Léon: Encyclopedia II - Léon - International Version

Léon - International Version

There is a version marketed in the US as the "International Version", which is also referred to as Version Intégrale, that has approximately twenty minutes of extra footage that was felt to be too risqué for mainstream US audiences. (The long version was finally released on DVD in North America as well.)

Luc Besson often releases his movies in extended versions, which are simply called version longue in France, and not version intégrale. They get a limited run in normal cinemas, in larger cities. The existence of an extended version does not mean that the original one was somehow censored. Extended versions are targeted at fans which enjoy a slower-paced show, Eric Serra's music and the general climate, like in The Big Blue. Léon was shown in France in the normal version, not in the international, intégrale or long cut. Similarly, small differences in movie durations, as accounted by the IMDb, do not necessarily result from the presence of censoring in the shorter version, as European television and video standards show movies slightly accelerated, shortening for example a two-hour movie by nearly five minutes; video labelling can reflect the actual duration rather than the cinematic one.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "International Version", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki