Critically acclaimed French director Luc Besson’s latest cinematic offering is the black and white drama Angel-A. Starring Rie Rasmussen and Jamel Debbouze, Angel-A is the story of Andre, a down-on-his-luck small time criminal who decides to end his pitiful life by throwing himself into the Seine. But as luck would have it, a gorgeous woman (Rasmussen) beats him to the punch and Andre’s compelled to dive in and save her. The statuesque looker pledges to help Andre set his life straight and the unlikely twosome set out to tackle his problems.
On Casting Angel-A: Rie Rasmussen doesn’t speak French at all, but the choice of Rasmussen as Angel-A was a matter of making sure the two leads felt right together, according to Besson. “There is no one who looks like her in France,” explained Besson. “No, it’s an alchemy between… It’s not so much about finding her, it’s finding her and him at the same time because you can’t have one and not the other. You have to choose them in the same time almost. I met her as a director first because she wants to do her short film. So I never mentioned the film, I never talked about the film to her. A month later I met Jamel [Debbouze]. Then it starts to work in my head and say, ‘Oh, hold on a minute, him and her. That could be cool.’”
Filming in France: Besson confessed he didn’t always get permission to shoot in specific locations but managed to get everything he needed anyway. “There are some shots that were no authorization at all,” said Besson. “It’s the good thing about being popular. A few times the cops arrived and I just smiled and said, ‘Hey, it’s me.’ ‘Oh, Mr. Besson, can we take a picture?’ They’re sweet in France, the cops, honestly. It’s not tough as here. Here where they ask for my paper, I don’t crack jokes. I’m like, ‘Okay.’ You really feel strong which is, in a way, good.”
The Choice of Black and White: “Black and white because yin and yang, because tall and small, introverted extroverted, blonde/brown, the good the bad, the black the white, everything is in opposition in the film,” explained Besson. “And I need the film to have this little poetry. Is it real? Is it a dream? Is it a fairy tale? So I have the black and white, I have the frame and I have the music to give a mood because I need the people to believe at the end that yeah, of course she’s going to have wings and she’s going to go. To make it believable, I need for an hour to relax you, like almost a massage. You have the music like, ‘Do do do do,’ kind of mood where you can actually just enjoy the scene and believe it. You say, ‘Oh my God, no, she’s going to leave.’ So color is very crude. It’s the news. It’s 8pm, blood, war. It’s like, ‘Ugh.’ It’s rough.”
Besson described the process of shooting Angel-A: “It was shot in color but we treat the film at the lab before the shoot first. But the thing about the black and white is as you know, the green, the red, the yellow, they don’t react the same way in black and white so lots of tests, especially on clothes and interiors and clubs and things. We test every type of thing. But the main thing is the light in Paris, because as you know, they built the city at the time where the electricity didn’t exist. They were very careful with light, very careful, the angle of buildings. They studied winter, summer, how it’s working, so it’s such a pleasure to shoot in this type of city because you just have to wait for the right hour and it’s magical.
So I send my assistant…for example on the bridges of Paris, every bridge, every hour, four pictures, north, south, east, west and I have big books of all the bridges at every hour. You decide which scene you shoot at what time on which bridge. Sometimes there is a scene where we have 40 minutes of the perfect sun. So we rehearse, rehearse, rehearse a few days before, then we arrived and we shoot very fast. Then we get out.”
Luc Besson Didn’t Take a Break from Directing: Although it may have seemed that way, Besson wasn’t actually on an extended vacation from directing. “I know it looks like that from outside but I finished Joan of Arc, I rested for a couple of months - like two or three - and then I started to work on Arthur and the Invisibles. Actually, I started to work on the film when I was in the editing of Joan of Arc, some sketches and things. The making of Arthur was five years long so that’s why. I was not on the beach, believe me.”
Luc Besson’s Plate is Full: Besson will return as the writer on Transporter 3 because, in his words, “It’s too much fun.” Besson’s also got other projects in various stages of production. He’s definitely producing the Hitman movie. “Yeah. I have a very good relation with Fox and they have the rights of Hitman and they want to shoot the film in Europe. They called me and said, ‘Can you do it with us because you know Europe better than us.’ And I said yeah. I was flattered that they thought about me and I like them a lot. They are very good guys over there.”
Besson continued. “I’m producing another [film] called Taken with Liam Neeson with the director of District B13. They are shooting here. I was there last night on the set. That’s good. Liam Neeson’s going to be wonderful in it. It’s an action film, very intense.
I have another one, Transporter probably March and April next year. Then another one called From Paris with Love, which is an action film also we’re going to shoot next year. Then two other animated films, one called A Monster in Paris which is a great film from the guy who did, it’s a French guy who works on an animated from Dreamworks but I don’t remember which one. And we did another animated film called Ruby Tuesday with the Rolling Stones - 12 songs of the Rolling Stones. It’s an animated film with 12 songs of the Rolling Stones. It’s going to be great, too. And a couple of French films…”
