Angel-A Clip Watch a scene from Luc Besson's romantic comedy.

Angel-A Trailer Watch the trailer for Luc Besson's latest movie.

French director Luc Besson returns to his roots on Angel-A, a romantic comedy about a - literally, it turns out - down-at-heel rogue (Jamel Debbouze) and the mysterious blonde (Rie Rasmussen) who adopts increasingly bizarre methods to save his life. Besson talks here about his working style, the downside to directing, and Vincent Van Gogh...

What prompted you to return to the director's chair for Angel-A?
I've heard the complaint "Where have you been for the past seven years?", but I've been working on an animated film called Arthur And the Minimoys for the past five years. But as you know, when you start from scratch on an animated film they're very, very long to do and in the middle of the process I got frustrated by working with computer guys and nerds with mouses, and thought to myself, "I need actors, I need cameras!" And I've had this story that I wanted to tell for a long time and found, almost by accident, the guy and the girl in the same month. It's not a big film, it wasn't complicated to do. It's just lots of rehearsal and working with actors, which I really wanted to do, I was missing it. The animated film was too big, too long, and too complicated to do.

The filmmaking process seemed quite relaxed. There are stories of you driving around Paris in the small hours looking for suitable locations with your cast and crew...
I'm used to that style of working. When I worked on Subway [in 1985] you had to deal with the Paris metro where there are 12 million people passing through the station every day. When I was doing The Big Blue [1988] you had to deal with the sea. There are some scenes where we are on a stage and it's comfortable. But some scenes, like on the bridge in Paris, you had to go with the Steadicam and rehearse for a long time so that when it came to shooting, there were eight or nine people and after three takes we were on our way out. Most of the scenes you see in Paris were shot in July/August, most of the time on a Sunday morning when there is almost no one in the street anyway.

You shot the movie in sequence...
I do that on almost all of my movies. It's such a comfort because you can follow the evolution of the characters. In my experience there's always this moment where the characters don't go exactly where you think they will go, and if you have the luxury to follow this... mutation, than you can adapt the film accordingly.

Your lead actors didn't have much experience. How did that change your approach?
I'm kind of lucky because with or without experiences, I always cast people with talent. Natalie Portman at 12 years old was already talented. Jean Reno was 35 when I met him but he was talented, even if had hadn't done many things. Rie Rasmussen, she's super-talented. And Jamel has been doing one-man shows for almost ten years now, so I'm using the people for what they have. If something is missing you work more beforehand, more rehearsal. My strategy is that when we arrive on the set to shoot, it's just a confirmation of what we've done before.

You have a lot of fun with the framing of Rie and Jamel, with her character initially towering over this little man. There's a lovely long shot on the bridge, for example. Were any of the shots digitally enhanced?

When you're the director sometimes you feel alone, playing tennis at Wimbledon.

No, nothing digital. She's wearing some very high heels and we cut the heels on his shoes to make him smaller, and on the left side of that bridge there is a grill to protect people. The funny thing is I spent some days to calculate at what time the sun goes throught the grills from the left side to project shadows on her legs so you almost think she's wearing stalks - that's why she's on the left of the picture.

You've been incredibly prolific as a producer as well as director. What drives you to keep making movies?
I don't know, really. As a director I think I'm at the end of a cycle, because it's the hardest thing to be a director - believe me! Writing and producing, it's more agreeable in a way because you're playing as part of a team. It's like being in a football team, so at least when you win you can jump in the arms of someone. When you're the director sometimes you feel alone, playing tennis at Wimbledon! When you lose you lose, and that's it.

How much do you think you've changed as a filmmaker over the years?
Your personal life is taking care of your evolution, the people you've met, the births, the deaths, the environment. I'm like everybody, I get older and understand things better, and am less nervous about certain things. Of course your vision changes, you don't want to say the same things. The funny thing is, I won't do Subway anymore because I wrote Subway when I was 17, but I'm not even interested to watch films like Subway anymore. When I was 20 it was my time, I wanted to see guys like Beineix [Jean-Jacques Beineix, director of Diva and Betty Blue]. I remember waiting for the first Superman movie when I was 16 [in 1978], but I realised yesterday that I'm not so interested to see Superman Returns, just because I'm older and things move on.

You've been criticised in some French quarters for taking Hollywood on at its own game...
As soon as you choose anyone as a reference, you're blocking your path. If you decide to take as reference Hollywood, then in a certain way you're going to compare to what they're doing and then you're going to stop yourself evolving. Expression in films is very personal, so do what you have to do and the film will find its place, and then a few years later we can talk about it. We can say, "Oh, it's funny how these American films influenced the French cinema a little, how French cinema influenced America, how Chinese cinema is influencing things...". It's fun to watch these movements afterwards. But when you're living the thing, just do what you have to do or else you'll never do anything. Take Van Gogh, for example. He's in the middle of this field and he sees this iris. He takes it, puts it in a vase and paints it. And now it's in a museum. At the beginning it's just a guy who says, "Wow, this flower's beautiful." He didn't think about other artists, he just painted it.

Angel-A is released in UK cinemas on Friday 28th July 2006.

Adrian Hennigan | Published 27 July 06

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