his converted farmhouse in Normandy. This rural g te, however, is a little more lavish than average. Set in 500 acres of parkland, it has 40 bedrooms with four-poster beds, a tennis court, swimming animation, Arthur and the Invisibles is about a small boy, played by Britain's Freddie Highmore, who enters a magical What's more, it will soon be just one outpost of million euro multiplex in Marseilles.
He is unarguably the most powerful man in French cinema.
that he would direct only 10 movies. While that implies a certain exclusivity, his efforts have mostly met a critical drubbing, and no one looks to them for weighty themes.
But they have established him sense of the zeitgeist. Several, such as Subway, The Big Blue and The Fifth Element, have become bona fide cults.
produced almost 80.
It's an eclectic portfolio, from impressive pictures, French potboilers you've never heard of, and a forthcoming animated feature with the Rolling Stones.
bright autumn day at Besson's Normandy estate, the director is screening his latest movie for the first time.
He pauses for effect, and cracks a smile, almost. "Nice kitchen."
is moody.
One peevish and self-pitying interview in French Premi re divorce, his "stingy" stepfather who would not buy him an film club.
But today, revved by adrenaline, Besson is positively affable. In his scruffy sweatshirt and trainers, he scarcely cuts the figure of a movie mogul.
His light, young moments, when he warms to his subject, there's a catch of excitement in it.
animation, Arthur and the Invisibles is about a small boy, played by Britain's Freddie Highmore, who enters a magical subterranean world.
It started life as a drawing of an elf.
"I was stunned by it," Besson enthuses. "Seeing this tiny guy, I thought to myself, 'You can imagine everything about him how he lives, what he eats, what he does during the day. A walnut can be a boat for him, a leaf can be a bed as big as one in a Las Vegas hotel, he can ride on a glow worm.
It's incredible!' "
Did he ever believe in fairies? "Of course.
Where I grew up, there was no television, no radio, no cinema, no toys, and so you pick up three pebbles and two bits of wood and invent a world," says Besson, who spent his early years in Greece and Yugoslavia where his parents worked as diving instructors for Club Med. He hand."
The original Arthur stories, by Patrice and C e line Garcia, were set on a French farm in the '60s.
"They were simple and peasant-like, nothing sophisticated," Patrice Garcia says. Besson moved them to New England (although the film's live-action scenes were shot in Normandy). "In the '60s, rural France was poor in terms of iconography," the director says.
"In the United States, there were Cadillacs. Supermarkets."
wanted to make short episodes for television.
I just know about big cinematic stories." Besson has occasionally worked on a modest scale, but Arthur returns to the big arena he prefers to play in, with its 65.2 million euro budget, celebrity cast (Madonna, Mia Farrow, David Bowie, Snoop Dogg) and seven-year production period.
"For a ticket price of 10 euros, you can watch a Rolls-Royce and both cars cost the same," says Besson.
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