コラム：パリジェンヌの東京映画レポート！ - 第6回

2009年8月24日更新

第6回：「金儲け主義」リュック・ベッソンの人間味溢れる新作

Besson, the man behind EuropaCorp

Luc Besson is currently bordering on omnipresence on the movie industry, especially in Japan: as he is sometimes scriptwriter, sometimes filmmaker through the company EuropaCorp he created in 2000, sometimes both, we notably owe him the release of Transporter 3 and Taken. But such prolixity leaves some people jealous and Besson is often accused of lapsing into mercantile priorities and trying to make money with EuropaCorp instead of giving priority to quality. Is this trial entirely fair?

Luc Besson is not somebody who needs to be introduced anymore, he established himself as one of the best scriptwriters and filmmakers, specialized in action movies. This first point turns out to be significant: had he made only mercantile movies, exclusively based on special effects and pathetic scripts, he might have met the wishes of some people, probably a young public; but he would not have been recognized by his peers, in France and worldwide. Unless this admiration comes from the fact that he have struck a gold mine, a magic way to fill theaters that professionals would envy him? That means that the movie industry world would be comparable to a race of starving sharks, more concerned about the number of gulped fishes than about their wonderful colors and glints. But don’t forget that cinema is called “the seventh Art”…

In my opinion, the problem comes from the keen interest of Besson for action movies. Action movies are often assimilated to a down-market gender, abolishing emotion and using the script as a pretext for special effect, fights and stunts. But the action movies world is a particular one, which cannot be analyzed with the same references than a romantic comedy or a philosophical drama. A French parody spreading on the Web shows Luc Besson explaining the working of its random scripts generator, mixing words like “taxi”, “fight”, “bad guys”, “prostitutes”, “protective hero” and “Audi” (the car brand). Doubtlessly those themes are recurrent and violence have a central position in the movies structure, but this is an artistic choice. Does it forbid to be food for thought, does it prevent from emotion and deep characters? Because they can fight, they should be beasts?

Let’s hold « Taken » as an example. Doubtlessly it is a violent movie, even forbidden for children under 12 in France. Doubtlessly it deals with a protective hero, a prostitution network, bad guys and an Audi car. But why focusing on such obvious and uninteresting facts? Liam Neeson plays above all the role of a father ready to make any sacrifice to find his daughter, taken by an Albanian prostitution network. Fist of all, a family tragedy is unfolding under the spectator’s eyes, as well as the denunciation of a spread and terrific phenomenon: human beings traffic. Based on a true story, the movie gives warnings about this underground but omnipresent danger and Luc Besson and Pierre Morel made it as fathers. It would be a pity to view it as a pretext for beautiful and impressing fight scenes and not to listen to the delivered message. Here is a hard and horrible reality concerning everybody and the movie makers tried to put themselves in the shoes of a father losing his daughter. Beyond the physical performance, Liam Neeson gives a wonderful emotion, combining strength and weakness, and just reminding… the human being. Doubtlessly an action movie; but also a human tragedy and a lesson.

[抄訳]

いまや映画業界に無くてはならない存在となったリュック・ベッソン、それは日本でも同じです。この8月には「トランスポーター3／アンリミテッド」「96時間」の2作がたて続けに公開されるなど、彼の製作会社ヨーロッパ・コープを通じてのプロデュース業でも大いに活躍しています。たびたび金儲けの商業主義と非難されてしまうベッソンですが、その評価のほどは？

「グラン・ブルー」や「レオン」などで若者の間では揺ぎない地位を確立したベッソンですが、業界内では賞賛を得ているとは言い難いのが現状です。しかしベッソンが他のクリエイターと比べて確実に劇場を満席にできるという事実が、同業者から妬まれてしまう理由のひとつかもしれません。やはり映画業界でも「質より量」が重視されがちで、映画が「第七芸術」と呼ばれていることさえ忘れがちです。

アクション映画は芸術としては価値の低いものと思われがちですが、実際のところヒューマンドラマやコメディなどと同じ尺度でその価値を図ることは出来ないものです。ベッソンの映画に頻繁に登場するキーワード、「タクシー」「娼婦」「ヒーロー」「アウディ」などをごちゃ混ぜにしたベッソンのパロディ映像がネット上で人気を集めていますが、これはある意味では芸術的な作品といえます。

「96時間」はベッソン特有の暴力描写も多く、いつものアイテム「ヒーロー」「娼婦」「アウディ」もしっかり押さえています。しかし、本作には娘をさらわれた父親の執念や家族の悲劇が描かれており、単なるアクション映画と軽視するにはもったいない作品に仕上がっています。この作品で父親を演じたリーアム・ニーソンは、強さと弱さを兼ね合わせた実に人間味溢れるキャラクターを熱演していて、何よりアクション映画にも人間ドラマが存在するということを証明してくれているのです。