Y'all are making me uneasy…
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lanis_cupus — 10 years ago(January 31, 2016 07:00 PM)
Does she have a crush or is she mentally disturbed? I think the latter. And she would be after all she's been through. The point is that there's something unhealthy about a 12 year old having such a pronounced interest (sexual included) in an older man. Yes, Mathilda just wants to feel grown upbut she wants to do so by way of sex (and violence). This is a sign of someone who's been abused, which is clearly the case.
Watch the original (long) version. There's very little innocence to be found. The themes run deep and tragic. And as for Leon, I did notice a moment where he seemed to be "checking" his desires. It was the time he left the apartment, paused, and exhaled heavily. He might have even leaned back against the door. I don't feel that this was sheer exasperation but regardless, this movie has a sexual strain and I believe it's meant to.
In the end, Mathilda comes to terms and we find out she's still a little girl (underneath it all), perhaps more capable of loving a plant than a human being. It's as if Leon went into the darkness and rescued her innocence. But the journey to get there was treacherous and this movie should not be taken lightly. -
SnoozeAlarm — 10 years ago(February 10, 2016 09:27 PM)
she has a crush OMG
Saying to someone "I want you to have sex with me" is not how I've ever heard the term "having a crush" used.
Having a crush is, in my experience, more along the lines of thinking "Oh, he's so handsome!"
If a private venture fails it's closed down. If a government venture fails it's expanded. M Friedman -
Pantstrovich — 9 years ago(January 27, 2017 11:13 AM)
Demisexuality refers to only being able to be sexually attracted to someone once you've formed an emotional bond with them.
"He's so handsome," implies something much more shallow to me, as it only refers to looks.
So I'm confused as to why you are asking them that.
Having a crush, to me is like something not very serious, like the way 12-14 year old girls might feel about boys in Teen Bop or whatever. (I don't even know if that is relevant or understood today.) It's more innocent and more based on fantasy than reality, even in the case of a person you actually know, because when it's just a crush, you don't usually know the person very well, so you kind of fill in the gaps with your imagination/hopes. It's more like, "Wouldn't it be dreamy if he liked me too and we went on a date and kissed at the end?" -
joeljdevlin — 10 years ago(October 25, 2015 06:56 PM)
"This, however, is not entirely accurate. When the film was first test screened in Los Angeles, the only scene that the audience reacted to was the scene where Mathilda propositions Lon, and he rejects her. The audience responded with nervous laughter, and Besson was pressured to remove the scene. "
http://www.imdb.com/board/10110413/faq?ref_=tt_faq_3#.2.1.14
American audiences totally not prudes tho right? -
Daimaju — 10 years ago(February 01, 2016 08:16 PM)
Anyway, love interest or not, it's pointless to discuss this with americans, anything barely sexual is criminalized over there and just trying to defend Leon probably makes me a pedo, perv, sexual predator or whatever their newest buzzword is.
Spot on, I agree. -
angryskorpion-44260 — 9 years ago(September 07, 2016 07:32 PM)
I completely agree with you! We Americans are seriously beep up in that regard. We idolize Edgar A. Poe who married his FIRST COUSIN when she was TWELVE and then convict a person of pedophilia for sleeping with a 17 year old the day before her 18th birthday. Like 18 is some magical number that transforms a person overnight! Females are physically ready to procreate at 13. Complaints should be addressed to mother nature.
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SnoozeAlarm — 9 years ago(September 08, 2016 12:48 AM)
The main thing that I hate about threads like this is people who say: "anyone who interprets this movie in such-and-such a way must be a closet pedophile" or must have any kind of deep psychological disturbance. It just takes a certain kind of sadistic tendency to try to imply that people do, just because of how they interpret a movie scene.
Scariest words in English: Were from the federal government and were here to help. R. Reagan -
angryskorpion-44260 — 9 years ago(September 08, 2016 01:01 PM)
The bitch about is that almost EVERYBODY on Earth has had thoughts about minors. Whether it's a great looking actress/actor in a movie or someone you see in person. It's physiology. Not that long ago women got married and had children at 13. Nobody ran around screaming PEDOPHILE at those people. Watch the movie "Far From Home". A 14 year old Drew Barrymore was all sexed up for the role. This was done INTENTIONALLY by the filmmaker. And i'm supposed to feel like a pedo for having thoughts about her?? Yeah..right. I would bet my own life that Drew wasn't even a real life virgin when she made that movie! Now, abducting a minor and forcing them to do things is a different matter. That is psychotic.
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MELlSANDRE — 10 years ago(October 23, 2015 06:50 PM)
You sound like you have a broom up your butt. Yes, Mathilda loves Leon. She TELLS him she does, unless you watched a watered down version more suited to you. And I am a girl, not a pedo and definitely, infinitely not as ridiculously offended as you by cinematic art.
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DFC-2 — 10 years ago(January 25, 2016 05:00 AM)
Considering that Luc Besson impregnated and married a 16 year old, I think there probably is some kind of lolita fetish subtext in this film.
Excepting, of course, that:
They never married and were both independent adult (16 years of age under French law) professionals before and after their relationship
Maiwenn was 5' 9" tall, looked like and was considered an adult, was independent and successful as an actress, and sought out Besson for a relationship, rather than the other way around. Hardly childlike in appearance, she plays the adult prostitute in this film and Plava Laguna in
The Fifth Element
.
Neither Portman nor her parents, who were closely involved with everything from the initial reading of and changes to the script, to the actual filming on the set ever saw or felt any such vibe or exploitation of any kind.
Neither Portman nor Besson nor Reno saw the relationship as sexual. In early interviews promoting the film, Portman described her role as a child mistaking paternal love for romantic love. Besson described the relationship as two lost children, emphasizing the contrasts of experience, size, strength, and dominance/passivity, with no sexual component at all. Reno wrote that, even if they had been able to stay together, his character was incapable of a sexual relationship.
The only charade Besson asked Portman to do was Gene Kelly, the Madonna and Marilyn Monroe were things she had seen on TV as a child at home and she was used to putting on such performances in front of her family, who, along with most normal adults, would see such an act by an 11 or 12 year old as funny rather than provocative.
Both Besson and Reno had daughters around Natalie's age when the film was made.
Besson is one of the few French entertainment personalities who did not support Polanski's freedom from American prosecution, saying that he should be subject to the law. -
DFC-2 — 10 years ago(January 25, 2016 11:18 AM)
If you could look back in your own ancestral past, I think you would find many such relationships where the young woman was younger than seventeen among your ancestors and they stayed married and never were guilty of anything "inappropriate and shameful," but you are welcome to despise anyone you wish.
My own ancestry includes a proper New England couple where the girl was 15 at marriage. They lived together in happy matrimony for over 60 years, and had a dozen kids who each lived past the age of 80 and had children of their own.
The modern age of consent is largely an artificial construct based in part on the state avoiding the psychological, educational, and social costs of exploitation. We are now better off by protecting young girls from being taken out of school. However, most of human existence came before there were public schools or the opportunity for a girl to complete higher education, and the age of consent was generally much lower, without the world being overrun by pedophiles.