Virginie Besson-Silla

Last updated

Virginie Besson-Silla
Virginie Besson-Silla by Gage Skidmore.jpg
Besson-Silla in 2016
Born
Virginie Silla

1972 (age 5152)
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Other namesVirginie Silla-Besson
OccupationFilm producer
Years active2001–present
Spouse
(m. 2004)
Children3
Relatives Iman Perez (niece)

Virginie Besson-Silla (born 1972) is a Canadian-French film producer. She has made a variety of different films including action films, romantic films, comic adaptations, biographical films and an animation.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Life and career

Silla was born in Ottawa, Ontario, the daughter of a Senegalese diplomat and a French physiotherapist. [1] She is the sister-in-law of actor Vincent Perez by her sister, Karine Silla, who is an actress and author. [2]

Since her marriage in 2004 to Luc Besson, Virginie has been known as Virginie Silla-Besson or Virginie Besson-Silla. The couple has three children.[ citation needed ]

In 2010, Time quoted Luc saying she was a more perfect producer than he was and that she hereby enabled him to focus on directing his artistically most demanding, sumptuous film The Lady (2011). [3]

Filmography

Related Research Articles

<i>Léon: The Professional</i> 1994 film by Luc Besson

Léon: The Professional is a 1994 English-language French action-thriller film written and directed by Luc Besson. It stars Jean Reno and Gary Oldman, and features the film debut of Natalie Portman. The plot centers on Léon (Reno), a professional hitman who reluctantly takes in twelve-year-old Mathilda Lando (Portman) after her family is murdered by corrupt Drug Enforcement Administration agent Norman Stansfield (Oldman). Léon and Mathilda form an unusual relationship, as she becomes his protégée and learns the hitman's trade. The film was released in France by Gaumont and internationally through Gaumont Buena Vista International on 14 September 1994 and received mostly positive reviews from critics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luc Besson</span> French filmmaker (born 1959)

Luc Paul Maurice Besson is a French filmmaker. He directed or produced the films Subway (1985), The Big Blue (1988), and La Femme Nikita (1990). Associated with the Cinéma du look film movement, he has been nominated for a César Award for Best Director and Best Picture for his films Léon: The Professional (1994) and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999). He won Best Director and Best French Director for his sci-fi action film The Fifth Element (1997). He wrote and directed the 2014 sci-fi action film Lucy and the 2017 space opera film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Parillaud</span> French actress (born 1960)

Anne Parillaud is a French actress who has been active since 1977. She is best known internationally for playing the title character in Luc Besson's film La Femme Nikita.

<i>La Femme Nikita</i> (film) 1990 Franco-Italian action thriller film by Luc Besson

La Femme Nikita, also called Nikita in France, is a 1990 French-language action thriller film written and directed by Luc Besson. The film stars Anne Parillaud as the title character, a criminal who is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering policemen during an armed pharmacy robbery. Her government handlers fake her death and recruit her as a professional assassin. After intense training, she starts a career as a killer, where she struggles to balance her work with her personal life. She shows talent at this and her career progresses until a mission in an embassy goes awry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosanna Arquette</span> American actress (born 1959)

Rosanna Lisa Arquette is an American actress. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance in the TV film The Executioner's Song (1982) and won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the film Desperately Seeking Susan (1985). Her other film roles include After Hours, The Big Blue (1988), Pulp Fiction (1994), and Crash (1996). She also directed the documentary Searching for Debra Winger (2002) and starred in the ABC sitcom What About Brian? from 2006 to 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Éric Serra</span> French film composer

Éric Serra is a French composer. He is a frequent collaborator of film director Luc Besson.

<i>The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc</i> 1999 film by Luc Besson

The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc is a 1999 English-language French epic historical drama film directed by Luc Besson and starring Milla Jovovich, John Malkovich, Faye Dunaway and Dustin Hoffman. The screenplay was written by Besson and Andrew Birkin, and the original score was composed by Éric Serra.

Rie Rasmussen is a Danish actress, director, writer, former model and photographer. She is best known for her acting roles in the films Femme Fatale (2002) and Angel-A (2005).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maïwenn</span> French actress and filmmaker (born 1976)

Maïwenn Aurélia Nedjma Le Besco, known mononymously as Maïwenn, is a French actress and filmmaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sibylle Blanc</span>

Sibylle Blanc is a French-speaking Swiss actress, writer and director who is actively involved in theatrical, film, television and radio productions in her native Switzerland as well as in nearby France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EuropaCorp</span> French film production company

EuropaCorp S.A. is a French motion picture company headquartered in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, and one of a few full service independent studios that both produces and distributes feature films. It specializes in production, distribution, home entertainment, VOD, sales, partnerships and licenses, recording, publishing and exhibition. EuropaCorp's integrated financial model generates revenues from a wide range of sources, with films from many genres and a strong presence in the international markets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vincent Perez</span> Swiss actor, director and photographer (born 1964)

Vincent Perez is a Swiss actor, director and photographer. He played the title character, Ashe Corven, in The Crow: City of Angels, and starred in Queen of the Damned, playing Marius de Romanus. Some of his films in French cinema include Cyrano de Bergerac, Le Bossu, La Reine Margot and Indochine.

<i>The Lady</i> (2011 film) 2011 film by Luc Besson

The Lady is a 2011 British biographical film directed by Luc Besson, starring Michelle Yeoh as Aung San Suu Kyi and David Thewlis as her late husband Michael Aris. Yeoh called the film "a labour of love" but also confessed it had felt intimidating for her to play the Nobel laureate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frédérique Bel</span> French actress

Frédérique Bel is a French actress and model. A native of Annecy in the French Alps, she became known for her role as Dorothy Doll in the La Minute Blonde sequence from Le Grand Journal on Canal+. She has since played main and supporting roles in many productions.

<i>No Limit</i> (TV series) French TV series (2012-2015)

No Limit is a 2012 French television action-adventure series created by filmmaker Luc Besson with Franck Philippon through Besson's EuropaCorp company. Along with Transporter: The Series, it represents one of Besson's first forays into television, although this time as a writer as well as a producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cité du Cinéma</span>

The Cité du Cinéma or Studios of Paris is a film studio complex originally supported and founded by the film director and producer Luc Besson, located in Saint-Denis, in the northern suburbs of Paris, in a renovated power plant, commissioned in 1933 to power the Parisian metro. The studio complex is intended to be a competitor of Cinecittà in Rome, Pinewood in London and Babelsberg in Berlin. It was inaugurated on 21 September 2012. In February 2022 Tunisian-French film producer Tarak Ben Ammar finalized a deal to purchase Studios de Paris.

<i>The Family</i> (2013 film) 2013 film by Luc Besson

The Family is a 2013 black comedy crime film co-written and directed by Luc Besson, starring Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tommy Lee Jones, Dianna Agron, and John D'Leo. It follows a Mafia family in the witness protection program who want to change their lives. It is based on the French novel Malavita by Tonino Benacquista.

<i>Lucy</i> (2014 film) 2014 French science fiction action film

Lucy is a 2014 English-language French science fiction action film written and directed by Luc Besson for his company EuropaCorp, and produced by his wife, Virginie Besson-Silla. It is an English-language film shot in Taipei, Paris, and New York City. It stars Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Choi Min-sik, and Amr Waked. Johansson portrays the titular character, a woman who gains psychokinetic abilities when a nootropic, psychedelic drug is absorbed into her bloodstream.

Shanna Leila Besson is a French actress and photographer. She is the only child of French film directors Maïwenn and Luc Besson.

<i>Weekend in Taipei</i> 2024 French film directed by George Huang

Weekend in Taipei is an upcoming French action comedy film directed by George Huang and co-written with Luc Besson. Starring Luke Evans, Gwei Lun-mei, and Sung Kang, the film was filmed and set in Taiwan. It centers around an American DEA agent, John Lawlor (Evans), who reunites with a Taipei-based mercenary driver, Joey Kwang (Gwei), and becomes entangled in a romantic relationship with her.

References

  1. "Virginie Silla". Gala.
  2. Mottram, James (30 April 2011). "The big cheese: The crazy life of Gérard Depardieu". Independent. London. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
  3. Marshall, Andrew (17 December 2010). "I said, "I know a better producer [he nods at his wife Virginie Besson-Silla] and why don't I direct?"". Time Magazine. New York. Archived from the original on 20 December 2010. Retrieved 5 February 2011.