather his favorite activity is writing.
I started writing when I was 16.
I wroteThe Fifth Element.
It began as a novel.
Its like a muscle.
Today, the freedom to create is over…
