Leon - The Director's Cut [Blu-ray]

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The additional material is found in the film's second act, and it depicts more of the interactions and relationship between Léon and Mathilda, as well as explicitly demonstrating how Mathilda accompanies Léon on several of his hits as "a full co-conspirator", to further her training as a contract killer.

Roger Ebert awarded the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, writing: "It is a well-directed film, because Besson has a natural gift for plunging into drama with a charged-up visual style. In that case, you’re likely wondering just why this new release of a 25-year-old film would be worth your time.

The first line in the lyrics, "this is from Matilda", refers to Léon's last words, shortly before his grenades detonate and kill Stansfield. When Léon was eighteen in Italy, he fell in love with a girl from a wealthy family, but Léon's family was poor. Mathilda looks up to Léon and quickly develops a crush on him, often telling him she loves him but he does not reciprocate.

The film was released in France by Gaumont and internationally through Gaumont Buena Vista International on 14 September 1994, and received mostly positive reviews from critics. Mathilda goes to Tony and tries to convince him to hire her, but Tony flatly refuses to hire a twelve-year-old and tells Mathilda that Léon told him to give his money to her if anything happened to him. In New York City, 12-year-old Mathilda (Portman) witnesses her family being gunned down by psychotic government official Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman) and his team of corrupt cops. It was commercially successful in Japan, being certified gold for 100,000 copies shipped in December 1999.To celebrate this landmark, Studiocanal has put together a new 4K release of the director’s cut of Leon. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 74% based on 66 reviews, with an average rating of 6. Whether you’re rewatching the movie for the hundredth time or checking Leon out with fresh eyes, the film is a classic that still holds up just as a well in 2019 as it did back in 1994. Mathilda walks onto a field near the school to plant Léon's houseplant, as she had told Léon, to "give it roots".

The cinematography is wonderful, and he presents a vision of New York, in terms of colour and composition that we rarely see in films set in that city. Maïwenn, Luc Besson's sixteen year old wife at the time of filming, says the film was inspired by their relationship. Léon: The Professional is to some extent an expansion of an idea in Besson's earlier 1990 film, La Femme Nikita (in some countries Nikita). In 2014, Time Out polled several film critics, directors, actors and stunt actors to list their top action films; Léon: The Professional was listed at No. He said, "Oozing style, wit and confidence from every sprocket, and offering a dizzyingly, fresh perspective on the Big Apple that only Besson could bring, this is, in a word, wonderful".Léon killed the father in revenge and fled to New York, where he met Tony and trained to become a hitman. However, in the meantime, Besson left Gaumont Film Company to start his own movie studio, EuropaCorp. That doesn’t mean that they’re not enjoyable, mind, just there’s no new material for long-time Leon fans to sink their teeth into.