His parents divorced, and both remarried; of this, he said: "Here there is two families, and I am the only bad souvenir of something that doesn't work," he said in the International Herald Tribune.

"[5] Besson reportedly worked on the first drafts of Le Grand Bleu (The Big Blue) while still in his teens.

Out of boredom, he started writing stories, including the background to what he later developed as The Fifth Element (1997), one of his most popular movies,[6] inspired by the French comic books he read as a teenager.

He directed and co-wrote the screenplay of this science fiction thriller with American screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen.

In the early 1980s, Besson met Éric Serra and asked him to compose the score for his first short film, L'Avant dernier.

[12] He was nominated for Best Director and Best Picture César Awards for his films Léon: The Professional (1994)[13] and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999).

[14] French actor Jean Reno has appeared in several films by Besson, including Le dernier combat (1983),[15] Subway (1985),[16][17] The Big Blue (1988),[18] La Femme Nikita (1990), and Léon: The Professional (1994).

[19] Critics such as Raphaël Bassan and Guy Austin cite Besson as a pivotal figure in the Cinéma du look movement—a specific, highly visual style produced from the 1980s into the early 1990s.

"Today, the revolution is occurring entirely within the industry and is led by people who want to change the look of movies by making them better, more convincing and pleasurable to watch.

"Because it's becoming increasingly difficult to break into this field, we have developed a psychological armor and are ready to do anything in order to work," he added.

"[22] Besson directed a biopic of Aung San Suu Kyi called The Lady (2011) (original title Dans la Lumiere).

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the movie was "too long and initially awkward but is clearly the work of a visionary.

"Embraced by young people who kept returning to see it again, the movie sold 10 million tickets and quickly became what the French call a 'film générationnel,' a defining moment in the culture.

[25] He directed Arthur and the Invisibles, an adaptation of the first two books of the collection, starring Madonna and Robert DeNiro.

[28] Scott Tobias wrote that his "slick, commercial" action movies were "so interchangeable—drugs, sleaze, chuckling supervillainy, and Hong Kong-style effects—that each new project probably starts with white-out on the title page.

[30] In 2012, film critic Eric Kohn wrote in Indiewire: "Luc Besson’s filmography has been spotty for years, littered with equal amounts of sensationalistic pop art and flashy duds, a tendency that extends beyond his directing credits.

[32] Besson's second wife was actress and director Maïwenn Le Besco, whom he started dating when he was 32 and she was 15 after having met 3 years earlier.

In 2018, Dutch-Belgian actress Sand Van Roy, who appeared in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, accused Besson of rape.

[53] Several other women, including a former assistant, two students of Cité du Cinéma studio, and a former employee of Besson's EuropaCorp, who all wished to remain anonymous, described "inappropriate sexual behavior" by the director.

[58] In 2000, Besson superseded his production company by co-founding EuropaCorp with Pierre-Ange Le Pogam, with whom he had frequently worked since 1985.

It has production facilities in Paris, Normandy, and Hollywood, and is establishing distribution partnerships in Japan and China.