``Léon: The Professional Complete Edition'' A quiet man and eloquent images - A strange way to charm people to evoke feelings

“Kaomise” of three characters

From now on, I would like to write about the contents of ``Léon: The Professional''. In this work, the charm of the three main characters is striking.

Léon: The Professional, a quiet assassin, has a style of showing off each part. After a short tempo showing a close-up of his eyes wearing round sunglasses, a mustache, and milk, his facial expressions are revealed in the assassination scene. Léon: The Professional's slimy face appears as if floating in the darkness, and he presses a knife to the nape of his target's neck to intimidate him, and once he's finished, he disappears into the darkness again.

After a series of mysterious scenes, we finally get to see the whole body, which is a completely different depiction of peaceful daily life from the beginning. A white T-shirt, a black wool coat with an open chest, a knit cap, and round sunglasses. With Jean Reno's characteristic hooked nose, his unique appearance, as if straight out of a bande dessinée, catches the eye. Moreover, what he was holding in his hand was a bag containing milk. Coupled with the fragmentary presentation at the beginning, it leaves a strong impression that you won't forget once you see it.

Waiting for him as he climbs the stairs to his apartment is a lonely girl, Matilda, peeking out over the railing in the hallway. A black choker, a bob cut, and a cigarette in her mouth, she has a mixture of the innocent charm of a young girl and a worldly charm. Furthermore, there are bruises around his eyes from being beaten by his father, which also symbolizes his tragedy. I was overwhelmed by the overwhelming charm of Natalie Portman, who was chosen from over 2,000 candidates and made her film debut in this film, but she also does a great job of highlighting her by showing her eyes to the audience first. .

"Léon: The Professional Complete Edition" (c) Photofest / Getty Images

In this film, the first appearance of the characters is decorated with dramatic effects, such as Léon: The Professional's close-up of his body parts and Matilda's eyes through the fence, but the first appearance of Stansfield, played by Gary Oldman, is intentionally shot from behind. This creates a sense of eeriness. This ``face display'' between the three actors is really useful in giving the audience input into the characters.

By the way, the scene where Stansfield turns around and smells Matilda's father (Michael Badalko) was apparently improvised by Oldman. The reason why Badalko's expression of fear at his mysterious movements is so realistic is because it was unexpected for him as well. The scene in which Stansfield emphasizes Beethoven is improvised, and Oldman's expressiveness is captivating.

After that, it is depicted that Léon: The Professional loves houseplants, that when he takes off his coat, he is equipped with weapons such as grenades and guns all over his body, and that Matilda is living being oppressed by her family, and Stansfield In the scene where he takes drugs and brutally murders Matilda's family while moving his body like a conductor, we get a thrilling sense of his abnormal nature.

The production, which combines the enthusiastic performances of the cast with the individuality of the characters, is so splendid that even today, I would like to call it a model of a ``character movie.'' This is probably one of the reasons why this work has continued to gain new fans over time, and has been paid homage to by many subsequent works, regardless of whether they are movies or not.

Psychological depiction of the meaning of “changing”, “wearing” and “taking off” costumes