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Valerian and the City of a Thousand
Planets |
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In a studio interview actress Cara Delevingne talks about why she was
drawn to the character of Laureline in Luc Besson’s
Valerian and the City of a
Thousand Planets, because Laureline is a strong female character,
something for which Besson is known. The twenty-five years old actress
turns in an absolutely smashing performance in the role of an
intergalactic agent and hero.
For his part, Dane DeHaan portrays Valerian with a mix of the charisma
and charm of Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly in
Back to the Future and some
of Harrison Ford’s reckless abandon as Han Solo in the first
Star Wars film. Major
Valerian wants to be a good soldier, but his impulsive nature sometimes
clouds his joint missions with Laureline. He also has a flirtatious side
that at times frustrates his partner Laureline and rather than spoil
this film for you, we will not provide further commentary on where this
leads the two characters.
DeHann took a moment to reflect upon his role and about the dynamic that
exists between Valerian and Laureline, “Valerian is a pretty cocky,
crime fighting space agent. He is pretty sure of himself and he has a
pretty good track record. He’s pretty good at what he does, but he
doesn’t realize is the amount of luck that is involved in what he does
and he would be nothing without Laureline who is played by Cara
Delevingne. We are definitely a dynamic duo and he has a big crush on
Laureline and I think that he would like to spend the rest of his life
with Laureline, but also I don’t think that he realizes how important
she is to his success as a crime fighting space agent.” (Editor’s
note: taken from the studio interview made available to us.)
The movie starts with a brief history of how we got to this point in
time set in the 28th century and the intro music is David Bowie’s “Major
Tom.” Then there are a series of idyllic scenes on the planet Mül, inhabited by a people called the Pearl and if you are one of those people
who is worried about what other species from other planets might look
like, worry no more, because both the men and women on this planet are
gorgeous.
The plot has good guys and bad guys (Clive Owen as Commander Arun
Filitt), evil and good (Sasha Luss, as Princess Lïhio-Minaa and Rihanna
as Bubble).
There are so many good performances in this film that it seems so unfair
to single out a few people, but we would be remiss in not mentioning the
outstanding performance by Rihanna. She is a futuristic, hmm, I guess
you would refer to her character Bubble as a shape-shifting escort /
dancer who is pimped by Ethan Hawke’s character Jolly the Pimp, an
individual who is more absurd than frightening. If you are concerned
about taking your children to this film, don’t be, as there is no
nudity, it has a PG rating and the only thing you might have to think up
an answer for if you have inquisitive children is why there is a pole in
one of the Rihanna scenes. Rihanna’s character moves out of the Glam
Club and joins Valerian and Laureline on their adventure.
Rihanna’s character Bubble goes through a wide range of emotions and
varying scenes and this writer was certainly not expecting such a
sterling performance from a novice actress.
Rihanna’s commitment to her role is evidenced in these comments by Luc
Besson, “She told me, ‘I’m a beginner at acting and unless I work with
someone who is good, I won’t learn.’ I was touched by her honesty,
because if she’d, I’m a superstar; you can’t shoot me from this angle,’
what could I have done? She followed direction very well, got all the
details and was delightful to work with.”
Luc Besson who wrote the screenplay, as well as directing the film
displays a very obvious passion for his characters that results in
incredible performances on screen. This was his boyhood fantasy reading
the adventures of Valerian and Laureline and confessing that he had a
crush on the character of Laureline. That being the case not just
anybody was going to play her on screen.
Cara Delevingne says, “Luc put me through trials like you’d have at
drama school. He’d ask me to become an animal and that type of work. It
was very old-school, and so very cool.”
Herbie Hancock appears several times as the Minister of Defense; John
Goodman provides the voice for the really bad dude Igon Sirussa and
Rutgar Hauer appears as the President of the World State Federation.
Valerian and the
City of a Thousand Planets
is a film that we could quite easily effuse about for hours, but then
that would rob the reader of the surprises, the excitement, the romance
and the sheer joy of watching a movie that truly does revive the child
in all of us and takes us on an adventure of a lifetime.
A special thank
you to STX Entertainment and EPK TV for providing Riveting Riffs
Magazine with access to the studio interviews.
#valerianandthecityofathousandplanets #lucbesson #rihanna #CaraDelevingne #DaneDeHaan #cliveowen #Rutgar Hauer
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The
only misstep in the opinion of this writer that the studio made was
dropping the name Laureline from the title of the film or perhaps more
accurately put since the film was based on Pierre Christin and
Jean-Claude Mézières’ comic book series
Valerian and Laureline. You
have a strong female lead and at a time when young women and girls need
to see women in strong female roles and someone at the studio decided to
only include the male character's name in the film’s title. That aside
Valerian and the City of a
Thousand Planets is a film that should be seen more than once…at the
theater. If we want to continue to see quality films made then we need
to support them at the box office.