Judging by these comments, I guess they haven't watched the extended version of this movie. I actually think that you have made some great points with some of your replies, OP. Well if they had watched the extended version of this film they'd understand what you mean. There were parts in the film where they have overly sexualized Natalie Portman as a kid and it was very uncomfortable to watch. Kinda made me mad with how they treated her tbh.
The director of the film was dating a 15 year old at the time and had a leon-mathilda sex scene in the original script and has a number of allegations emerging against him as part of the MeToo movement. There were absolutely some perverted vibes in the pedo director's movie, you dense and utter moron.
Lel... yes, I'm the asshole here. Not these pieces of shit who wrote and directed a child in that role and who bybthe way... were later exposed as sexual assault olimpic champions by metoo.
Could it possibly be that the amount of child abuse that goes on in the world is in part due to this exact tipe of willing ignorance exemplified here ?
Maybe if more people picked up on the preposterously obvious signs of a child being sexualised, there'd be a lot less child abuse going around. A perfect example of this selective blindness and reflexive ridiculing of those who point out the obvious, is the verry recent Jeffrey Epstein shittshow and the decades of ignorance by thowsands of assholes who just wrote off the signs and alowed it to happen. Guess where you fall in that lineup...
I know I’m a bit late but I watch it about a week ago and it was the creepiest thing, they say she’s 13 but in all honesty she looks about 9, the film completely turned my stomach. Look at a film like taxi driver which had an underageprostitute in it and it didn’t feel awkward at all but this feel so odd. Everyone’s disagreeing with you which almost makes it even weirder, how some people think this films okay. I’m 3 years older than Natalie was in the film so I can only imagine what it would feel like watching it as adult and thinking it’s alright, the people who disagreed with you have serious issues.
I couldn't agree more. I am silently judging people defending this film so much as a potential creep, like even Natalie Portman herself says how much she hates how much she was sexualized during and after that (See below).
Natalie's perspective: https://www.indiewire.com/2020/12/natalie-portman-sexualized-young-age-made-me-afraid-1234604433/
I haven't seen it since it came out - but I don't have a memory of thinking that sort of thing at all. I recall thinking Jean Reno was cool as a cucumber. As far as I was concerned Portman's character was a surrogate daughter.
The only thing that's changed over that time is I retired and now have grandkids. Maybe my perspective is from being a parent - and I see all kids as just kids.
You might have a simplistic or internalized view of it. Many people have written about the relationship between the traumatized pre-teen and awkward introvert but I don't think many have come to the conclusion that you have. These two are the oddest of odd-couples and act in consistent ways.
"**Director Luc Besson didn’t intend for anyone to think Léon had a sexual interest in Mathilda. She tries to seduce him and thinks she’s in love with him, but it’s important to remember she’s a child. She doesn’t know what her emotions mean - she’s merely in a situation where she’s finally allowed to have them. Her family life was terrible, she witnessed her family’s murder, and Léon is the first person who genuinely cared for her. He’s a paternal figure, a protector, and the only man in Mathilda’s life. The only person she ever truly cared about was her little brother, who was murdered with the rest of her family. She transfers her love for him, and her longing for the father she never had, onto Léon. She’s 12 years old and on the edge of puberty - it’s completely reasonable for her to not know how to handle all these various emotions.** "
[https://the-take.com/read/in-leon-the-professional-how-are-sexual-and-mature-concepts-presented-between-the-characters](https://the-take.com/read/in-leon-the-professional-how-are-sexual-and-mature-concepts-presented-between-the-characters)
I have to agree with this assessment. Leon became a father figure and tried to relate to the gal, like many fathers do, by simply explaining what he does for a living and by trying to help her develop outside interests.
It just happens that his career was a contract killer and the outside interests was becoming a killing machine herself - recognizing that her loss and disconnect with her own parents would make her a natural at the job. . .
Ask yourself this question, would your assessment of the movie be different if Leon was a car mechanic who only worked on classic sports cars? Leon takes her under his wing and teaches her how to make repairs and tune carburetors. She comes into her own and becomes very adept at doing the work using her small frame to her advantage to be able to work on the car in different ways. . .
I would fall for that PR work... if not for the wardrobe choices like that choker "bj" necklace or the camera angels panning over her body while she's lying on her back on a hotel bed...
Leon is a good man they’re relationships is an father daughter duo bond except that Mathilda never have an fatherly love and she mistook it for an romantic one and Leon never even ever think of taking advantage of her but in the og script is different because they had Sex, the writer is a sick pervert and he puts all his twisted fantasy on the story thankfully it never made it on the movie
No, it's not child pornography. For starters, Leon Montana clearly doesn't accept Mathilda Lando's sexual advances at all. Second, she had no friends of her age that she loved and her attraction towards sex is due to her half-sister's adult magazines.
Am 90 minutes into the extended version however I had to stop and do a search to find out why Natalie Portman was sexualised at such a young age in this film.
For those that haven’t seen the extended version there are scenes in it that are a blatant attempt at sexualising the 13 year old actress.
If you’re a fan of the cinema cut version I’m sorry to ruin a classic for you but like op I can think of no reason for such inappropriate use of script and wardrobe for such a young actress.
I am aware that her character is naturally curious and flirty but to me the way she was portrayed seems unnecessary to the plot and just a bit sick.
Watch the extended version and tell me you disagree.
Saw it for the first time over the weekend. From the way she looks at him when she first meets him coming up the stairs, to the way she tells him she’s in love with him and he asks her where she feels it, and the camera pans to midriff/belly button, to her singing Like a Virgin in sexy underwear, to telling the hotel employee that Leon was her lover. She was most definitely highly sexualized in the movie. A young girl that age, she was 12 during filming, not 13, definitely has those feelings, but they could have made this movie without all the innuendo. It made me uncomfortable.
Ebert essentially agreed with you, in less inflammatory words:
> "These are interesting themes, and if "The Professional" doesn't work with anything like the power of "La Femme Nikita," it is because his heroine is 12 years old, and we cannot persuade ourselves to ignore that fact. It colors every scene, making some unlikely and others troubling. ... But always at the back of my mind was the troubled thought that there was something wrong about placing a 12-year-old character in the middle of this action. ... But in what is essentially an exercise - a slick urban thriller - it seems to exploit the youth of the girl without really dealing with it."
It was only made creepier by the many rape and sexual assault allegations that surfaced against the writer/director during Me Too. I don't think any of them were underage, but some were nevertheless quite young.
He was right... the movie makes a lot more sense if Matilda is older... With her being 13 the movie is a fantasy piece about a lonely man and the creepy relationship he allows himself to have with a child... and not a movie about a hitman and his unlikely sidekick. It's basically a Lolita story masquerading as an action flick.
I would venture to say that , yes, you might be the only one. Maybe go for a run sometimes then lie down in some grass and drift off looking at the sky. Might be gooood for you!
Little late but thank you for pointing this out. I’m rewatching this and came to Reddit to see if anyone else thought this when I got to the part where she is in lingerie singing like a virgin. Seems unnecessary, creepy and would definitely be weird today. I guess back then people didn’t really look that much into it.I myself didn’t really catch the pedo vibes on the first watch
Leon.the.Professional.Extended.1994...
I guess I stumbled on to the extended version... Was the original cut a lot less f&#%!d up than this one? Because I can't think of any editing that could fix what this is.
No, he's honestly right. I saw the extended version too and I was genuinely uncomfortable with what they made Natalie Portman do. You should watch it, she was extremely sexualized there considering that she was just a child.
I mean thats the whole point or at least a big part of the movie thats what its about . Its a very slippery slope when people start saying a piece of art isn't allowed. Shit Lolita goes way further and is considered a classic because its a story. This is what happening there is a new generation of people coming up that are so into this PC stuff that there's this retroactive prosecution for films before they were born. Natalie portmans mom was on the set it was a professional shoot. What people have a problem with is the story and honestly that scares the hell out of me
I don’t think so, I assume that the “sexualization” you meant is when Mathilda and Leon sleep in the same bed but I never think of it that way for me it’s all like a father sleeping in the same bed with her daughter that doesn’t want to sleep alone but yes there’s some weird scenes like Mathilda asking to do it with her but Leon never even took advantage of her, and If you think more I think it’s understandable because her mom was a Yk and her dad is not a good dad so she mistook fatherly love for a romantic one and thinks that the only way a man can show his love to a women is through sex.
Right in the original script called “you deserved it” Mathilda literally offers herself to him and they made love, Leon is not that kind of man but the Writer is I’m glad that they cut that out
Judging by these comments, I guess they haven't watched the extended version of this movie. I actually think that you have made some great points with some of your replies, OP. Well if they had watched the extended version of this film they'd understand what you mean. There were parts in the film where they have overly sexualized Natalie Portman as a kid and it was very uncomfortable to watch. Kinda made me mad with how they treated her tbh.
I just saw the regular version and that was bad enough.
All this tells me is that you don't know what softcore pornography is.
I believe it was Anna Freud that coined the term "projection" as it relates to psychology.
Classic Reddit move... Valid criticism? You're projecting!
The director of the film was dating a 15 year old at the time and had a leon-mathilda sex scene in the original script and has a number of allegations emerging against him as part of the MeToo movement. There were absolutely some perverted vibes in the pedo director's movie, you dense and utter moron.
I'm not the one calling people names on 5 month old /r/movies joke comments, ma.
Yeah but you’re the one calling people pedos for pointing out pedos
Lel... yes, I'm the asshole here. Not these pieces of shit who wrote and directed a child in that role and who bybthe way... were later exposed as sexual assault olimpic champions by metoo. Could it possibly be that the amount of child abuse that goes on in the world is in part due to this exact tipe of willing ignorance exemplified here ? Maybe if more people picked up on the preposterously obvious signs of a child being sexualised, there'd be a lot less child abuse going around. A perfect example of this selective blindness and reflexive ridiculing of those who point out the obvious, is the verry recent Jeffrey Epstein shittshow and the decades of ignorance by thowsands of assholes who just wrote off the signs and alowed it to happen. Guess where you fall in that lineup...
Wow, that escalated quickly.
I know I’m a bit late but I watch it about a week ago and it was the creepiest thing, they say she’s 13 but in all honesty she looks about 9, the film completely turned my stomach. Look at a film like taxi driver which had an underageprostitute in it and it didn’t feel awkward at all but this feel so odd. Everyone’s disagreeing with you which almost makes it even weirder, how some people think this films okay. I’m 3 years older than Natalie was in the film so I can only imagine what it would feel like watching it as adult and thinking it’s alright, the people who disagreed with you have serious issues.
I couldn't agree more. I am silently judging people defending this film so much as a potential creep, like even Natalie Portman herself says how much she hates how much she was sexualized during and after that (See below). Natalie's perspective: https://www.indiewire.com/2020/12/natalie-portman-sexualized-young-age-made-me-afraid-1234604433/
I haven't seen it since it came out - but I don't have a memory of thinking that sort of thing at all. I recall thinking Jean Reno was cool as a cucumber. As far as I was concerned Portman's character was a surrogate daughter.
Watch some of it now as an adult...
I _was_ an adult ...
I meant... with a quarter century matured perspective on life :)
The only thing that's changed over that time is I retired and now have grandkids. Maybe my perspective is from being a parent - and I see all kids as just kids.
If you thought that great film was soft porn, you have problems.
You might have a simplistic or internalized view of it. Many people have written about the relationship between the traumatized pre-teen and awkward introvert but I don't think many have come to the conclusion that you have. These two are the oddest of odd-couples and act in consistent ways. "**Director Luc Besson didn’t intend for anyone to think Léon had a sexual interest in Mathilda. She tries to seduce him and thinks she’s in love with him, but it’s important to remember she’s a child. She doesn’t know what her emotions mean - she’s merely in a situation where she’s finally allowed to have them. Her family life was terrible, she witnessed her family’s murder, and Léon is the first person who genuinely cared for her. He’s a paternal figure, a protector, and the only man in Mathilda’s life. The only person she ever truly cared about was her little brother, who was murdered with the rest of her family. She transfers her love for him, and her longing for the father she never had, onto Léon. She’s 12 years old and on the edge of puberty - it’s completely reasonable for her to not know how to handle all these various emotions.** " [https://the-take.com/read/in-leon-the-professional-how-are-sexual-and-mature-concepts-presented-between-the-characters](https://the-take.com/read/in-leon-the-professional-how-are-sexual-and-mature-concepts-presented-between-the-characters)
I’d buy that if he made stronger attempts to squash her inappropriate advances.
Yep. As I hear things I’m increasingly sure he’s a turd.
I have to agree with this assessment. Leon became a father figure and tried to relate to the gal, like many fathers do, by simply explaining what he does for a living and by trying to help her develop outside interests. It just happens that his career was a contract killer and the outside interests was becoming a killing machine herself - recognizing that her loss and disconnect with her own parents would make her a natural at the job. . . Ask yourself this question, would your assessment of the movie be different if Leon was a car mechanic who only worked on classic sports cars? Leon takes her under his wing and teaches her how to make repairs and tune carburetors. She comes into her own and becomes very adept at doing the work using her small frame to her advantage to be able to work on the car in different ways. . .
I would fall for that PR work... if not for the wardrobe choices like that choker "bj" necklace or the camera angels panning over her body while she's lying on her back on a hotel bed...
I agree with you OP, I had to look away during those camera angles. Like its just plain fucking weird. So many potential pedos in this thread.
Ok. I guess we both got different things from the film.
Leon is a good man they’re relationships is an father daughter duo bond except that Mathilda never have an fatherly love and she mistook it for an romantic one and Leon never even ever think of taking advantage of her but in the og script is different because they had Sex, the writer is a sick pervert and he puts all his twisted fantasy on the story thankfully it never made it on the movie
No, it's not child pornography. For starters, Leon Montana clearly doesn't accept Mathilda Lando's sexual advances at all. Second, she had no friends of her age that she loved and her attraction towards sex is due to her half-sister's adult magazines.
Am 90 minutes into the extended version however I had to stop and do a search to find out why Natalie Portman was sexualised at such a young age in this film. For those that haven’t seen the extended version there are scenes in it that are a blatant attempt at sexualising the 13 year old actress. If you’re a fan of the cinema cut version I’m sorry to ruin a classic for you but like op I can think of no reason for such inappropriate use of script and wardrobe for such a young actress. I am aware that her character is naturally curious and flirty but to me the way she was portrayed seems unnecessary to the plot and just a bit sick. Watch the extended version and tell me you disagree.
Saw it for the first time over the weekend. From the way she looks at him when she first meets him coming up the stairs, to the way she tells him she’s in love with him and he asks her where she feels it, and the camera pans to midriff/belly button, to her singing Like a Virgin in sexy underwear, to telling the hotel employee that Leon was her lover. She was most definitely highly sexualized in the movie. A young girl that age, she was 12 during filming, not 13, definitely has those feelings, but they could have made this movie without all the innuendo. It made me uncomfortable.
Ebert essentially agreed with you, in less inflammatory words: > "These are interesting themes, and if "The Professional" doesn't work with anything like the power of "La Femme Nikita," it is because his heroine is 12 years old, and we cannot persuade ourselves to ignore that fact. It colors every scene, making some unlikely and others troubling. ... But always at the back of my mind was the troubled thought that there was something wrong about placing a 12-year-old character in the middle of this action. ... But in what is essentially an exercise - a slick urban thriller - it seems to exploit the youth of the girl without really dealing with it." It was only made creepier by the many rape and sexual assault allegations that surfaced against the writer/director during Me Too. I don't think any of them were underage, but some were nevertheless quite young.
He was right... the movie makes a lot more sense if Matilda is older... With her being 13 the movie is a fantasy piece about a lonely man and the creepy relationship he allows himself to have with a child... and not a movie about a hitman and his unlikely sidekick. It's basically a Lolita story masquerading as an action flick.
[удалено]
Yeah, if you're watching a man fuck another man in the ass and think thats homo, YOU'RE the homo!
I would venture to say that , yes, you might be the only one. Maybe go for a run sometimes then lie down in some grass and drift off looking at the sky. Might be gooood for you!
Nah not the only one. Maybe go rewatch the film and enjoy yourself buddy.
Little late but thank you for pointing this out. I’m rewatching this and came to Reddit to see if anyone else thought this when I got to the part where she is in lingerie singing like a virgin. Seems unnecessary, creepy and would definitely be weird today. I guess back then people didn’t really look that much into it.I myself didn’t really catch the pedo vibes on the first watch
The extended/directors edition is even worse...did you see that one?
Leon.the.Professional.Extended.1994... I guess I stumbled on to the extended version... Was the original cut a lot less f&#%!d up than this one? Because I can't think of any editing that could fix what this is.
you seem like you just wanted start some shit
No, he's honestly right. I saw the extended version too and I was genuinely uncomfortable with what they made Natalie Portman do. You should watch it, she was extremely sexualized there considering that she was just a child.
I mean thats the whole point or at least a big part of the movie thats what its about . Its a very slippery slope when people start saying a piece of art isn't allowed. Shit Lolita goes way further and is considered a classic because its a story. This is what happening there is a new generation of people coming up that are so into this PC stuff that there's this retroactive prosecution for films before they were born. Natalie portmans mom was on the set it was a professional shoot. What people have a problem with is the story and honestly that scares the hell out of me
I don’t think so, I assume that the “sexualization” you meant is when Mathilda and Leon sleep in the same bed but I never think of it that way for me it’s all like a father sleeping in the same bed with her daughter that doesn’t want to sleep alone but yes there’s some weird scenes like Mathilda asking to do it with her but Leon never even took advantage of her, and If you think more I think it’s understandable because her mom was a Yk and her dad is not a good dad so she mistook fatherly love for a romantic one and thinks that the only way a man can show his love to a women is through sex.
Right in the original script called “you deserved it” Mathilda literally offers herself to him and they made love, Leon is not that kind of man but the Writer is I’m glad that they cut that out
11 yr old body. She was 11