L鯮/The Professional: not in a lifetime would I ever call this
rather plodding and over-the-top neo/post/pseudo/modern flick
a ³noir² film...It is a bastardized version of a genre
started with Luc Besson¹s own Subway, then his Le Grand Bleu
(which made Jean Reno¹s one dimensional character famous),
then La Femme Nikita...None of those are film noirs either by
any means...they are what they are, and very good at
that...The Professional is an artsy and overly stylized
action film in that Besson¹s genre, with solid acting
performances...but it has nothing noir in it!..it circulates
with other films like Killing Zo頨also a 1994 film) as modern
day parodies of crime films....In the genre I very strongly
recommend Tykwer¹s Run, Lola Run, a far superior film...check
out this Urbancinefile (Australia) review that will leave L鯮
(The Professional) in the dust in comparison:
"The perfect modern throwaway movie. The characters are like
instant pulped versions of several decades of poses and
quotes: the cute lowlife chick with punk red hair could have
come out of an early Luc Besson film (e.g. Subway). The
hyped-up style is closer to British cinema
postTrainspotting: all fast action, kooky angles and
throbbing beats, wrapped up in a playfully fractured
narrative. Clearly there¹s a common source of inspiration in
TV commercials, with their shorthand use of predigested,
immediately legible images. More figuratively, the film
resembles a computer game, locked into a matrix of possible
options within a limited chunk of space and time (an approach
shared by recent formal spectaculars as diverse as Jafar
Panahi¹s The White Balloon and Brian de Palma¹s Snake Eyes).
Director Tom Tykwer gets points for sustaining the energy
level almost throughout, tossing in everything from animation
to shot-on-video psychodrama. But if the film is more than a
slick stunt it¹s less via the shreds of Œrealism¹ in the mix
than the way the whole thing suggests itself as a romantic
metaphor for modern life contingent, superficial yet
weighty, based in the banal everyday while driven by kinetic
pop emotion. Many films have done great things with similar
themes, which is perhaps why this one doesn¹t finally have a
lot of resonance: storyboarded and streamlined to the
ultimate degree, it flashes past you in a moment and
disappears without a trace. Even so, it¹s too much fun to
miss." Jake Wilson
...this review will probably redirect your thinking about
those types of ad-like-films which had a short but successful
run in mid-90¹s...as borrowers of styles...
Le Montois de D鴲oit
On 5/7/07 4:54 PM, "jasonpaulmiller33" <
jpaulmiller@gmail.com> wrote: Gary Oldman's
performance makes it almost easy for Reno's character
> to become a noir hero. Such a commanding
performance, bar setting
> for other corrupt police villan-kings....
>
> --- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
<mailto:rara-avis-l%40yahoogroups.com> ,
> William Ahearn
> <williamahearn@...> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > Hey,
>> >
>> > Anybody see Luc Bresson's The Professional
(sometimes
>> > titled Leon) with Jean Reno? Yes, it's a
recent flick
>> > -- and very violent -- but it certainly
fulfills the
>> > criteria for being noir in the classic
sense.
>> >
>> > Anybody else see it?
>> >
>> > William
>> >
>> > Essays and Ramblings
>> > <http://www.williamahearn.com>
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