Besson’s Latest: Arthur and the Invisibles

Noted French filmmaker Luc Besson is not a happy man these days. He is unhappy about the way the world is headed. The 46-year old filmmaker let his disappointments out in the form of his latest offering, a feel-good movie titled Arthur and the Invisibles, an action adventure movie about Arthur, a little boy who shrinks himself to get into a land of miniature creatures, all in an attempt to save the family farm.

The movie has enormous star power, with Mia Farrow starring in the live-action parts of the film as Arthur’s grandmother. Actors who have lent their voices to the different characters in the movie include such heavyweights as Robert de Niro, Emilio Estevez, Harvey Keitel, Chazz Palminteri, Snoop Dog, David Bowie, and Madonna.

To Besson’s credit, he has not let the sense of disappointment building inside him creep into the movie. Besson is disappointed enough in the human race to clearly indicate this could be his last movie as director. Some of the things that have been irking the director are global warming, and the constant warmongering that we are getting into.

Sitting in the penthouse suite of a high-end Montreal hotel, Besson says, “To be honest, I am not very proud today. Not proud of adults in general. Look at what we're doing to our children. When you watch the news, it's basically about us invading each other, killing each other, for money and for power. And we're destroying the planet.”

The story of the movie Arthur and the Invisibles began when the husband-and-wife writing team of Patrick and Celine Garcia, came to Besson with a few drawings and ideas for a TV series. Besson was quite taken in by the drawings and decided he could do better than a TV series with them. The result was Arthur and the Invisibles, a big-budget, flashy, digitally animated movie.

He thought that having the movie as an animated feature would be a great way to reach out to the kids about serious issues like the environment and racism.

Besson admits that making an animated movie is a different ballgame altogether. According to him, “I had to become much, much more patient. I’m more used to the physical making of a film. I had to sit next to people at computers for hours, and after a couple of years, we still didn't have much in the way of actual images to show for it. I found that very difficult.”

He says the movie has tired him out, and is probably his last effort as a director. He said he did not see himself getting better than this effort. According to him it was good to know when to stop, because there is a limit to how long one can go on making movies without sacrificing on quality and creative satisfaction.

Besson has an impressive, if somewhat quirky, body of work. Highlights of his career as a director included Le dernier combat (The Last Battle) in 1983, Subway in 1985, The Big Blue in 1988, La Femme Nikita in 1990, The Professional in 1994, and the sci-fi movie, The Fifth Element in 1997. With his unique style of movie-making, Besson has been credited with the resurgence of the French box office.

Besson had his own take on having fewer films to his credit. According to him, “The nice thing about having made a few films is that when I contact an actor, they've always seen at least one or two of them. Jimmy Fallon loved The Professional. Bowie loved The Big Blue. Snoop Dog said, ‘I love your films -- they're dope, man!’ You don't have to convince anyone -- they were all very happy to be in Arthur and the Invisibles.”