Promising land for movies in Asia, says French director
Hong Kong : French director Luc Besson says that Asia is the most promising land for world movies today.
"Of the most interesting films around the world, a lot are in Asia, for sure, a little bit in Europe, then the American independent films," French director Besson told journalists at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.
And Asian cinema has become one of the most vigorous and powerful cinema festival in the world, he added.
Besson, the director of films like "Nikita", "Leon" and "The Big Blue", said that the quality of mainstream American cinema was declining because in the last 10 years artists in studios were fired and replaced by lawyers, bankers and agents.
"Slowly Hollywood films became a little poorer every year," he said. But he also agreed that "the independent American films are much stronger now".
Today, when most moviemakers ask if their film is for art or market, Besson faces no such confusion.
He says there are three positions in making films. One is very classical French position, which is all for art. Another is American position - all about business. And for the third he said, "Shoot the film first, then talk about business object."
Asked to list top five of his own works, he said: "Do you have kids? I have 10 babies and honestly I love them all."
He said whenever he sees his old films it is like watching pictures of the past. "The more you grow, the more you feel your job there," he said.
But he admitted that he is proud of "Nikita", about a female assassin, because he struggled with the script and had to suspend shooting after 10 weeks, to rewrite the story.
Besson loves talking about his latest directorial venture "Arthur and the Minimoys", which is a part-animated, part-live action feature film adaptation of the same-name, 2002 children's book and the 2003 sequel "Arthur and the Forbidden City" by Besson.
The film revolves around 10-year-old boy Arthur, who must save his own home and Minimoys - tiny elfin beings living underground in the garden of his grandparents' house.
"It's time to teach them something," said the director, adding that there are lots of issues related to ecology, relationships and racism that he'd like to narrate to children.
He says he was very happy when a friend called him to tell him that his kid doesn't want to walk in the garden after watching the film because he is scared of killing Minimoys under the ground.
"I think I have achieved something," he said.
