Sabotage or espionage?  Transvergence in the works of Luc Besson

Luc Besson remains consistently productive, having been involved in over 50 productions since the turn of the century, 17 of which have been based on scripts, stories or characters that he has created, and two of which he has directed. However, the following question remains pertinent in spite of his business: what has happened to Luc Besson? Following the critical success of his first six, arguably seven feature films, which include Subway (1985), Le Grand Bleu (1988), Nikita (1990) and Léon (1994), Besson once again stands accused of betraying French cinema owing to the critically-mauled but commercially successful fantasies that he is churning out. If we apply Marcos Novak’s definition of transvergence to films, we seem to characterise a cinema that is secret agent-like in its dealings: it crosses frontiers, jumping from continent to continent; it derails and disconcerts; it is a master of disguise; it is equipped with technological gadgetry. In short, transvergence seemingly describes the kind of cinema that Luc Besson has been making since the start of his career. By looking at Besson’s earlier and more recent work, I shall seek, through the concept of transvergence, to establish whether Besson really is destroying French cinema – or whether he is its most powerful agent.