Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City ... He used a single camera and he rigged up some fake dolly rigs to get realistic camera moves. It was ‘quick and dirty’ and the students even brought ...

Director Luc Besson’s 1994 crime thriller The Professional (or Léon to our French readers) introduced audiences to a different kind of hitman movie, as well as one of today’s leading actresses.

French studio Gaumont took the project on when it was still in infant form and spent a full nine years developing it — during which time Besson made three other films — before a camera was ...