What happened to Luc Besson The Writer/Director during the decade from 1988 to 1999? We used to get moody, wandering films that kept you (well, me, anyway) looking at the screen, transfixed even if you didn't know where Besson was going. In fact, that's part of the attraction of "Le Grand bleu" (as well as "La Femme Nikita" and "The Professional"): I can become so involved while viewing it that I feel as though I should be doing breath-holding exercises. (One observation: 15 years ago, if you had to guess who would become better known in the U.S., Jean-Marc Barr or Jean Reno, who would you have gone for?) I refuse to blame Milla Jovovich for the subsequent - occasionally engaging - goofiness of "Fifth Element"; and she was a trooper (sorry) for large chunks (pretty much everything between the opening and closing credits) of "I Can't Believe I've Been Together For This Long With Milla, But Now..."--oops, I mean "Joan of Arc". Let's face it: Jovovich can't carry a movie. But a director should know that. It will be interesting - with Besson returning to the director's chair - to see what becomes of "Arthur". To paraphrase Rosanna Arquette's "Big Blue" character, "Luc, we're here, we're real, and we want to see if you've still got it..."!
Review of The Big Blue
