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A Touch of Gallic Charm

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Korean Airline Dec Magazine - Beyond

Cover story A TOUCH OF GALLIC CHARM

Lee Byung-hun's new role as an honorary ambassador to promote France in Korea fits him like a glove. Like a fine wine,his style and grace on the screen has touched the heart of France.

As with the movies made in their respective countries,stars in Hollywood and France are completely different. While France has its blockbusters and its auteur directors,such as Jean-Luc Godard,Francois Truffaut and Luc Besson,its movies still hold to the belief that dramatic moments can be found in ordinary life,and film-makers there search hard for such moments. Hollywood,by contrast,tends to eschew the banal or prosaic and opts for life-threatening meteorites,Jurassic-era monsters,mafia types,big explosions and dystopian,but still spectacular,visions of the future. Action,spectacle,sequels and now trilogies play a prominent role.Its stars tend to take themselves too seriously or talk too much. They make absurd jokes when they should be serious. French actors are more discreet;they know how to express the agony inside them. The subtle moments become the most important.They believe that emotional changes stemming from small,everyday incidents can become huge spectacles in their own right.

Lee is closer to actors in the French tradition. In A Bittersweet Life(2005), he falls in love with a vulnerable young girl, who also happens to be the mistress of a mob boss. While watching her playing the cello, he smiles for the first time. This moment is as dramatic as the sinking of the Titanic in the hands of Lee, who stares at her absent-mindedly and lights up for a single moment, the same way that French actors do. His acting reminds the viewer of Jean-Paul Belmondo in Godard's A Bout de Souffle(Breathless,1959). Belmondo loses his life because he is driven by a sense of groundless spontaneity and burning desire. In Bungee Jumping of their Own(2000), Lee is in love with a boy that he believes to be the reincarnation of his former girlfriend. But his love is tragic rather than heroic. Instead of expressing his inner pain through tears, he tolerates persecution and tries to internalize his feelings. Like lsabelle Huppert in the French film The Piano Teacher, Lee also has to tolerate the feelings of agony within.

Furthering the connection,Lee has declared himself a great fan of French wine.He regularly enjoys a glass of Romanee-conti or Dom Perignon and has a premium wine collection stored in his cellar. As a young actor,he lost numerous friends as they had little time for one another. But friends are crucial;they are his lifeline when filming wraps,and he says he is happy he reconnected with them. In an interview with Premiere,he said,"When filming a movie is over,actors often cannot overcome their characters. Then,they usually go on a trip. However,I hang out with my friends instead. I get my original self back. I remember that the 'real' me likes to laugh-even at stale jokes."

Lee absorbs life around him and internalizes it, in the process creating his own acting style,flavor and smell-much the same as a vintage wine. Like vineyard grapes,he thrives on the environment around him, Lee Byung-hun's acting is the embodiment of himself and the lives of those around him.

Credits to lovelbh sato & Angel70, with thnaks to Fiona-EverythingLBH

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A Touch of Gallic Charm