The document provides an analysis of the 1994 film Léon: The Professional, directed by Luc Besson. It summarizes the film's plot, characters, and key scenes. It analyzes the film using approaches like narrative theory, representation, semiotics, and genre. The analysis discusses how establishing shots introduce the setting of New York City. It examines the introduction of the three main characters - Léon, Mathilda, and the antagonist Norman Stansfield - through shots that reveal their characteristics. It analyzes how editing, sound, color, and symbolism are used to convey meaning and create tension. It also summarizes how the film's narrative fits the three-act structure.

1. Ewan Gregory
PR3: Critical Responses to Media Products
We respond to media products in many different ways, some of the approaches may be in
the manner in which we analyse the different genres, the narrative, semiotics, and
representation of a film. In this article I will be looking at the four areas mentioned when
analysing film texts.
Luc Besson, was the man behind the film Léon: The Professional. Besson is a French film
director, screenwriter, and producer. Léon is an English-language French action-thriller,
produced and released in February 1994. The main cast consists of Jean Reno, who plays the
main character of Léon. The film features the motion picture debut of Natalie Portman. She
played the role of Mathilda within the film, which was the opener to her future career in the
film industry. The third main character within the film is a corrupt police officer called
Norman Stansfield, who is played by Gary Oldman. A brief synopsis of the plot is that
Mathilda, a 12-year-old girl is taken in by Léon, who is a professional hitman, after her
family is murdered by corrupt police officers. Léon and Mathilda form quite an unusual
relationship. She soon becomes Léon’s protégée and learns the hitman trade for herself.
At the start of the film it shows the audience
an establishing shot, which is where the film
is going to be set by showing us an extreme
longshot of the New York skyline with
Central Park behind the title of the film
LEON. It then cuts to another establishing
shot of a panning shot of the New York
streets and showing a banner stating where
the opener will take place, which is within
Little Italy.
The first shot we get to see of Léon is him sat down at a table with a glass of milk at his
hands. During the opening scenes you see that the film uses a lot of extreme close-ups,
which shows the audience the key characteristics of the characters within the film. For Léon
the camera focuses us on the glass of milk and his shades, which creates a mysterious
feeling toward him because we don’t know who he is or what he is doing or what situation
he is in. The body language of Léon in these shots tells us that he is calm because he has
both of his hands on the table by the side of the glass of milk.

2. Ewan Gregory
After the meeting it changes to a different location and allows the audience to discover the
sort of job Léon has. It also shows us how well he is at his job and what the meeting was all
about. After he kills multiple armed men without getting hurt, he appears from the shadows
and gets the gang leader from behind with a knife to his neck, whilst he’s on the phone to
the police. This shot is a good way of
showing binary opposition within the film.
The gang leader is on the phone to the
police, which is his way of survival and to
carry on with his life. However, on the other
side is a knife to his neck, this is a sign of
death. Showing that the leader is in a
situation between life and death and
whatever he decides to do next decides his
fate. It also shows the opposition between good and bad, which is exactly what Léon is like.
During his job he is a bad guy, by murdering and getting blood money for it. However, whilst
he is off his job, he is sat at home drinking milk and showing the audience his good and calm
side.
The first shots we get to see of the second main character Mathilda, is her sat behind a
banister of a stairway, wearing childish and colorful clothing, but then it pans up to show
her smoking a cigarette even though she is
12. The shot of her smoking shows us that
she is a rebellious child but is also quite
neglected by her family as they allow her to
just sit there and smoke cigarettes. After
Léon walks past Mathilda, the camera pans
up to a close-up of her face to show that she
has a bruise on her right eye, which is
another sign of her being neglected and
abused by her family.
After the corrupt D.I.A officer’s kill Mathilda’s
family, she turns to Léon to help protect her.
However, when she is knocking on the door
for Léon to open the door, he doesn’t know
whether to or not. It cuts to a mid-shot of
Mathilda’s face as she is starting to panic and
it shows the desperation on her face as she
constantly buzzes the doorbell to let her in.
As Léon opens the door and Mathilda’s face goes from being darkly lighten to a bright light
shining onto her face. This is a symbolic way of showing life and is another way of the
director showing the audience the
opposition between life and death and how
close she was from death. You can also see
the relief on her face that he finally opens
the door to let her in.

3. Ewan Gregory
The third main character in the film is a corrupt D.I.A officer named Norman Stansfield.
When he is introduced into the film, you get an instant vibe from the character that hints
toward him being the bad guy within the movie. The first shot of Stansfield is him standing
with an angry expression on his face in an off-yellow suit stood in an off-yellow hallway. He
reaches into his pocket and takes out a small metal case containing green and yellow pills.
After taking one of the pills, he continues to break into Mathilda’s home and kill her family.
Later on in the film, Mathilda follows Stansfield back to his place of work to try and kill him.
She follows him into the bathroom but he traps her in there and proceeds to threaten her.
The setting of the bathroom is the exact same colors as the previous shots. The walls of the
bathroom are an off-yellow. The colors that are used can be a representation of corruption
between the cop force.

4. Ewan Gregory
The establishing shot at the beginning of the film shows us the New York skyline. However,
not only do they show the skyline of New York but they show us a panning camera shot of
the top of the trees in Central Park and the Cleopatra Needle Obelisk, which is a monument
within Central Park. It also shows well-known buildings in New York, such as the Twin
Towers and the Empire State building. These are good iconography shots to allow the
viewer to understand where the film is being set in. Also, as the camera is panning through
the streets of New York, it shows the iconic yellow taxis and Little Italy.
After the camera pans through the streets of Little Italy, it starts to move into the entrance
of an Italian restaurant. Showing a doorway leading into pitch darkness not knowing what is
in there waiting for us. The red lights in the window of the restaurant can be a
representation of death, violence and even love. The 3 things that can be witnessed
throughout the film. The violence and death between Léon and the corrupt D.I.A officers
and the love that Mathilda has for Léon after
spending a lot of time with him. There are
hints of green and yellow, which can be
another sign of corruption linking toward
Stansfield and the things he does within the
film.
The use of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds
in the movie is just a small yet very effective
way of creating different atmospheres for
the viewers when watching the film. Also, the use of non-diegetic sound creates suspense
and keeps people on the edge of their seats. Over-amplified sounds when the characters do
little actions is just another example of how the director wanted the audience to feel on
edge and always expecting something to happen. One of the styles of editing is the
crosscutting between different locations.

5. Ewan Gregory
When it comes to Narrative theory, Léon fits directly into the 3-act structure. The first act is
exposition and inciting incident. Exposition is the film’s setting and the characters that are
introduced to the audience. The setting is based in New York, the first main character is
Léon who is the protagonist, the Victim in the film is Mathilda because her family was
murdered by the corrupt officers and she was saved by Léon, and the Antagonist is Norman
Stansfield. The inciting incident in the film is near the start when Norman and his crew enter
Mathilda’s home and murder her family
whilst she is out buying groceries. She is
then saved by Léon before Norman’s crew
get suspicious about her hanging around
outside the apartment.
The second act is the rising action and the
climax. Firstly, the rising action is when Léon
trains Mathilda on how to be a “cleaner”, by
teaching her how to fire a pistol and how to use a sniper rifle. It’s also when Léon tracks
down the location of Stansfield’s men and kills most of them. Stansfield then manages to
track own where Léon and Mathilda live. The climax in the movie is after Stansfield finds out
where Léon lives and launches a raid on the
apartment and a huge battle ensues.
The final act consists of the falling action and
the denouement. The falling action is when
Mathilda escapes and Léon dresses up as an
injured police officer to try and get away
from the scene, but Stansfield clocks onto
Léon’s plan. He ambushes Léon when he is
trying to escape but later regrets it when Léon pulls the pin on the grenade causing both of
them to die in the explosion. Lastly, the denouement is when Mathilda plants Léon’s plant
that he has had his whole life and what he
said to be his “only friend” into the ground,
which symbolizes a new life and beginning
for her and Léon’s plant.

6. Ewan Gregory
Quentin Tarantino is the director of the film Pulp Fiction. He is an American filmmaker and
actor. Pulp Fiction is a Crime/Drama film, produced and released in October 1994. The film
itself follows a non-linear style, which means that the events within the film aren’t in an
order and can be mixed up. For example, at the start of the film you see two characters in
the diner, who then proceed to rob the diner. This is the last we see of them until toward
the end of the film when we see the two main characters Jules and Vincent eating in the
diner. They are then greeted with the two characters we saw at the beginning starting to
initiate on the diner workers and customers. This is just a small example of the non-linear
style that Tarantino used in the film. The main cast consists of John Travolta, who plays one
of the main character Vincent Vega. Samuel L. Jackson plays the second main character Jules
Winnfield. Mia Wallace was played by Uma Thurman and Bruce Willis played the character
Butch. The plot synopsis for Pulp Fiction is that Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega are two hit
men who are out to retrieve a suitcase stolen from their employer, mob boss Marsellus
Wallace.
Tarantino, unlike Besson, used a non-linear fashion when it came to producing the film Pulp
Fiction. The film itself has four different stories within it, but all stories have their own
exposition, inciting incident, rising action, falling action, and denouement.
The first story in the film Pulp Fiction shows two characters who go by the names of
Pumpkin and Honey Bunny and they are talking about how easy it would be to rob a bank or
a business, and then proceed to rob the diner.
For the second and third story, the film follows another two characters who are trained hit
men. However, for story two, the main protagonist is Vincent and for story three, the
protagonist is Jules.
The exposition for the film is that Vincent and Jules are making their way to a hit, whilst
chatting about how different McDonald’s is in Paris than it is in the US. The inciting incident
during story two is that Vincent mentions to Jules about Marsellus Wallace asking him to
look after and take Mia Wallace out, whilst he is away. They then follow through with their
hit after receiving what they came for. Rising action for story two is that Vincent buys drugs
from Lance and then takes Mia out to Jack Rabbit Slims diner for food and milkshakes. They
then enter a dance competition and win. When Vincent takes Mia home, she finds his secret
stash and then overdoses on it. The falling action for story two is that Vincent quickly rushes
Mia to Lance’s house to get help before she dies and he gets in big trouble with Marsellus
Wallace. However, Vincent stabs Mia in the chest with the huge needle to save her life.

7. Ewan Gregory
For the final denouement, Vincent takes Mia back to her home after saving her life and they
both agree on not saying anything to Marsellus about that night.
The fourth story follows the two characters Marsellus and Butch. The exposition is that
Butch accepts a bribe from Marsellus to throw a fight. After, Butch bumps into Vincent on
the way out. In this scene, Vincent and Jules are wearing different outfits and not their usual
suits. This is because this incident happens later on in the timeline. Before the match, Butch
has a dream when his father’s friend who is a war veteran gives him his father’s gold watch.
The inciting incident in story four is that Butch decides to murder the opponent he was
supposed to lose to by beating him to death. This is when Marsellus decides he wants Butch
dead. The rising action for the fourth story is that his girlfriend tells Butch that she has left
his father’s watch at their old house. Butch then drives back to the house, finds his watch,
and just before he was about to leave. He notices a gun on the kitchen side. After picking it
up, Vincent walks out of the toilet because he was assigned by Marsellus to wait for Butch
to murder him, leaving Butch the only option to kill Vincent. Whilst Butch is on his way back
from killing Vincent, he spots Marsellus and decides to run him over. However, it does not
go to plan. The falling action of story four is that both Marsellus and Butch end up in a
creepy basement, tied up with three weird people. Butch escapes and kills one of the
people, leaving Marsellus to finish up. This crosses Butch off Marsellus’ list of people to kill.
The final denouement is that Butch leaves Los Angeles with his girlfriend to live a different
lifestyle.
The third story is going back to Jules and seeing his story in the film. The inciting incident is
when all the way at the start of the film when they are doing the hit. A man jumps out of
the bathroom, shooting his gun at them but somehow misses every shot. Jules takes this as
a sign to stop doing what he is and change up his lifestyle. The rising action of this story is
that they take one of the people from the hit and Vincent accidently kills him in the back of
the car. They proceed to take the bloodied car to Jimmie Dimmick’s place, which is played
by Tarantino himself to be cleaned up. The Wolf helps them clean the car and change their
outfits. After they are both cleaned up, they decide to go to a diner to grab something to
eat. This is when stories one and three join.
Pumpkin walks up to Jules and tries to rob him with a gun to his face, which then changes to
Jules pointing a gun at Pumpkin’s face. Although, Jules has decided to change his ways and
gives Pumpkin money with a message. Nobody ends up being shot and both parties decide
on leaving the diner unharmed. However, this is just before Vincent and Butch bump into
each other at Marsellus’ place.

8. Ewan Gregory
Throughout the Pulp Fiction film, Tarantino featured many different postmodernism
references. Most of which are in the Jack Rabbit Slims sequence. Intertextuality being one of
them used in the scenes. This is when a media text is referencing another and in which they
do it, for example when Mia and Vincent walk into Jack Rabbit Slims, one of the first things
you notice is that the waitresses are dressed as well-known characters and celebrities from
past movies.
Another postmodernism used in the film was parody, which is when a media text copies
another in a humorous way. Before John Travolta became an actor he was a dancer, and
before he starred in Grease and Pulp Fiction, he was in a movie called Saturday Night Fever,
which is all about dancing. Tarantino creates a parody by making a joke about Travolta’s
past with dancing and his role in Saturday Night Fever hence the dance scene in Pulp Fiction.
It’s also a funny moment because it is seen
as the classic Dad dance that everybody
has witnessed their fathers do at events.
Pastiche is another example of the
postmodernism that Tarantino uses within
the film, especially in the Jack Rabbit Slims
scene. Pastiche is when a media text
imitates the work of a previous artist,
similar to parody, however it celebrates
rather than mocks the work it imitates. When Vincent is walking through the diner, the
camera is tracking his movement and it is showing the audience different references to past
works. The scene when they are in the diner and the film cuts to a shot of the waitress who
is dressed as Marilyn Monroe, and her dress blows up. This is Tarantino paying homage to
Marilyn Monroe and the film The 7 Year Itch. Another pastiche is when they pull up to Jack
Rabbit Slims in the car and the shot of them through the windshield is identical to the film
Grease, which was directed by Randal Kleiser and starred John Travolta in his early years.

9. Ewan Gregory
Reflexivity is when the filmmaker refers to the film making process within the mise-en-scene
or narrative, it breaks the illusion that the film is not real. When Mia and Vincent pull up to
Jack Rabbit Slims diner, they’re talking in the car as the camera is looking at them through
the windshield. As she is talking, she takes
both of her hands and draws a rectangle. As
she draws it, the editors in post-production
will then edit it so make it look like she
actually made a rectangle appear. This is to
make the audience know that it is not real
and that the people within the film are in a
land of make-believe.
Referencing to a mix of different genres and historical eras within a shot or a scene is known
as Bricolage. Within the Jack Rabbit Slims scene you can tell that Tarantino really wanted to
get this across that there are a mix of different eras within one setting. As Vincent is walking
through the diner, he is greeted by people who are dressed as popular characters in the
1950’s. However, the way people are dressed in the background are not representing the
1950’s era but they are dressed as if they were in the 1990’s. Black and White people sat
together eating food and listening to the music, which wouldn’t have happened in the 50’s
due to the segregation, which was still a huge issue. The way the women had their hair
down and wore short dresses was another thing that you would not see in the 50’s, since it
was more of a tied up hairstyle and long dresses to the knees back in those days. The long,
down hair and short dresses were more of a trend in the 90’s.
Self-referentiality is when a producer of a media text or an actor within the text directly
references previous work. An example of this is when John Travolta is dancing in the diner.
He is making a direct reference to his past career before he became an actor and when he
starred in the movie Saturday Night Fever. He is just having a laugh at himself for fun.