THIS article is all about my ode to the greatest French film director in contemporary times – Luc Besson. My admiration for Luc Besson started when he directed that stylish action movie starring no less than acclaimed French actor Jean Reno, Leon. Known for his Hong Kong-inspired action films, there is actually another side of Luc Besson that few people in the United States (his current home base) and France know – his 1995 film Leon dangerously borders on the pedophilia. This is actually the very first film starring Natalie Portman. Then at 13 years old, Natalie’s love interest in the movie was Jean Reno, who was already 45 then.

Anchoring on the pedophilic theme, Luc Besson took off from what another French director, Louis Malle, did 16 years earlier – the Brooke Shields-introducing vehicle Pretty Baby. As compared to the pedophilic scenes in Pretty Baby, Leon’s was pretty milder though simply because pedophilia was only one of the themes in the movie. There were two other themes explored by Besson in Leon – police corruption played perfectly by the sadistic Gary Oldman and of course that signature Hong Kong action style. Pedophilia in itself was just a side-theme; Leon (Jean Reno) wasn’t actually interested erotically in Matilda (Natalie Portman); Matilda’s crush on Leon stemmed from her own emotional confusion fueled by two reasons – a) she needed a father figure because her parents were both killed by the sadistic Gary Oldman and b) she was undergoing puberty which understandably caused her estrogen level to soar.

That was my first cinematic encounter with Luc Besson. It was only later that I learned that Luc made his very first Hong Kong-style flick Nikita earlier. Nikita is a post-teenage Lolita with a twist – she’s an assassin. Luc Besson’s groundbreaking work with Nikita which included a stellar cast of Jean Reno as the movie’s villain, Tcheky Karyo as Nikita’s handler and Luc Besson’s then wife Anne Parillaud as Nikita soon spawned the hit French cult TV series of the same title. And that was only the time that I knew Luc Besson was also the creator of Nikita.

The French are said to be the most romantic people on earth. One can only look at Luc Besson as the perfect example of that. After marrying Nikita (Anne Parrilaud), Luc Besson ditched her when she saw Milla Jovovich – her leading lady another Luc Besson trademark hit, The Fifth Element. Ah…the French!!

THE French are said to be the most intellectual people in the world. That’s why they can simply get away with just about anything. For example, they have one of the highest life expectancies in the world. Why? Simply because their diet works. It’s not one of those weird complicated concepts such as Atkins or South Beach. A typical French Mediterranean diet just consists of seafood dipped in olive oil and topped with sherry. And it is with this being intellectual that the French know how to be romantic. In fact, they are dubbed as the romantic people in the world. Foreign exchange students at the Universite de Paris can surely attest to that. And there is no perfect example of that other than their head of state, Nicholas Sarkozy.

Nicholas Sarkozy has made Italian model Carla Bruni the new first lady of France by marrying her last Sunday. Give credit to the guy. He surely knows what he’s doing. And even as he is madly in love with the woman, he sure knows how to handle affairs of the state in an elegant manner. Even though he never became ambassador and never had a degree in international relations (his is in business law, too far out from the duties he is assuming right now), he is adept in negotiating with other heads of state and in maintaining cooler heads among warring factions in his own government.

While France and the whole of Europe have not yet been affected by the mortgage bubble in the United States across the Atlantic, it can still divert its attention to its business interests across the world. For example, Sarkozy visited India last week prior to his wedding with Bruni and he has pledged the financial assistance of the French government to bail out a beleaguered French steel plant located there so that it can continue operating and retain all its 600 workers.

The French president is also willing to have a collaboration between Mumbai-based Bollywood and the French film industry. As we all know, the French film industry is slowly gaining ground in the Hollywood mainstream. It used to be a sole rally for Canal +. Take note of the movies La Vie en Rose and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Marion Cotillard, who plays the great French singer Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, is nominated for best Oscar actress. And James Bond producers were so much impressed with Mathieu Amalric’s portrayal of paralyzed Elle editor Jean Dominique Bauby in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly that they have cast him to be the next Bond villain in Quantum of Solace. Incidentally, Mathiew Amalric’s character in Quantum of Solace is patterned after Nicholas Sarkozy – arrogant but dashing. It’s not your typical French I tell you. For the French are not typical at all. They go to church every Sunday but they also go to nudist beaches afterward. Just have a vacation here in France and you’ll be a living witness to that.

FRANCE’s entry in 2008 is a very endearing one because a prominent politician in the country will challenge former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s desire to become the president of the European Union. This is such a welcome piece of news as France is one of the nations in the European mainland which is very much concerned in what’s going on in the continent. In fact, there are two major policies about the European Union that I find admirable and worth emulating elsewhere in the world. One is in the aspect of tourism. The European Union has made it a policy to inspect all European hotels and resorts every quarter. Those who are found to be providing excellent services are stamped the blue flag accreditation. Another EU policy that I found feasible is in the field of education. Because Europe is peculiarly filled with people who do not speak the same language, it has been EU policy that each nation in the organization must teach a second European language to its students. Anyway, all European languages can be classified into two – Romance i.e. originating from the Roman language and Germanic which is the ancestor of all languages in the Scandinavian region. By the way, the name of the French politician who is set to challenge Blair’s running for the EU presidential seat is the current head of its Socialist Party, Francois Hollande. Hollande’s opposition was largely due to Blair’s commitment to move soldiers to Iraq

But Blair appears not to be conceding to Hollande’s stance. He is said to be currently courting French President Nicholas Sarkozy who is currently in the Middle East. Blair is of course currently based in the Middle East as the newly-converted Roman Catholic is the European envoy to the Middle East. Speaking of Sarkozy, the personal life of the French president has never been this exciting. It’s a living soap opera that is a respite from the monotonous everyday life of typical French. For example, the latest news about Monsieur Sarkozy is that a Parisian court has denied his ex-wife (and the former first lady) Cecilia’s request to ban excerpts of a book about her making derogatory comments against her ex-husband. Man, she still loves him after all what with her ex-husband now proclaiming to the whole world and even before his pope Benedict XVII that he will be marrying model Carla Bruni. Ah, that’s the life of a Frenchman you know. It’s such an excitement.

But despite that brewing excitement, Sarkozy is not to be budged. He remains concentrated on state affairs such as his proposal to host talks among warring religious factions in Iraq. France has been after all a harbinger of liberty. It wants all peoples in the world to be free to express themselves. For example, if you are a Christian or a Jew in Iraq, then you must not be afraid to practice your faith in that country.