Archive for December, 2008

I just re-watched one of my favorite films, Léon – or The Professional. It is very satisfying to be stunned by the high quality of a film you haven’t watched in a while; nice to see your favorite films still got it. After watching it my interest for Natalie Portman peeked, so I searched for some YouTube-videos and stumbled upon an early draft of the film. It is much more violent, and the relationship between Léon and Mathilda is not as ambigous, but apparently Portman’s parents were unhappy with it, so it was rewritten. In her Inside the Actor’s Studio interview, Natalie also talks about having to plead to her parents after getting the part in the film. The entire interview deserves a look as well. Anyway, the differences between the final and original script can be read here, and as mentioned, it is very violent, for example here is an excerpt from the rooftop training session:

Mathilda concentrates again and shoots: nothing happens. Mathilda wonders whether she missed again and prepares for a new shot.

LÉON
Wait…

The fatman softly leans down on his side.

LÉON
Bull’s-eye.

Mathilda is happy but, evidently, she expected death to be more spectacular.

In the final script, they use paintballs. Overall there are a lot of training scenes with Léon killing people left and right. He is basically very cold-hearted, and in this version he also initiates the russian roulette scene, which can be seen in the “Long Version” of the film. The script also mentions some scenes with explicit sexual character:

Léon opens the door. Mathilda is naked and is brushing her hair. Léon closes back the door without entering.

LÉON (embarrassed)
Sorry. I heard “yes”, so I got in…

Mathilda opens the door. She’s still combing her hair. She’s still naked.

Léon gives up, at last. She sweetly kisses him.

MATHILDA
Tongue, please.
Léon pushes her away, irritated.

LÉON
No, that’s enough! Sit down, now.

And the most horribly disturbing scene of all:

She stands up and modestly gets off her briefs without taking off her dress. Léon cries, unable to oppose her. Mathilda is too young, but she’s also too beautiful and lovely and sweet and tender… She sweetly, very sweetly, gets on him.

LÉON (crying)
Why me, Mathilda, why me?
Mathilda leans over to speak in his ear.

MATHILDA
…Because you deserve it, Léon…
Léon embraces her. He’s full of happiness, shame, so many emotions, he can’t control very well. But, hell, how beautiful it is seeing them sweetly making love.

And that is how you get a NC-17 rating in the US, and everywhere else… Some parts of the script do not really make sense though, e.g. according to the script Mathilda easily kills a man with the rifle, but later on they talk about how everything changes when you kill somebody. However the script seems valid and can be found several places online. I very much prefer the final version, the sexual character of Mathilda is very disturbing in this original draft, and Léon is very unlikeable, which seems logical at this point in the development stage, since the character is developed from Reno’s role as “The Cleaner” in Besson’s Nikita. Still, it is interesting to see how extreme Besson actually wanted the film to be.