"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 Luc Besson said.
Appearing at a press conference at the Hong Kong International Film Festival on Wednesday, the "Nikita", "Leon" and "The Big Blue" director told reporters that the quality of mainstream American cinema is declining because in the last 10 years, artists in studios get fired one by one and replaced by lawyers, bankers, agents.
"Little by little, the main Hollywood films became a little poorer every year," he said. But he agreed "the independent American films are much stronger now."
To many movie-makers, for art or for market, is always a question. To Luc Besson, there are only three positions in making films. One is very classical French position -- all for art. One is American position -- all about business. He'd like to choose the third one -- shoot film first, then talk about business object.
When a Singapore reporter asked him to list top five of his own works, he asked in reply, "Do you have kids? ...I have ten babies, and honestly I love them all." Whenever he reviews his old productions, it is something 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 last proud of his most famous movies "Nikita", a story about a female assassin because he struggled with the script and had to suspend shooting after 10 weeks to rewrite it.
When talking about his latest directorial effort "Arthur and the Minimoys", a part live-action, part CG romp production, Luc Besson seemed exciting. In the movie, which is based on his own children's books, young Arthur must save both his own home and the hidden backyard world of the Minimoys from bank foreclosure and conquest by the evil Maltazard.
Luc Besson said he was scared three years ago by a TV report in France. They asked a group of six-years to draw fish. Sixty percent of them were rectangle. "It's time to teach them something," the director said, adding that there are lots of subjects he'd like to communicate with children, like ecology, relationships and racism.
He was so proud when a friend called him, telling 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.
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