Before They Were Stars: Jean Reno in Luc Besson’s “L’Avant Dernier”

Luc Besson’s first feature film was a 1983 French production called La Dernier Combat, a.k.a. The Last Battle, a black-and-white post-apocalyptic story told with virtually no dialogue. The film also featured an early role for Besson’s longtime collaborator, Jean Reno. However, two years earlier, Besson and Reno had tried out a test run of this story by making an 11-minute short film entitled L’Avant Dernier, a.k.a. Not the Last One. So here’s your earliest glimpse at Luc Besson’s one-of-a-kind directorial career.