{"id":353559,"date":"2025-12-17T09:06:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T09:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/353559\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T09:06:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T09:06:12","slug":"if-you-want-a-traditional-horror-film-watch-something-else-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/353559\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018If you want a traditional horror film, watch something else\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luc Besson<\/a> has been one of Europe\u2019s best-known film-makers for more than 40 years, an extravagant visual stylist whose career has weathered commercial highs, financial setbacks and cultural shifts. <\/p>\n

With Dracula he returns to the swashbuckling, maximalist production values that made him \u2013 with features such as L\u00e9on: The Professional, and The Fifth Element \u2013 an auteur superstar during the 1990s.<\/p>\n

\"Léon:L\u00e9on: The Professional- Jean Reno and Natalie Portman and in Luc Besson’s 1994 film <\/p>\n

The new film reunites the director with Caleb Landry Jones<\/a>, the intense American star of his recent, critically mauled DogMan. Speaking from Paris on a rare break during the filming of Father Joe, a new crime thriller that he has written, starring Keifer Sunderland<\/a> and Al Pacino<\/a>, Besson characterises his new muse as a once-in-a-generation artist.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaleb is one of those rare actors who gives you absolutely everything \u2013 the emotion, the darkness, the fragility, the joy,\u201d he says of cinema\u2019s latest Dracula. \u201cHe has no difficulty opening himself completely. And, as a human being, he\u2019s incredibly gentle and polite, entirely focused on the work. He lives a quiet life with his wife, his child, his dog. He\u2019s not distracted by the circus around film-making. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery morning he\u2019d arrive with ideas \u2013 \u2018What about this? What about that?\u2019 \u2013 always respectful, always generous. If you say no for a good reason, he accepts it instantly. The last time I encountered that level of instinct and dedication was Gary Oldman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oldman<\/a> worked with Besson on the over-the-top Fifth Element, from 1997. By that stage the director was already a legend. His early career had been defined by very French aesthetic debates surrounding \u201ccin\u00e9ma du look\u201d, a dismissive label applied to him, Jean-Jacques Beineix and Leos Carax in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n

\"Subway:Subway: Christopher Lambert and Jean Reno in Luc Besson’s 1985 film <\/p>\n

Coined by the critic Rapha\u00ebl Bassan, the term suggested that these directors favoured spectacle over narrative, pizzazz over coherence. The films associated with it, notably Beineix\u2019s Diva, Carax\u2019s Mauvais Sang (or Bad Blood) and Besson\u2019s slick 1985 thriller Subway, featured neon lighting, fast cuts, youthful frustration and a mix of high and low cultural references.<\/p>\n

The movement drew sniffy comparisons to advertising and MTV, and caused some commentators to lament the excesses of France\u2019s disaffected Fran\u00e7ois Mitterrand generation.<\/p>\n

Besson defended his approach<\/a> to the New York Times, drawing parallels with the nouvelle vague of the early 1960s.<\/p>\n

\u201cJean-Luc Godard<\/a> and Fran\u00e7ois Truffaut<\/a> were rebelling against existing cultural values and used cinema as a means of expression simply because it was the most avant-garde medium at the time,\u201d he said. \u201cToday, the revolution is occurring entirely within the industry and is led by people who want to change the look of movies by making them better, more convincing and pleasurable to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can still detect traces of that philosophy in Besson\u2019s characteristically spectacular, proudly camp reimagining of Bram Stoker<\/a>\u2019s most famous story.<\/p>\n

\"Dracula:Dracula: Caleb Landry Jones in Luc Besson’s film <\/p>\n

Jones plays a grief-stricken Vlad Dracul, who becomes the God-swerving Dracula after losing his beloved wife, Elisabeta (Zo\u00eb Bleu), and spends 400 years searching for her reincarnation. He finds her in Mina (also Bleu), fiancee of the timid solicitor Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), whom Dracula imprisons, before pursuing Mina to the Paris of the belle epoque.<\/p>\n

Besson stages Dracula\u2019s centuries-long odyssey with flamboyant spectacle \u2013 outrageous disguises, comic misadventures, operatic set pieces, an all-you-can-eat vampire buffet in courtly Versailles \u2013 culminating in a thrilling final siege at the count\u2019s ancient castle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone wants a traditional horror film, they should watch something else,\u201d the director says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Although Besson has long worked in genres where stylisation dominates, his approach to Dracula, not unlike that of Francis Ford Coppola<\/a>, zeroes in on the eternal romance of the story. Before he started to adapt the novel he had no historical interest in the character\u2019s broader legends or the count\u2019s storied cinema history.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never been a great lover of horror films, and honestly I don\u2019t care much about the Dracula mythology,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat moved me, when I reread the book, was the idea of a man waiting 400 years simply to say goodbye to his wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat felt heartbreakingly romantic. That\u2019s the story I wanted to tell. For me the film is much closer to Beauty and the Beast than to anything in the horror genre. The name Dracula is almost incidental \u2013 a frame to play with.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dracula:Dracula: Zo\u00eb Bleu and Caleb Landry Jones in Luc Besson’s film <\/p>\n

Besson, who is the son of diving instructors \u2013 inspiration for The Big Blue, his free-diving drama from 1988 \u2013 has always been a hands-on film-maker, preferring models and practical effects over Hollywood CGI. <\/p>\n

For all of Dracula\u2019s huge set pieces, including a wild seduction sequence set against a detailed re-creation of the Paris Exposition of 1889, the film\u2019s development followed the method that Besson has streamlined in recent years: instead of assembling vast departments, he convenes a small group of collaborators.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe picked purple as a guiding colour, then silk. Caleb reacted by becoming slightly dandy, slightly feminine,\u201d he says. \u201cThat led to gestures, like him touching his neck, and suddenly we\u2019re studying iguanas to design something organic for him to wear. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt all grows slowly, by hand, from collaboration. The American system is different: four weeks and an army of 120 people. It\u2019s a machine. But I prefer this artisanal process where everything is built, sewn, shaped with a real sense of touch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Fifth Element: Bruce Willis in Luc Besson’s 1997 film <\/p>\n

It\u2019s odd to picture a director known for such big creative swings in such intimate circumstances. In 1999 his Joan of Arc required armour, weapons and horses for about 1,500 extras. Jean Paul Gaultier<\/a> designed an estimated 800 costumes for The Fifth Element, with Jean \u201cMoebius\u201d Giraud and Jean-Claude M\u00e9zi\u00e8res contributing additional concept art.<\/p>\n

But Besson\u2019s current views on craftsmanship and authorship extend into a broader critique of current movie-making culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty years ago the people with money didn\u2019t pretend to be the artists,\u201d he says. \u201cThey trusted Scorsese<\/a>, Spielberg<\/a>, the directors. They\u2019d say, \u2018We don\u2019t know, but he knows.\u2019 Today it\u2019s accountants, lawyers, managers. Everything is governed by Excel tables.<\/p>\n

\u201cFilms become products, and products must follow market data. Someone will tell you, \u2018Your film is called The Big Blue, but we\u2019ll rename it The Big Red, because red tests better.\u2019 But the sea is blue! \u2018Doesn\u2019t matter \u2013 red is popular.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the beginning of the end of creativity. And for what? The success rate is the same. No one can predict what audiences will want in two years. We should follow creative people, not statistics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dracula follows a period of professional and personal difficulty for Besson.<\/p>\n

In 2018 he was accused of rape; it wasn\u2019t until 2023, when France\u2019s highest court declined to reopen the case, after several appeals, that Besson was finally cleared of all charges.<\/p>\n

\"ValerianValerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: Dane DeHaan in Luc Besson’s 2017 film <\/p>\n

Besson\u2019s company EuropaCorp, originally founded in 1985, lost a lot of money after the release of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets<\/a>, in 2017. Besson is estimated to have poured at least $200 million into that space opera, hiring more than 1,200 crew members and creating more than 100 alien species. It was the most expensive independent European film when it was released \u2013 and it bombed at the box office.<\/p>\n

He has bounced back, continuing to pursue new projects with his long-time collaborator, producer and wife, Virginie Besson-Silla.<\/p>\n

June and John, a romcom, was shot guerrilla-style, using mobile phones, during the pandemic. In 2024 he cowrote and produced Weekend in Taipei, an action movie starring Luke Evans that became a sizeable hit in its native Taiwan.<\/p>\n

Besson credits his resilience to his well-worn routines. Come what may, he writes every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve written every day since I was 17 \u2013 holidays, weekends, it doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d he says. \u201cI wake at 4.30am, make tea, put on music and write for two or three hours. It\u2019s my form of gymnastics. If I don\u2019t write I become grumpy, like someone who hasn\u2019t exercised.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rest of the day is logistics: solving problems, meetings, business \u2013 all the stuff I find boring. But the morning is my sanctuary. It\u2019s where I can enter the worlds I\u2019m building, whether that\u2019s Joan of Arc or Dracula or something entirely new. That quiet space is where I feel I can actually fly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besson, no longer an enfant terrible, seems to have greatly mellowed. Those debates of 40 years ago no longer get him so riled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people talked about \u2018cin\u00e9ma du look\u2019, it was really about Subway and the films of Carax and Beineix, this sense of a \u2018new new wave\u2019,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I was 23 when I made Subway. I had lived so little. Of course, the film is full of colour, movement, music. That\u2019s what a 23-year-old expresses. <\/p>\n

\u201cThen you get older. You pay more attention to story, to actors, to tone. You make L\u00e9on, The Fifth Element, Joan of Arc. Now I arrive at Dracula at 65 with a completely different understanding of love and life. It\u2019s natural. Cinema is a young art, and you evolve along with it. A boy becoming a man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dracula is available on digital platforms now and on DVD and Blu-ray from Monday, December 22nd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luc Besson has been one of Europe\u2019s best-known film-makers for more than 40 years, an extravagant visual stylist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[30814,64,63,45277,194056,134,2592,20904,194058,10503,194057,194059,84047,194055,32559,344,10492],"class_list":{"0":"post-353559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-al-pacino","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-bram-stoker","12":"tag-caleb-landry-jones","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-france","15":"tag-francis-ford-coppola","16":"tag-francois-truffaut","17":"tag-gary-oldman","18":"tag-jean-luc-godard","19":"tag-jean-paul-gaultier","20":"tag-kiefer-sutherland","21":"tag-luc-besson","22":"tag-martin-scorsese","23":"tag-movies","24":"tag-steven-spielberg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}