Leon

Leon starts with an establishing shot of New York City showing the audience the setting of the film. The shot starts with a birds eye view shot going across water and buildings when the camera looks upright at the buildings when the title of the film shows. The next camera shot is New York at street level followed by blackness. When the light comes back on all you see are people’s body parts such as eyes and hands keeping the identities of the characters hidden and mysterious. You also get a glimpse of the character opposite the hidden identity man in glasses and movement on the table however nothing is fully revealed.
The next scene we see, a man is in his apartment when he is told an unknown character is coming up to his room when he finds out his watchers are bring killed on his way. There are a lot of shooting when he runs out however when he comes back the mysterious character is behind him with a knife in the darkness which I think shows the darkness of Leon’s job. In this clip there is diegetic sound of his heart beating to tell us that he is scared and something more could possibly happen.

When Leon returns to his apartment there is calm non diegetic music which is similar to a child’s lulla bye when we meet a young girl named Mathilda who isn’t a regular child in New York City. She is only 12 years old even though she tells Leon she is 18. Mathilda is hiding a cigarette and bruises on her face and she tells us she’s got enough problems and gets beaten by her family. We are then showed a little information about Leon when he is looking after his plant, working out and going to the cinema like a normal person would behind their job. The next time we meet Mathilda, Stansfield and his gang threatens her dad and comes back the next day and kills her dad, little brother, step mum and step sister. There is a binary opposite between Stansfield and Leon as Stansfield doesn’t care who he kills unlike Leon’s rule “no women, no kids”. Mathilda returns to the apartment after shopping to find her family dead and the guys still in there so she goes to Leon when she is let in his home.

Leon’s job as an assassin then becomes clear to Mathilda and she is more than interested and wants to be taught his skills to make revenge on the gang who killed her family. Leon and Mathilda have a strange relationship as she develops loving feelings for him and he is uncomfortable about this from the line “cute name”. to when she states that he is her lover.
The film as a strange twist to it as it has small funny comments such as when they play a dress up game and when Stansfield copies his accompanies by saying things such as “the cops are here we should go”.

Mathilda and Leon are very different to each other as Leon is very dependant and doesn’t work with anyone and is possibly unsure how to react with other people however Mathilda is caring and helpful and wants to be with Leon as much as she can including working together. All that Leon has is his plant which I think represents life and when Mathilda plants it at the very end after Leon is dead the plant keeps living.

The lighting used throughout the film is mainly natural or from lamps when the curtains are shut. There are many dark points in the film which shows suspense and danger.
A favourite part of Leon is when Leon is walking slowly down the corridor and he is at the end of the tunnel and he has won however Stansfield is behind him with a gun and shoots him. I think this is a really effective part of the film as there is no sound when the bullet is shot you just see a voyeuristic view from Leon and the viewer knows what’s happened. However when we think it’s all over he pulls a grenade and the place blows up.

I enjoyed Leon because it always keeps you in suspense during the film as you can never tell what’s going to happen next. I was surprised i enjoyed the film as it’s not usually the genre I would watch.