A couple of minutes researching into Luc Besson, the director, will give you some insight.

Yep, you're not the only one, regarding the relationship in that movie. Turns out Besson is a creepy, fucked-up dude.

It is very problematic and n portman has had to deal with sexualization in her career. She was also in another movie, girls?, where they had her as a young object of desire. If you want a deep dive on that subject in general there is a short podcast called Lolita Podcast.

Creepy? How?

Whatever you do, don't read the original script. a lot of it was cut out.

Including a scene where Mathilde naked in the bathroom after a shower, Leon walks in and hands her a towel.

Another scene were Mathilde seduces Leon and he's not able to say no and they have sex.

There is also an "International Cut" of the movie where their relationship is fleshed out more.

The Professional (1994) is probably the only film I know where I actually preferred the version re-edited for the American market. It was less plodding, and it kept the symbiotic relationship of two very lonely people who had been violently let down and abandoned by humanity while minimizing the creepier aspects of Leon (1994). I saw the original version, Leon, years after The Professional and I felt the more overt sexualizing of these two paradoxical innocents was creepy and stomach turning. Some may accuse me of American puritanism, but I'll stand my ground that in Leon, it went too far. I also felt a little bewildered that while Portman had received a lot of sexualized harassment when she was still a child, much of it likely in response to this role, she then came to the defense of Roman Polanksy's facing his rape charges involving a very young girl. Though looking this up, I've just found that Portman has since publicly apologized and regretted signing the petition in his defense.

EDIT: I haven't seen either version in decades, seeing the OP's title "Leon: The Professional", I'm realizing there may be other versions I'm not aware of.

bruh

Curiosity got the better of me. Unfortunately.

I'm definitely not a lazy piece of shit who is too lethargic to look him up, but why don't you give people who are a quick recap.

My guess is pedo

Imho, there is no issue with finding it off-putting, but there is an issue with the expectation that no film should cause you to feel any negative emotions ever.

Entertainment is just a niche in filming. A highly profitable one, but not all that the artform itself offers.

I'm in no way condoning the actions of Polansky, but censorship of art is a slippery slope and the expectation of not wanting to be offended is very dangerous.

I think it is better to have a conversation, even if it is uncomfortable, than to follow the practice of ignoring it.

Watching old Movie awards where jokes are being made how R Kelly can't be trusted to sit next to minors, with everyone laughing, are a lot worse, imho.

Same with Polansky and others. Everyone knew. Not talking about it made it worse.

> Besson's second wife was actress and director Maïwenn Le Besco, whom he started dating when he was 31 and she was 15. They married in late 1992 when Le Besco, 16, was pregnant with their daughter Shanna, who was born on 3 January 1993. Le Besco later claimed that their relationship inspired Besson's film Léon (1994), where the plot involved the emotional relationship between an adult man and a 12-year-old girl. Their marriage ended in 1997, when Besson became involved with actress Milla Jovovich during the filming of The Fifth Element (1997).

Well, I'm in this conversation, so I'm not clear on what you mean. Sure, discomfort is a natural, acceptable reaction to all kinds of artistic expression. My objection is that I feel a line was crossed from storytelling to exploitation. For me, The Professional passed muster because it still had those moments of discomfort about an uncomfortable subject matter, but the handling of it in Leon, IMO, was gratuitous and salacious. My original point was that The Professional succeeded in telling the same story without having to sexually objectify a child the way Leon did (I can't give exact examples, I haven't seen them since the 90s, so I'm relying on the memory of how I originally reacted to it as a viewer just a few years older than Portman). Though I know little about Luc Bisson as a person and haven't seen more than a few of his movies, other commenters' remarks of him being a certified creep is not surprising.

It was a product of its time.

Given the future revelations, the criticism is definitely valid in this specific case. He clearly did not use it in any way that was intended to spark a critical conversation. He was likely in favor of it, which makes it a lot worse.

But it is still important to remember that movies can make us feel all types of emotions. Some make us laugh, some make us cry, some make us scared, some make us uncomfortable. All of that is ok, except for specific cases in which it isn't.

I just hope the future diverts some of that attention from fictional movie creeps to real life creeps, who are the much bigger problem.

Watch the European version, Leon: The Professional, it has different scenes and editing from the American version, The Professional. In Luc Besson's original cut, there are some very overt examples of, let's say, inappropriate interactions between a grown man and a child. Even moreso in his original script that didn't make the cut (thank fuck for that).

Luc Besson is a pedo, if that helps explain it.

sounds like it

yeah he definitely sounds weird

i feel for you bro

That’s just what it is called in my country i’m not sure elsewhere but yeah it’s definitely strange. I had no idea about Polansky petition so thanks!

he’s a nonce

not a good excuse mate

I completely agree, just wanted to know if i was the only one who found it unsettling but thankfully not.

very strange man

I own both copies, I'm not sure what you're referring to besides the Mathilda drunk dinner, which is nothing more than Mathilda embarrassing herself. Leon doesn't approach anything inappropriate towards Mathilda, from what I recall.

Okay dude.

or so it seems

She only stopped supporting Polanski to avoid criticism.

Nah dude it’s super disgusting and only a certain type of people wouldn’t say so out loud.

What’s being implied in the movie is one thing, but in real life a very young Natalie Portman was made to do those scenes in front of grown men and that’s even more sickening tbh. Those aspects of the movie are so off putting that I will likely never watch it again and I’d definitely never recommend to anyone either. Somebody should have done a better job looking out for her at such a young age

Besson clearly was full of issues but it's a good movie so bygones.

I don't excuse things. I explain them.

Off the top of my head, the bed scene and the dress scene come to mind.

I remember at the time of its release having heard plenty of conversations about the age controversy

People keep posting about this movie on this sub just so people can say its creepy and the director is a pedo. It seems like there have been dozens of posts about this.

Personally I think the movie does get a little questionable at parts, but never crosses a line. Maybe the director wanted things to go further, but other people involved in the movie prevented that from happening.

Putting all that aside, its a good movie.

maybe because people discover different movies at different times? This is a really well known movie for anyone who's a fan. I honestly don't see anything wrong with it, it's when you add the directors background when it gets a iffy.

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I think the comments cover Besson's personal issues thoroughly so I won't reiterate, but will assume the reader is aware.

It's also been noted here that there are multiple versions: Leon (International), The Professional (American), and Leon: The Professional (Extended/DVD). And I think each is defensible as the 'definitive' version but I tend to prefer the Extended because the severity of it has an added value. There's no mistaking it for revenge fantasy.

For the purpose of comparison, consider Hit Girl avenging Big Daddy in Kick Ass. She is far more active in the violence than Mathilde is every version of Leon combined*.* Yet that movie is able to treat it as fantasy, escapist. Not to knock it, the bad guys get what they deserve and it's fun. But, I've never thought that's what Besson was after and I tend to think the international and extended editions emphasize that intention more than the American.

I think you'd be more forgiven for watching the American version and thinking "the paedo is trying to get away with something." But the more salacious cuts have a way of implicating the audience more than the author. That the camera treats her like an adult emphasizes how she's been robbed of innocence. We can see the vast disparity between how she sees herself and how we see her.

So while I understand why and how people are uncomfortable, I believe that discomfort was always the intention and have never really thought that Besson was broadcasting his own preferences--so to speak.

It’s an excuse that implies nobody had a problem with it at the time. There were those who had a problem with it; most of them were ignored because the louder voices drowned them out. But it’s important to recognize that dissenting opinions existed.

I watched it recently for the first time and was pretty surprised at how much they focused on her sexuality. She was usually wearing revealing clothes and obviously tried to have sex with him. I just tried to keep an open mind as to why the creators would make those choices. Maybe the director is just a perve, but I wondered if it was meant to show how the girl was an orphan from a broken home whose best example of love was from older women. She was imitating what she had seen with the only human still around. She had grown up in that tiny apartment and probably seen sex before. Her older sister had introduced her to celebrities like Madonna, who were very sexual. She was a kid imitating what was around her. Her parents didn’t seem like the best people so she was probably never loved like a child should experience.

I could be way off but those were my thoughts. But I thought they maybe went a little far trying to make her sexually attractive.

I remember thinking the Leon/Mathilda relationship was odd. Then I saw an extended cut and it was flat out pedo creepy. Besson is a creepy groomer. It kind of ruined the movie for me. I can’t even watch the American edit.

Yeah completely, i’m not normally someone to criticise a movie for things beyond the general quality of the art but this was unignorable it just baffled me.

Idk man it’s not good, like obviously you can appreciate the art but its very weird.

I’ve only just watched it mate and i searched the page and i couldn’t find a post on it but anyway that’s not to say there hasn’t been any. I just thought it was unsettling for me personally and wanted to see if it was a shared thought.

I’ll have to have a listen.

That’s a very interesting interpretation. I never thought of it like that so thank you for sharing. Just because my view on it was it was creepy doesn’t mean i am right about the intention of Besson.

you wrote one sentence that didn’t explain anything

I completely agree. There are hundreds of films that are “products of their time” and lord knows Hollywood is rife with sexualisation and pedos but it was wrong then and it is wrong now.

Yeah completely ruined it for me.

Yeah no i completely agree with that too it’s obviously art which is subject to interpretation but it left me feeling uneasy. Thanks for your thoughts though!

>But it’s important to recognize that dissenting opinions existed.

I didn't say they didn't.

And you're on a tirade browbeating a thirty year old movie that hit a sweet spot in the market when it came out but would never get made today.

This is fairly obvious to everyone but you, and this original post has no need for existing.

So pedophiles were allowed in the 90s?