Black Boy Lyon is undoubtedly an important work that luc besson turned to, that is, from an author film to a commercial film. The film continues the killer theme of the thunderbolt killer and tells the story of a professional killer who met a girl of 13 years old in an accident.
In this film, screenwriter and director luc besson proved to Hollywood his ability to make commercial films. Luc besson is definitely a director who is very familiar with the film process and its skills and the operation mode of Hollywood movies, so that he is very skilled in the use of audio-visual language in this film.
At the beginning of the film, that is, the subtitle part, several aerial cameras are used to briefly introduce the shooting location of the film to the audience: the ocean-the road-the streets of the city-the alleys-and finally the faded black screen. Attention! This is the symbol of film noir-black, underground. The city we see is a very scattered street view, and the story background is introduced. The film was directed by a black lens.
But the director doesn't want us to know the positive image of Lyon so soon, but has a series of super close-ups to create the mystery of the characters. There is a glass of milk between a pair of hands on the table. It is this cup of milk that sets the stage at the beginning of the film to reveal the characteristics of the characters behind. In the simplest dialogue, Leon's lens reflects the image of his boss sitting opposite him and lighting a cigarette-the lens omits the anti-beating lens! In this scene, the picture of the fat man appeared twice, which gave us enough hints. This is a sign of change.
The next scene is the fat man who comes angrily in the photo. The face of the old gatekeeper is constantly blocked by the shadows of passing people, which indicates what will happen and the identity of these people-there are no redundant lines, and the changes of light and shadow are used to reveal the identity characteristics of the characters. When the fat man and others entered the room, as soon as the fat man saw the prostitute, he changed the action time and only said one sentence: one hour. -The subtext is obvious. The refinement of language is immeasurable.
LEON's appearance is even more amazing! When the fat man's five men were killed by Lyon, there were almost no close-up images of Lyon: several shots were fired and the bloody telephone receiver fell to the ground; The man standing in the corridor looked downstairs, and the camera slowly advanced from behind him, making the audience think that the murderer was behind him, but the man was strangled by a rope from above, and so on. From these short films, you can see the production style of Hollywood movies-you will definitely see what you want to see, but in a way you will never imagine!
Finally, after the fat man found that all his men had died at the hands of Leon, the picture showed him frantically looking for various ways to escape in the room, and his voice was his shortness of breath. Just as the fat man dialed the police station, a knife came out from behind him and hung around his neck-music and sound (fat man's breathing) stopped, and the picture was dark except for a beam of sidelights hitting the fat man and Lyon. The director only let us see these two people!
The appearance of prostitutes added a lot of color to the scene. The confrontation between Leon and the fat man was quite tense before. At this time, the prostitute just appeared, looked at the two and smiled awkwardly, then walked away. The director outlined a typical material girl with several shots. This is another major feature of Hollywood-the appearance of a character must undertake a certain mission, otherwise he is not allowed to appear at all. In this story, prostitutes play a role in easing the atmosphere and relaxing the audience. Because of the anger in the previous scene, the prostitute and the old lady in the scene of killing the little girl's family came to adjust the rhythm of the whole clip.
Or the scene where Lyon confronted the fat man. Finally, the fat man was scared to beg for mercy, and the siren outside the painting rang loudly. Remind us from the voice-it's time for a change.
Lyon in life only used a few short shots: buying milk at the grocery store; Take a bath in the bathroom and iron clothes in the room; Carefully wipe every leaf of his beloved potted flower by the window. Leon's handling of this pot of flowers was a foreshadowing for his later rescue of the little girl. How can you not save that girl if you treat a potted flower with such care?
Before the little girl Martita's family was killed, we can see some traces of the screenwriter through her words and deeds this morning: the purpose of the whole play is to send Martita away. Then these people at home must have a good reason to stay at home. Before going to work, my mother was entangled with my father-the scene of making love in the bathroom and the scene of my mother taking a bath in the bathtub; Needless to say, dad has no formal job; My sister does aerobics in front of the TV; Martita's only favorite brother is too young to go out. Only Mateta, a modest child, was forced to go shopping by her mother after an argument with her sister. This foreshadowed the story of the subsequent massacre and Martita's decision to take revenge. She didn't love her parents or her sister, but her favorite brother was killed by those policemen.
Martita met Leon in the corridor and said that she would buy milk for Leon. Martita watched Leon so carefully that she knew that Leon wanted two quarts of milk! This makes us not surprised by the legendary story of Martita and Leon.
When Martita came back from shopping, she found that all her family members had been killed, so she went directly to Leon's room and begged Leon to open the door. It was shot in slow motion while Martita was walking. Because when she walked here, she had to complete a series of psychological activities, such as finding that her family was killed-holding back her sadness-and decided to go through her own door to seek Leon's protection. If it is changed to normal shooting time, it is difficult for these psychological activities to be completely expressed through the lens. The assumed time of upgrade shooting used here has been extended, so that the audience can complete the reconstruction of Martita's psychological activities within the extended time of this assumption.
Leon's actions make us anxious-he has been observing the slaughter outside through the keyhole, and we all know that Leon will definitely open the door for Marta. So the door finally opened, and the warm sunshine symbolizing life shone on the little girl's face-Martita was saved!
The film arranged the relationship between Martita and Leon. And arranged a perverted police image, which is impossible in Hollywood movies and mainstream western society! But the end of the film gives the audience a satisfactory ending: Leon and the police mutually assured destruction. Although the film shows us an extremely lovely killer, the killer is a killer after all and is not allowed to survive by the whole mainstream society. However, if this film was made by our domestic director, it must be: at last, Leon died, the little girl left the discovery field in grief and walked away, and the shot was upgraded from close-range to panoramic-the end. If you shoot like this, it won't be a commercial movie!
Luc besson is smart enough to make the whole movie have two endings-one is to let Leon die, and the other is to let the little girl Martita go back to school. The ending sets the tone of the whole movie-it is for most people, in other words, the movie is commercial.