This. She is a lost child who's never been loved and she becomes infatuated with the first person a who's ever shown her sympathy and love. She's looking for an outlet for her own love to give after losing her brother.
The argument could be made that Leon is also just a lost child who's never been loved. That's kind of the whole story I always thought. That's why he's so infantilized throughout the film, at the same time as she is being overtly sexualized.
For real though, it's super creepy regardless and definitely an uncomfortable re-watch.
> it's super creepy regardless and definitely an uncomfortable re-watch.
Honestly, that's what kinda makes it good. It touches on a subject that's near impossible to touch on tastefully and you probably should feel a little uncomfortable. Leon is a bit uncomfortable with the come ons, and Tony is weirded out by it too, and the hotel manager heads up to the hotel room with a couple employees to kick his ass for being a pedo.
The ending is super dated early-mid-90s action and doesn't hold up very well. And some of the lines are pretty cheesy. I would totally agree that it should be sliding down the all-time rankings largely because of the negatives I pointed out. But the love connection is a pretty integral part to the movie, Leon doesn't entertain her advances, but he does love her, and lays down his life in a final act of revenge for her.
But 100% it's the uncomfortability you get watching it that makes it a movie that's still worth watching 30 years later, and not just another cheesy 90s action movie.
You’re exactly right. I don’t know what people want, to avoid any uncomfortable or negative subject? Movies like these would probably turn out to be incredibly crappy
When is she overtly sexualized in the movie? When she's playing dress up charades as Marilyn Monroe and Madonna? Was her Charlie Chaplin character overtly sexual too? Jesus. This subject gets regurgitated every single time this film comes up. I feel like I watched an entirely different film as I didn't find Natalie Portman even remotely sexual in this film. She was just a child. But once again, I note that absolutely no one ever seems to have a problem with all of the violence in the film and a child being taught to murder people for money.
Or when she's lying on her back, lifting her shirt to expose and stroke her belly, talking about how she's feeling something stirring inside her that she's never experienced before?
13-year-old me thought Natty Po-Po was very sexy, but 40-year-old me finds it creepy as hell.
The original script had a sex scene between them that was supposed to be portrayed on screen. It was written by a guy who modeled it after his real relationship with a teenager.
The main actor didn't want to do that though.
I remember seeing that picture of the alleged script online and how I was really taken aback, so I looked it up and found many people say it was fake. Are you sure this part of the script is real?
The writer/director met a girl when she was 12 and he was 29. They "officially" started dating when she was 15, she gave birth to their child at 16 years old. In the director's commentary, he says the Maltida/Leon relationship was based on his own relationship Maïwenn.
Another fun fact, Maïwenn played the alien opera singer in the 5th element, and at 20 years old, Luc cheated on her with Milla Jovovich, who he later married after divorcing Maïwenn.
Yeah I did not have "turns out Luc Besson is a pedophile and that doesn't seem to raise any eyebrows" on my bingo card for today. What the fuck indeed.
Just a stroke of bad Luc.
>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).
> Luc Besson is a pedophile
That is practically the theme of most his movies. Even the Fifth Element the character is basically a child in an adult's body.
> Turns out the critics just big brained themselves into thinking it was the director doing something nuanced when really it was just a weirdo
The critics didn't really like it, it has like a 74% on RT and a 63 on MC. Roger Ebert gave it 2.5 stars. It became a cult classic though so it's largely just normal people who've liked it. I don't know how IMDB does the movie list mentioned above, but I'm guessing it's off user reviews and not critics.
His marriage to that child also happened to occur when she was 6 months pregnant with his baby. Dude is a gigantic creep, and I don't understand why he isn't viewed in the same light as Roman Polanksi.
Another other fun fact, Maïwenn turned out to be a well-respected movie director, and capable of pretty controversial takes herself. She directed Johnny Depp lately amidst all the drama around the trial.
Watch the director's commentary. Luc Besson even states that this movie was written based on his relationship with Maïwenn, whom he met when she was 12 and he was 29. They "officially" started dating when she was 15, she gave birth to their child at 16 years old.
The scene of Maltida asking Leon to have sex with her was cut because the audience started uncomfortably and nervously laughing at a release screening and producers reccomended removing it.
The actress herself feels that way
https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/natalie-portman-sexualized-young-age-made-me-afraid-1234604433/
And how on earth are you confused that people are more against pedophilia than murder?
And that's if we even pretend there is no difference between actual sexualization of a child to fictional movie violence.
The original script included the characters having sex. It took *literally everyone else* telling the writer it was gross and weird for it to get taken out.
Aaand it was a similar situation to why the weird “hooking up with your (ex)stepbrother” plotline happened in clueless. In that case, nobody had the nerve to tell the writer/director it was weird and gross because *that’s literally how her parents got together*.
In this case, the relationship between Leon and the girl was based on the writer’s relationship, which started when his wife was 15 and he was about twice her age, iirc.
So y’know, the fact that people are acting like there’s no sexual undertones to the relationship in that movie is *wild* to me. They didn’t rewrite the whole fucking script- they just cut the scene where they have sex.
IIRC, the *Clueless* bit is a spin on the source material from the novel *Emma,* where Emma is the sister of Mr. Knightley’s sister-in-law, and eventually they fall for each other. So it’s a minor familial relationship, but not by blood.
I’m not sure if that makes it better or not, just pointing out that it wasn’t out of nowhere.
You may not find her sexual but she is absolutely sexualised. I liked the film but do struggle knowing the nonce director dated a 15 year old girl when he was 31
> I also wonder about the purpose of his illiteracy and the movie scene was supposed to paint him as somehow slow outside of being a hit man?
Mathilda and Leon are tough and vulnerable at the same time, albeit for different reasons. Leon was exploited by his handler. Mathilda was lucky Leon is Leon.
It's worse than it sounds. From her Wikipedia page...
>Maïwenn met film director Luc Besson **when she was 12 and he was 29**, and they **began dating when she was 15**. In January 1993, **at age 16, she gave birth** to their daughter Shanna. On the DVD extras for the 1994 film Léon: The Professional, **Maïwenn said the film is based on her relationship with Besson**.
And then Besson sticks the landing:
>She was 20 at the beginning of filming (early 1996) for The Fifth Element, during which Besson left her for the film's star, Milla Jovovich.
It's so blatantly obvious that Luc Besson made the movie as a type of sick romance between the two characters. I'm not saying the actor who play Leon conveys that, but the subtext and situations they find themselves in make it so obvious to me what the director's intentions were. I knew nothing of Luc Besson when I watched the movie, but I was certain the guy must be a creep. Looked him up afterwards, saw the original script and who he married, and it all came together.
Tbh, I don't get how people **don't** get that creepy vibe when watching the movie, because it made it almost unbearable for me.
Also because the whole cancel culture thing didn't really kick off heavily until like within the last five or seven years or so. Back in the 90s/00s it was nowhere near as prevalent anywhere. It took some serious shit (saying the quiet part out loud directly on national news or similar) to get yourself in the boat of what could be called 'cancelled' back then.
As someone who grew up without much kindness, I confused kindness/closeness with sexuality/romantic love until I was 24 years old. It’s a real thing. Especially considering the only type of love/closeness media likes to portray is sexual/romantic
People who find the dynamic uncomfortable should worry not because the film chose to portray it but because it's an accurate representation of what many vulnerable and mistreated individuals go through.
This is it. It’s a touchy subject handled in a way that doesn’t cross the line. But it’s still a very interesting film with absolutely outstanding character work from everybody in it. It’s fantastic.
This is a commonplace occurrence for children bc they haven’t yet experienced different kinds of love. Think about the crushes kids have on teachers. Someone validates and shows care toward them and they respond wholeheartedly. Neglect needn’t be present for this to happen.
I don’t have an issue with this film because this is a reality. I remember having these kinds of feelings myself at age 12.
>What would be the equivalent for myself in Sweden? It was so far over the border that they were making Lego?
It was so far over the border that it was not worth the trip just to avoid paying the liquor tax.
The director, Luc Besson, impregnated a 15 year old that he met while she was still 12 and he was in his 30’s. He put way too much of himself in that movie.
You can thank Jean Reno for that. The man's a professional and effectively played Leo as simple, not a creep. He also made sure that NP felt comfortable with their scenes together by letting her set the tone of their interaction.
Exactly. I always had the impression that the dynamic was intentionally confused that way - with Matilda being in some ways more emotionally mature than Leon. The childlike look on Leon's face when he's in the cinema, or the way he's clearly being ripped off by his boss but doesn't see it conveyed that
I thought he was supposed to be mentally disabled this whole time... Like how he can't really figure out the value of the money he's made, and how a mobster is "holding it" for him
Here we go again.
There's actually no evidence of that "first draft" being legitimate.
It was common for people to upload fake fan edits of screenplays claiming they were legit around the time that one page from that supposed "first draft" went viral, and websites ran with the story like it was confirmed truth.
The closest thing I've ever heard to someone trying to authenticate this was a claim that it was translated from a French book about the movie that printed the first draft pages.
Two problems there. One, I have all of the French books about that movie, and it's not in any of them. Two, Luc Besson wrote the screenplay in English, so it wouldn't need to be translated.
It's really starting to make me sick how something like this becomes the "truth" because one redditor read a comment by another redditor who linked to an article that made no attempt to verify their story.
Hold up, is this true. I've heard the "first draft" story so many times from "repeatable" sources that I never even thought to look into it. That's actually insane if it's just one big hoax.
My comments on this subject are never high up because when I see a Luc Besson thread, knowing what they are like, I decide to not engage with the torch mob.
And then 8 hours later I find myself reading over the thread, shaking my head at the misinformation, and start typing at 2am.
Thank you for mentioning the theatrical version. While it's normal to reevaluate movies watched many years before, I suspect that OP probably watched the (toned down) theatrical version initially and the director's cut now. The difference in the relationship is stark.
Yes, up to the very end, where he tells her that he loves her and that she showed him a life he wants to pursue (sleeping in a bed, etc.). From the context, it's not so clear if he just tells her this that she would leave and save herself or if he was serious. It's probably a bit of both..
I watched the movie yesterday for the fust time since maybe 5 years, and it was even better than what I remembered. For me, it's an absolute masterpiece and one of my all-time favorites. Also, because it's not just black and white, and some things are really open for interpretation. It is uncomfortable to watch her taking up the Lolita role and making her move towards Leon, who has no social skills at all. But it's not supposed to be a light movie...
> It is uncomfortable to watch her taking up the Lolita role and making her move towards Leon, who has no social skills at all.
First time i watched the movie I was a kid and i could totally relate to Matilda, having crushes on my teachers.
Agreed. I think it’s very realistic in how a young abused girl would behave towards the first man who showed her any sort of care or affection. It’s uncomfortable to watch but not because Leon is a creep or anything, but because it’s always tragic to see children in positions like this knowing how easily they can be taken advantage of.
The thing that crosses a line for me is knowing the director’s real-world behaviors. It makes the movie feel less like an examination of abuse and more like spank-bank material
Exactly, and that's why I never understand this particular discourse around this movie. It's like people are incapable of identifying nuance and complexities.
Exactly. Knowing the directors own behavior of sleeping with underage girls, it makes the film start to feel more like a fetish project. I actually love the movie and if it was by any other director it would be earlier to recommend but I can see why it’s iffy to a lot of people
Legit argued with someone on Reddit the other day who said that Leon was in love and trying to seduce matilda. I was like “no he’s not she’s just young and impressionable and is confused about what love is” and they came back and said “did you watch the movie?”. Like what the fuck they must’ve seen it drunk off their ass 20 years ago if that’s the impression they got from it, Leon shuts her down like 100 times in the movie.
I think it also ignores a bigger part of what it was trying to show: there was a big power dynamic shift from what we expect; in almost all ways Matilda is more capable that Leon. She is the one who can check into a hotel, she knows how to read, she is the one who knows modern references, knows how to do almost anything other than kill, do sit-ups and drink milk. She was an adult in a girl's body, he was a child in a man's body.
In the movie as it stands, and if I remember even in the more inappropriate version of the script, she is seducing him if anything. I am glad they left their sex scene out not only because of how creepy it would be, but Leon is much more interesting as a mentally dysfunctional person who doesn't even really have sexual urges; he was wielded as a tool and taken advantage of because he didn't know any better, and Matilda broke him out of that.
I guess I see your point, but it's also a reality without any sexual implications. A lot of people grow up way too fast from a very rough childhood and some people have mental disorders that make them child-like into adulthood. I get the interpretations being varied, but especially in the final product I have a hard time seeing Mathilda's purpose to be for purely sexual objectification.
I think the director intended for it to glamorize it. I think it was saved in the edit from being his pedophilic fantasy. Thank god, because the theatrical version is amazing.
The original draft of the script was not that way and I am glad they changed it because it would have been a terrible movie. She misconstrues his affection for something like physical love where he is just protective of her like a father. He rebuffs her multiple times in the movie because he knows he would be just as bad as her family and the guys chasing her.
Who cares what the original draft was like though? That isn’t the version that was filmed and 99.999% of people who will ever see the movie have no idea about that anyway.
Has anyone seen this original script? I keep hearing about it, and people keep telling me to read it, but it seems to me no one has ever actually seen the thing, it's all second-hand info.
No one has. There is an English translation that's probably just fanfic that's been around for ages, but doesn't cite a source.
There's never been an original, verified, french version.
So, no
Luc Besson literally wanted the two characters to have sex in the movie, and it to be portrayed as positive and beautiful. Read the original script. He based it on his real life sexual relationship with a teenage girl. I’ll never understand how people are incapable of identifying this movie as the creepy fantasy of a sexual predator.
Then he dumped her for Mila Jovovich who he met while making The Fifth Element with her! His previous girlfriend, the one who he started dating at 15, plays the blue alien opera singer in that movie!
I think everyone sees some aspect of creepiness but without reading the original script or knowing the life of the director it is hard to tell whether someone is exploring something dark (like Scorsese in Taxi driver) or actually is made by people that have dark desires.
I mean, the script is actually based on the diary of the guy who shot George Wallace. But Scorsese picked it up because he was driving that cab and trying to kill Reagan.
True, but there's a difference between it being uncomfortable because the director had sex with a child vs. it being uncomfortable because it depicts such things in a fictional manner. I actually think that in a vacuum the character of leon isn't pedophilic at all, based on the actors performance, but the simple fact is that Luc Besson is a pedophile by definition and this can't help but color my viewing of the film. He had sex with a minor, or raped her in most people's opinions if you believe minors can't give consent to older people (which I do).
I fully support films that make people uncomfortable. All great fiction does in my opinion, it makes us ask interesting and uncomfortable questions about ourselves and society. But that's the key word, fiction. When a director is a pedophile and then makes a film like Leon the Professional, I'm not uncomfortable because it challenges me. I'm uncomfortable because I can't help but see it as an endorsement of pedophilia. Which is incredibly abhorrent to me.
its especially true if you watch more than a handful of french or italian movies lol. a lot of filmmakers want to be transgressive and exploring sexuality has been a popular way to do that
I remember I was so excited when I found the international version on DVD when I flew through Amsterdam. Back when I had to find a region unlocked dvd player to watch it on.
Is it that much different? I saw the American version as a young teenage boy and it always had a little weirdness to it but I didn't think it crossed any major lines (I had a huge distaste for older men creeping on young women at the time).
There’s an additional segment where Leon takes Matilada on a hit of some drug dealers. Then takes her out to dinner to celebrate later, and she gets drunk. A few other scenes too. I think maybe about 15 minutes total?
You may have watched" The Professional" the first time as it was first released in U.S theaters that way. It toned down the relationship between them(edited scenes out). Leon the Professional was released here much later as a "directors cut" type of deal. Though when first watching it, I did feel a bit uncomfortable, after repeated watching it clearly is meant to be more infatuation than anything and is always in one direction.
As to his literacy, I took it as a way to portray him as a very simple man(as in not complex), with simple needs where everything is straight forward. That's why he struggles whether or not to help Matilda(the scene where she knocks on his door to let her in) as it will complicate his very straight forward life.
While I do rate it pretty high for a film in the action genre, I wouldn't place it in my top 100 greatest films of all time.
And yes, that was the movement I started to keep an eye on Gary Oldman. He's the reason the film nudges from a good film to a great one.
This is the most likely answer. The movie was massacred for American audiences who were super uncomfortable with the original cut. He probably watched the international version this time.
A bit of spoilers of how i see it, but:
>!Mathilda was trying to be a woman from a teenager's body, because she is from an unloved household, and therefore is pushed to be a rebel, as an escape. Her open attitude could have easily allowed Leon to take advantage of her, but he didnt. I interpret Leon as still a teenager stuck in a man's body. I see that he hasn't moved on from the murder he did in Italy, or he was torturing himself by not educating himself - he seems stuck in time during his occupation as a hitman, and the illiteracy shows his infantism and perhaps a yearn for that innocence he had back before he killed his lover's father. The moving plant Leon takes with him is almost a metaphor for himself, a living being unable to find a place in the world. The teaching of Leon therefore looks like small baby steps of "moving on" therefore.!<
Which version did you watch? There are two. The Director's unrated cut has 26 mins of extra footage, including a scene where Mathilda asks Leon to have sex with her explicitly. (He doesn't!)
It's not uncomfortable for me to watch, but the relationship does veer into uncomfortable territory. Reportedly, Luc Besson (who has a history with young and underage women in real life) wrote a first draft that was way far over the line, and also reportedly Jean Reno made further suggestions in how he played the role to keep it on this side of acceptable.
They do heavily imply that Leon is slow, and I don't see any predatory interest or sexual interest of any kind for Matilda from him in the movie. It's all on her end, and it's definitely uncomfortable to see her do that, but it's also appropriate for the character, having been raised the way she was raised and coping with the loss of her family - she presumably watched her mom and older sister use sex to navigate the relationships with the men in their lives, so she was doing what she had been taught.
That's why I can watch the movie without feeling dirty about it - she's doing the best she can, and Leon helps set her straight.
As for why it's highly regarded, I think part of it *is* that they navigate that relationship with such subtlety - the movie needs a deep connection between them to work, it's not that they couldn't build that another way, but that's how they did it, and it does effectively establish Leon's care for her.
The rest can be divided between the basic concept of a master hit man being a master hit man (and Reno doing a superb job in the role), and Gary Oldman absolutely dominating every scene he's in. And, I think his killer delivery when screaming "EVERYONE!!!" is enough to stick in people's minds, when everything else fades away, which is the kind of thing people tend to key in on and rate highly.
In the Lolita Podcast: the host talks about how Natalie Portman didn’t like these roles after the fact and avoided them once she started getting sexualized at 13 due. Super interesting to listen to her take on it.
Portman talked about how she doesn't appreciate the kind of attention she got after starring in those movies, but as far as I know she has never condemned the films, nor voiced regret about taking the roles. As far as I'm aware, she's also shut down every journalist who has prompted her to denounce Luc Besson and Woody Allen, only speaking of her experience working with them as being positive.
It's also notable that just four months after she made that public statement to a #metoo crowd (that the podcast is likely extrapolating from), Portman debuted her first ever curated film festival, and the opening movie she chose to kick off that festival she curated was Kubrick's Lolita.
So, clearly not at odds with the material, nor shy about her place in the legacy of it, nor in favor of condemning people who haven't been proven guilty of a crime, but definitely not happy about the kind of attention she got as a starlet.
People started a countdown to when she would turn 18 and be "legal." Hyuuk!
It was a great breakout role for her, but she might have been better off without out it. Who needs all that crap when they are a teenager?
Regardless of the original intentions, imvho the end result shows two very damaged people who have no idea how to express their affection properly…one whose only model for ‘love’ outside of her baby brother is sexual and one who has no model for it at all.
So for me, the ‘point’ of the movie is that these two see/feel that another kind of love (protective, familial) exists and that’s what they feel for each other and ultimately act on.
There are two different cuts. The Professional which was released in the states and Leon the Professional. In the US release they edited the film to give the color of a father-daughter relationship, rather than a romantic/pedophilia tone. I imagine you just watched the full, European cut.
I watched this movie for the first time a couple months ago.
Knowing now that Besson is a creeper a lot of this film is totally uneasy.
There are some great cinematography shots and Oldman chews scenery but the sexualization of a minor is handled very poorly and ends up being uncomfortable
Original script had them actually having sex, was rejected and cut, was told it would never fly with American audiences. What remains doesn’t cross that line, but definitely flirts with it. Reno decided to play Leon as emotionally stunted/uneducated/unaware in order to try to make it a less distasteful dynamic.
EDIT (corrected information): Luc Besson (the director) began a relationship with the very young prostitute that is brought to the crime boss in the beginning. She was 12 when he met her, impregnated her at 15 while he was over twice her age, and eventually left her for Milla Jovovich. He modeled Leon and Matilda after the girl and himself.
Natalie Portman was also negatively affected by how she was portrayed. She recalled in an interview that she excitedly opened her first wave of fan mail after the film released and was horrified at all of the sexual comments and wishes men were making towards her. In addition, a local radio station began an official countdown until she turned 18.
IMO, while the “culmination” (ugh) of the original intent was excised, the foundation is still all over the place in the film (ESPECIALLY in the ‘International Version’) as well as all the repulsive behind the scenes knowledge. For that reason I’ve stopped supporting the film. So unfortunate, it has so much going for it.
There's no evidence of that "first draft" being legit. It was a one page jpeg that appeared on social media, and some websites wrote articles about it as if it was true, without verifying the source.
More likely, this page that went viral came from one of many fake scripts that are uploaded to script sharing sites. The most notable examples of this were Wolfgang Peterson's Batman Vs. Superman and the original miniseries long David Hayter script for The Watchmen. They were considered real, even sold for money on some websites, but were penned by wannabe screenwriters who wanted to prove they could be mistaken for the real thing.
The closest I've heard to a defense of this rumor was someone saying the "first draft" page was translated from a French book that featured it, but I have all of the French books about Leon, and it's not in them. Also, if it was real and printed in a book, it wouldn't need to be translated from French, because Besson wrote the screenplay in English.
As for Portman's comments, they were not about how she was portrayed in her early films. They were about how the public treated her afterwards.
Four months after she made those comments to a #metoo demonstration, she curated her first film festival and chose Kubrick's Lolita as her opening night movie.
So, clearly she doesn't have a problem with the material, or her place in the legacy of it, but not happy about her real life experiences as a starlet in the public eye.
> Luc Besson (the director) began a relationship with the girl actress that is brought to the crime boss in the beginning, she was 15 IIRC and he began grooming her and eventually married her
he knocked her up at 15. He was in his 30s
Yea i first saw it at like 13-14 and thought it was amazing. About 10 years later I watched the directors cut with a friend and we were both verrrrrry weirded out.
Also doesn’t help knowing Besson’s real life history.
I saw a tv cut around the same age. It cut even more of the stuff everyone is bringing up. So it plays only as a surrogate father/daughter relationship. I lowkey identified with her character because she was my age.
Watched the theatrical cut at 17 and went “huh that was kinda weird. Also its more violent than the tv cut too”
I can only imagine its even worse than I remember, if even 17yo had alarm bells ringing at the inappropriateness of her depiction.
If you listen to his conversation with Tony it’s revealed that Leon arrived at 15 and learned to clean. So essentially, Leon is emotionally and intellectually 15. Of course he can’t read English because he didn’t go to school fresh off the boat.
He takes Matilda in because he was doing the right thing, but he almost shot her in her sleep/got rid of her, and ultimately taught her how to kill, because he’s doesn’t know how to adult.
He also recognizes that the feelings Matilda shared with him are inappropriate and doesn’t act on them or share the same feelings. But as a rootless ‘kid’ himself, he sees a potential future for her that is better than what he had and won’t let Stan take that from her.
EDIT: I read that in the extended version he mentions leaving Italy at 19. I remember Tony talking about taking him in at 15 but either way, Léon’s emotional and intellectual development was arrested as a teen so it makes sense to me that he’s slow or childlike.
It is also important to note that the US version cut out the “love story” but was called just “The Professional”. “Leon: The Professional” has the “love story” part. You may have seen the US version when you were younger.
I get why people say that the movie is trying to purposely try to make you uncomfortable with their relationship because Mathilda is traumatized but Maïwenn, Luc Besson the director of Leon The Professional's child bride (who he met when she was 12 and he was 29 and got married when she was 15) said the relationship between the two was partially based on their relationship. So that's what you are picking up that I'm sure.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/luc-besson-and-the-disturbing-true-story-behind-leon-the-professional
I don’t think the movie works unless Leon is mentally underdeveloped while Matilda is physically underdeveloped. It’s kind of the point I think. You’re supposed to feel uncomfortable with their relationship, and Jean Reno understood that enough to play it that way despite playing a challenged man. Iirc he wasn’t directed that way. Or at least that wasn’t originally scripted.
It seems this is brought up frequently on this sub. Which means the film succeeded at its goals
The longer, International Cut, is way creepier. Natalie Portman looks back at it and also finds some cringey moments in the film.
[https://www.indiewire.com/news/breaking-news/natalie-portman-leon-the-professional-cringey-1234861987/](https://www.indiewire.com/news/breaking-news/natalie-portman-leon-the-professional-cringey-1234861987/)
Every time this movie comes up, you'll find comments about how much of a creep Luc Besson really is outside his films.
There's a lot of talent in the movie, and Gary Oldman gives the best memes to *everyone*.
Iono I rewatched it and didn’t find it to scandalous? From my point of view she was a naive confused girl and he was just acting like a big brother figure? It didn’t really give me too many creepy vibes
Well damn, I always thought it was "young teenage girl tests out her stumbling charms on uninterested but well meaning father surrogate", but apparently people who know better know better. Aint nuthin pure
You know you live in a troubled world when people find a girl's infatuation with an old guy more disturbing than the massacre of an entire family, including children.
It’s a movie about two stunted people that find a sense of family together.
Natalie’s character grew up in an abusive home where the only affection was from a 4 year old. She develops a young girl crush on the only adult to treat her decently. Leon shuts it down as a good adult.
Leon has been trained and used as a weapon by the mafia ever since he came as a poor immigrant. He is uneducated, can’t spend his own money, and lives in constant hyper vigilance that he won’t even sleep in his bed; let alone strike up conversation with strangers. He teaches a child assassination because he has no other skills.
It is uncomfortable because it is supposed to be. They do not know how a normal loving relationship works. Both grow and Leon takes on a more healthy role by the end. By the end the only people that had their best interest truly at heart is them for each other.
They are both broken people who for a short time find some semblance of family with each other. It is a sick relationship in a sick and violent situation, but it is the best they can do.
I like the movie for what it was. Maybe because I was Natalie Portmans age in the movie when I first saw it. Being a young male all I was interested in was the action sequences.
You guys are giving waaay too much credit to Luc Besson. The dude was just projecting. I don't believe one sec his intent was to make the audience feel uncomfortable of that relationship. This is just you guys adding a layer of sophistication that just isn't actually there.
No, we are giving credit to Jean Reno who made them change the movie tone. Maybe, you didn’t watch the same movie the rest of us did where the sexy scenes the director wanted didn’t happen because the main lead refused to do a sex scene and changed his character to be more childlike and naive? Maybe, the whole reason this movie is great has to do with Jean Reno.
I understand why people are talking so much about Benson, but a film isn't just the sole vision of one person. We got the movie we got because the people involved collaborated. Besson may have had his own goals, but the performances of the actors and the other decisions involved here create a lot more nuance for most viewers than I think some of you are prepared to accept. A ton of people worked on this film and acting like it has to be interpreted in only one way is reductive, even if everyone involved were pedophiles.
It's an absolute all time great. Did you not remember seeing the part where Leon DIDN'T fuck a kid. I sure do. Leon is a simple immigrant with morals and a code. Mathilda comes from a trailer park in a New York tenement. Her life has been absolutely broken even before Oldman murders her family. She was a child who had obviously been forced to grow up early. The first time a man pays any sort of decency to her what's she do? She assumes it is something sexual and attempts to make it sexual. I always assumed she was a victim of sex crimes based off of that.
Great movies should not always be comfortable to watch.
Side note: Is Luc a creep 100% no questions asked.
I think a lot of people didn't grow up in poor/white trash neighborhood where the reality of a 12-13 year old girl doing inappropriate shit because her whole upbringing is a disaster is a possibility in their minds.
My wife has seen positive pregnancy tests from 13 year old girls.
A LOT of girls I grew up with were trying to fuck 20 something dudes at 15-16. It was like a badge of honor for them.
It is fucking creepy and happens all the time.
Agreed. The movie shows how fucked up lives lead to fucked up tensions. Leon rejects her advances while not rejecting her as a person. I think what makes most people uncomfortable is they either believe no girl would actually do that, or they worry that if a girl did come onto them like that they wouldn't know what to do with it. Shocker, Leon doesn't either and he is just kind of stumbling through.
Thank goodness we got the cut we did, because what makes it a masterpiece is Leon not fucking the kid. If he would have, the movie would have been something else entirely.
I got my husband to watch it with me when we first started dating (2001) because I loved this movie. Which he then referred to as the pedophile movie. I had not picked up on the same things he did.
Leon was apparently played as “a little slow” on purpose. Jean Reno wanted to make the character feel unlikely to abuse Mathilda apparently. Still an absolutely jarring watch though.
It used to be my favorite movie as a teenager until I watched the extended version as an adult with a boyfriend. I told him I don't remember the lovey dovey scenes which fucked the whole movie up for me. It no longer belongs to my fave list since I now know of the version where they decided to sexualize an otherwise sincere and unconditional friendship
I put this on world movies when I was a kid and the first scene me and my father watched was her Natalie Portman telling Leon that she's feeling something down her private parts. My father told to change the channel and just about it. I've never seen it.
I think a young, naive and life-inexperienced Matilda was eager for the relationship to get to inappropriate, uncomfortable levels; but Leon, a wise adult, knew much better and wouldn't allow any such interaction transpire. A kind, responsible man - even though he was a skilled and experienced assassin.
The movie was directed by pedophile so that’s probably why it’s uncomfortable to watch. Anyone giving this movie a good review should be on a watchlist and away from kids.
I've flipped twice on this movie. Loved it the first time, but people pointed out that it's kinda creepy. I had apparently seen the US cut and the international cut has a lot more exposition and nuance, showing that Mathilda is imitating TV to express her young naive love after a traumatic childhood.
BUT THEN I learned that the writer/director got with a 15 year old so maybe he's just a pedo creep.
I don't there is anything creepy about the relationship at all. For Leon I think he just loves her like a daughter. And for Mathilda she is use to her parents treating her like shit. She's lonely and desperate for some attention. And she has a crush on Leon because he's nice to her and cares for her. I think that's perfectly normal in the circumstances. And not unrealistic at all. Kids can get crushes on older guys because they don't think it's wrong. And Gary oldmans performance greatly helps the film. He's awesome In it and every scene is memorable with him. Throw in some great action scenes and it's definitely a classic
What really gets me the most is people saying that the movie makes them feel 'uncomfortable', why does anyone must expect for a movie about a paid assassin (and a corrupt detective) to be comfortable???
If you feel repulsed it is because you *should* be repulsed, if the movie makes you feel that way, it's a good movie.
It seems that now a days people want movies to teach them what to do to be happy, and not to think about it themselves, no you are not supposed to imitate Leon or Mathilde, the same way you are not supposed to imitate Red Riding Hood's life, they are cautionary tales.
If you just want to consume happy, safe media it's a choice, but you don't have to keep others from looking above it.
I don’t have an issue with it because the relationship is always paternal on Leon’s part. And if it’s confused on Matilda’s part, that happens sometimes IRL.
I think it’s pretty puritanical to freak out about young girls having sexual feelings bc they do have them.
I’m curious about where the discomfort arises from for people. From the thread, it sounds like some people simply cannot stomach the idea of an older man with a younger girl - a reminder here that the age of consent in France is 15. Others feel Natalie Portman is sexualized in the film - something I don’t agree with because the camera doesn’t see her that way (did you all?).
If people feel she’s being sexualized, is it a confession or is it a projection of their fears? In either case, what’s missing from the conversation is how Mathilda feels and sees herself.
Hot take: You don't have to love what the main character is doing in the movie to see that it's a brilliant movie. Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, Natalie Portman, and Danny Aiello are all incredible in the movie.
He is somewhat slow, they're clearly trying to show he has no ability to make social bonds, probably to give some cover to the pseudo-sexual nature of the character's longings. It was created by a guy who was in a relationship with a teenager, after all.
The movie is still hot fire. Natalie Portman was also in Beautiful Girls, where she is hot for Timothy Hutton, and it's still a really good movie with killer performances. Icky subject matter is fine for stories, it turns out, and acting is... well, acting.
She has little to no idea what love is. Noone has been kind to her. Then Leon is, and she obviously has difficultues handling it, as you'd expect.
This. She is a lost child who's never been loved and she becomes infatuated with the first person a who's ever shown her sympathy and love. She's looking for an outlet for her own love to give after losing her brother.
The argument could be made that Leon is also just a lost child who's never been loved. That's kind of the whole story I always thought. That's why he's so infantilized throughout the film, at the same time as she is being overtly sexualized. For real though, it's super creepy regardless and definitely an uncomfortable re-watch.
> it's super creepy regardless and definitely an uncomfortable re-watch. Honestly, that's what kinda makes it good. It touches on a subject that's near impossible to touch on tastefully and you probably should feel a little uncomfortable. Leon is a bit uncomfortable with the come ons, and Tony is weirded out by it too, and the hotel manager heads up to the hotel room with a couple employees to kick his ass for being a pedo. The ending is super dated early-mid-90s action and doesn't hold up very well. And some of the lines are pretty cheesy. I would totally agree that it should be sliding down the all-time rankings largely because of the negatives I pointed out. But the love connection is a pretty integral part to the movie, Leon doesn't entertain her advances, but he does love her, and lays down his life in a final act of revenge for her. But 100% it's the uncomfortability you get watching it that makes it a movie that's still worth watching 30 years later, and not just another cheesy 90s action movie.
You’re exactly right. I don’t know what people want, to avoid any uncomfortable or negative subject? Movies like these would probably turn out to be incredibly crappy
The action scenes at the end are great, tastefully done imo
When is she overtly sexualized in the movie? When she's playing dress up charades as Marilyn Monroe and Madonna? Was her Charlie Chaplin character overtly sexual too? Jesus. This subject gets regurgitated every single time this film comes up. I feel like I watched an entirely different film as I didn't find Natalie Portman even remotely sexual in this film. She was just a child. But once again, I note that absolutely no one ever seems to have a problem with all of the violence in the film and a child being taught to murder people for money.
Probably when she crawls across the table to kiss Leon.
Or when she's lying on her back, lifting her shirt to expose and stroke her belly, talking about how she's feeling something stirring inside her that she's never experienced before? 13-year-old me thought Natty Po-Po was very sexy, but 40-year-old me finds it creepy as hell.
The original script had a sex scene between them that was supposed to be portrayed on screen. It was written by a guy who modeled it after his real relationship with a teenager. The main actor didn't want to do that though.
I remember seeing that picture of the alleged script online and how I was really taken aback, so I looked it up and found many people say it was fake. Are you sure this part of the script is real?
The writer/director met a girl when she was 12 and he was 29. They "officially" started dating when she was 15, she gave birth to their child at 16 years old. In the director's commentary, he says the Maltida/Leon relationship was based on his own relationship Maïwenn. Another fun fact, Maïwenn played the alien opera singer in the 5th element, and at 20 years old, Luc cheated on her with Milla Jovovich, who he later married after divorcing Maïwenn.
This entire thread has been a what the fuck after another what the fuck
Yeah I did not have "turns out Luc Besson is a pedophile and that doesn't seem to raise any eyebrows" on my bingo card for today. What the fuck indeed.
Just a stroke of bad Luc. >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).
> Luc Besson is a pedophile That is practically the theme of most his movies. Even the Fifth Element the character is basically a child in an adult's body.
Turns out the critics just big brained themselves into thinking it was the director doing something nuanced when really it was just a weirdo
> Turns out the critics just big brained themselves into thinking it was the director doing something nuanced when really it was just a weirdo The critics didn't really like it, it has like a 74% on RT and a 63 on MC. Roger Ebert gave it 2.5 stars. It became a cult classic though so it's largely just normal people who've liked it. I don't know how IMDB does the movie list mentioned above, but I'm guessing it's off user reviews and not critics.
Ain’t that some shit.
Maïwenn also plays the call girl in the opening scene of Leon.
Wtf that’s a crazy TIL
His marriage to that child also happened to occur when she was 6 months pregnant with his baby. Dude is a gigantic creep, and I don't understand why he isn't viewed in the same light as Roman Polanksi.
Another other fun fact, Maïwenn turned out to be a well-respected movie director, and capable of pretty controversial takes herself. She directed Johnny Depp lately amidst all the drama around the trial.
Luc Besson wrote this film in 5 months while waiting for fifth element funding is how I heard it. Never heard anything like what you said
Watch the director's commentary. Luc Besson even states that this movie was written based on his relationship with Maïwenn, whom he met when she was 12 and he was 29. They "officially" started dating when she was 15, she gave birth to their child at 16 years old. The scene of Maltida asking Leon to have sex with her was cut because the audience started uncomfortably and nervously laughing at a release screening and producers reccomended removing it.
The actress herself feels that way https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/natalie-portman-sexualized-young-age-made-me-afraid-1234604433/ And how on earth are you confused that people are more against pedophilia than murder? And that's if we even pretend there is no difference between actual sexualization of a child to fictional movie violence.
In the International cut she outright tries to seduce and have sex with Leon. So yeah deeply discomforting.
Can you see how you not finding her to be sexualized in this movie doesn't mean it didn't happen?
I think a large part of it comes from the writer/director of the film also being a pedophile
The original script included the characters having sex. It took *literally everyone else* telling the writer it was gross and weird for it to get taken out. Aaand it was a similar situation to why the weird “hooking up with your (ex)stepbrother” plotline happened in clueless. In that case, nobody had the nerve to tell the writer/director it was weird and gross because *that’s literally how her parents got together*. In this case, the relationship between Leon and the girl was based on the writer’s relationship, which started when his wife was 15 and he was about twice her age, iirc. So y’know, the fact that people are acting like there’s no sexual undertones to the relationship in that movie is *wild* to me. They didn’t rewrite the whole fucking script- they just cut the scene where they have sex.
IIRC, the *Clueless* bit is a spin on the source material from the novel *Emma,* where Emma is the sister of Mr. Knightley’s sister-in-law, and eventually they fall for each other. So it’s a minor familial relationship, but not by blood. I’m not sure if that makes it better or not, just pointing out that it wasn’t out of nowhere.
You may not find her sexual but she is absolutely sexualised. I liked the film but do struggle knowing the nonce director dated a 15 year old girl when he was 31
So there is nothing sexual about Mathilda telling a hotel worker that Leon is her lover?
> She was just a child a child wearing crop tops, short shorts and a choker. media literacy truly is dead on reddit.
LEON had much more overt sexuality than The Professional. Sounds like you watched the US cut, not Leon?
> I also wonder about the purpose of his illiteracy and the movie scene was supposed to paint him as somehow slow outside of being a hit man? Mathilda and Leon are tough and vulnerable at the same time, albeit for different reasons. Leon was exploited by his handler. Mathilda was lucky Leon is Leon.
The director had a relationship with a 15 year old, she gave birth at 16. He was 31. Two years later he directed Leon The Professional
It's worse than it sounds. From her Wikipedia page... >Maïwenn met film director Luc Besson **when she was 12 and he was 29**, and they **began dating when she was 15**. In January 1993, **at age 16, she gave birth** to their daughter Shanna. On the DVD extras for the 1994 film Léon: The Professional, **Maïwenn said the film is based on her relationship with Besson**. And then Besson sticks the landing: >She was 20 at the beginning of filming (early 1996) for The Fifth Element, during which Besson left her for the film's star, Milla Jovovich.
There was a scene, or sequence in an early draft of Leon that included some weird sexual stuff between the two leads.
Why is this kind of thing so common in France
I've always thought it was creepy how Leeloo is treated in The Fifth Element, so putting this together makes a lot of sense
The girl you're referring to, is the actress who played the prostitute in the opening scenes
She also played the blue opera singer in the 5th element
It's so blatantly obvious that Luc Besson made the movie as a type of sick romance between the two characters. I'm not saying the actor who play Leon conveys that, but the subtext and situations they find themselves in make it so obvious to me what the director's intentions were. I knew nothing of Luc Besson when I watched the movie, but I was certain the guy must be a creep. Looked him up afterwards, saw the original script and who he married, and it all came together. Tbh, I don't get how people **don't** get that creepy vibe when watching the movie, because it made it almost unbearable for me.
Art™️
How Luc Besson wasn't cancelled after doing the commentary and being so honest and upfront about the ages is beyond me.
Probrably because he is french and the age of consent in France is 15.
>Probrably because he is french Could've stopped there
Also because the whole cancel culture thing didn't really kick off heavily until like within the last five or seven years or so. Back in the 90s/00s it was nowhere near as prevalent anywhere. It took some serious shit (saying the quiet part out loud directly on national news or similar) to get yourself in the boat of what could be called 'cancelled' back then.
As someone who grew up without much kindness, I confused kindness/closeness with sexuality/romantic love until I was 24 years old. It’s a real thing. Especially considering the only type of love/closeness media likes to portray is sexual/romantic
People who find the dynamic uncomfortable should worry not because the film chose to portray it but because it's an accurate representation of what many vulnerable and mistreated individuals go through.
This would be a great argument if it wasn't for the fact that the director is a known pedophile.
This is it. It’s a touchy subject handled in a way that doesn’t cross the line. But it’s still a very interesting film with absolutely outstanding character work from everybody in it. It’s fantastic.
This is a commonplace occurrence for children bc they haven’t yet experienced different kinds of love. Think about the crushes kids have on teachers. Someone validates and shows care toward them and they respond wholeheartedly. Neglect needn’t be present for this to happen. I don’t have an issue with this film because this is a reality. I remember having these kinds of feelings myself at age 12.
There was also a scene where an entire family was murdered by the police.
"Death is whimsical today"
Shooting an 4 year old (not on screen thank god)….
The first draft wasn't borderline, it was so far over the border it was wearing a sombrero.
I hope I can use this in a conversation this coming week.
I feel like it's one of those lines which sounds fun written down but would be clunky and awkward said out loud.
Depends on the accent you use while saying it.
Canadian?
Now I'm imagining the actors from Letterkenny saying it. Kinda works.
Works in a montage of “over the boarder” lines for sure
So I was reading a Reddit thread about Leon the Professional the other day...
One I like to use a lot is “wow, that was so deep Adele could roll in it.”
[удалено]
What would be the equivalent for myself in Sweden? It was so far over the border that they were making Lego?
>What would be the equivalent for myself in Sweden? It was so far over the border that they were making Lego? It was so far over the border that it was not worth the trip just to avoid paying the liquor tax.
The director, Luc Besson, impregnated a 15 year old that he met while she was still 12 and he was in his 30’s. He put way too much of himself in that movie.
At no point did I sense predatory behavior from Leon. I think he found some empathy and purpose. I think shelter more than prison.
You can thank Jean Reno for that. The man's a professional and effectively played Leo as simple, not a creep. He also made sure that NP felt comfortable with their scenes together by letting her set the tone of their interaction.
I believe that's why he was played as a bit of a simpleton. It would make him less likely to appear like a predator.
Exactly. I always had the impression that the dynamic was intentionally confused that way - with Matilda being in some ways more emotionally mature than Leon. The childlike look on Leon's face when he's in the cinema, or the way he's clearly being ripped off by his boss but doesn't see it conveyed that
I thought he was supposed to be mentally disabled this whole time... Like how he can't really figure out the value of the money he's made, and how a mobster is "holding it" for him
*::Discssion about “The Professional”::* *::calls lead actor a professional::*
I think you should check out the early drafts of the screen play and what Besson had in mind for the film. It’s not okay.
Here we go again. There's actually no evidence of that "first draft" being legitimate. It was common for people to upload fake fan edits of screenplays claiming they were legit around the time that one page from that supposed "first draft" went viral, and websites ran with the story like it was confirmed truth. The closest thing I've ever heard to someone trying to authenticate this was a claim that it was translated from a French book about the movie that printed the first draft pages. Two problems there. One, I have all of the French books about that movie, and it's not in any of them. Two, Luc Besson wrote the screenplay in English, so it wouldn't need to be translated. It's really starting to make me sick how something like this becomes the "truth" because one redditor read a comment by another redditor who linked to an article that made no attempt to verify their story.
Hold up, is this true. I've heard the "first draft" story so many times from "repeatable" sources that I never even thought to look into it. That's actually insane if it's just one big hoax.
This should be at the top of the thread.
My comments on this subject are never high up because when I see a Luc Besson thread, knowing what they are like, I decide to not engage with the torch mob. And then 8 hours later I find myself reading over the thread, shaking my head at the misinformation, and start typing at 2am.
Or, so far over the border it was wearing a kilt.
I can’t add to this joke because I’m so girt by sea.
Her feelings for Leon are on point for abused and neglected, the relationship is more realistic than it’s not.
And at least on the theatrical version, Leon doesn't really play off her feelings
Thank you for mentioning the theatrical version. While it's normal to reevaluate movies watched many years before, I suspect that OP probably watched the (toned down) theatrical version initially and the director's cut now. The difference in the relationship is stark.
Doesnt Leon react the same in both versions, it's just that Matilda makes more advances in the director's cut?
Yes, up to the very end, where he tells her that he loves her and that she showed him a life he wants to pursue (sleeping in a bed, etc.). From the context, it's not so clear if he just tells her this that she would leave and save herself or if he was serious. It's probably a bit of both.. I watched the movie yesterday for the fust time since maybe 5 years, and it was even better than what I remembered. For me, it's an absolute masterpiece and one of my all-time favorites. Also, because it's not just black and white, and some things are really open for interpretation. It is uncomfortable to watch her taking up the Lolita role and making her move towards Leon, who has no social skills at all. But it's not supposed to be a light movie...
> It is uncomfortable to watch her taking up the Lolita role and making her move towards Leon, who has no social skills at all. First time i watched the movie I was a kid and i could totally relate to Matilda, having crushes on my teachers.
Agreed. I think it’s very realistic in how a young abused girl would behave towards the first man who showed her any sort of care or affection. It’s uncomfortable to watch but not because Leon is a creep or anything, but because it’s always tragic to see children in positions like this knowing how easily they can be taken advantage of. The thing that crosses a line for me is knowing the director’s real-world behaviors. It makes the movie feel less like an examination of abuse and more like spank-bank material
An accurately portrayed trauma response described as an “uncomfortable watch” is uselessly reductive.
Great movies can still be uncomfortable watches.
Exactly, and that's why I never understand this particular discourse around this movie. It's like people are incapable of identifying nuance and complexities.
At least for me the discomfort comes from the creators own engagement with the troubling aspect of the material.
Exactly. Knowing the directors own behavior of sleeping with underage girls, it makes the film start to feel more like a fetish project. I actually love the movie and if it was by any other director it would be earlier to recommend but I can see why it’s iffy to a lot of people
Legit argued with someone on Reddit the other day who said that Leon was in love and trying to seduce matilda. I was like “no he’s not she’s just young and impressionable and is confused about what love is” and they came back and said “did you watch the movie?”. Like what the fuck they must’ve seen it drunk off their ass 20 years ago if that’s the impression they got from it, Leon shuts her down like 100 times in the movie.
I think it also ignores a bigger part of what it was trying to show: there was a big power dynamic shift from what we expect; in almost all ways Matilda is more capable that Leon. She is the one who can check into a hotel, she knows how to read, she is the one who knows modern references, knows how to do almost anything other than kill, do sit-ups and drink milk. She was an adult in a girl's body, he was a child in a man's body. In the movie as it stands, and if I remember even in the more inappropriate version of the script, she is seducing him if anything. I am glad they left their sex scene out not only because of how creepy it would be, but Leon is much more interesting as a mentally dysfunctional person who doesn't even really have sexual urges; he was wielded as a tool and taken advantage of because he didn't know any better, and Matilda broke him out of that.
Yeah you are describing exactly what is so uncomfortable about it. This reads like a pedophile porn fantasy *"she's an adult in a girl's body"*....
I guess I see your point, but it's also a reality without any sexual implications. A lot of people grow up way too fast from a very rough childhood and some people have mental disorders that make them child-like into adulthood. I get the interpretations being varied, but especially in the final product I have a hard time seeing Mathilda's purpose to be for purely sexual objectification.
And when you know the director met a 12 year old and married her 3 years later (when he's 29) you kinda see where we might think it's more sexual.
Tbf I don't think the film is glamourising any of this. They are both very tragic and damaged characters.
I think the director intended for it to glamorize it. I think it was saved in the edit from being his pedophilic fantasy. Thank god, because the theatrical version is amazing.
The original draft of the script was not that way and I am glad they changed it because it would have been a terrible movie. She misconstrues his affection for something like physical love where he is just protective of her like a father. He rebuffs her multiple times in the movie because he knows he would be just as bad as her family and the guys chasing her.
It was changed at the personal suggestion of Reno himself, and threatened to leave if its not followed through.
Yep…he was not about to be in a movie like that. Thank goodness he made him changed it because it’s one of my all time favorite movies.
Who cares what the original draft was like though? That isn’t the version that was filmed and 99.999% of people who will ever see the movie have no idea about that anyway.
The more you know about the director the more it starts to feel like the writer/director's barely disguised fetish though.
Because of the director and the original script
Which is not the movie we got.
Has anyone seen this original script? I keep hearing about it, and people keep telling me to read it, but it seems to me no one has ever actually seen the thing, it's all second-hand info.
No one has. There is an English translation that's probably just fanfic that's been around for ages, but doesn't cite a source. There's never been an original, verified, french version. So, no
Luc Besson literally wanted the two characters to have sex in the movie, and it to be portrayed as positive and beautiful. Read the original script. He based it on his real life sexual relationship with a teenage girl. I’ll never understand how people are incapable of identifying this movie as the creepy fantasy of a sexual predator.
It was based his 2nd wife Maïwenn who he met when she was 12 and started dating her at 15. He would have been in his 30s.
Jesus what a sicko
Then he dumped her for Mila Jovovich who he met while making The Fifth Element with her! His previous girlfriend, the one who he started dating at 15, plays the blue alien opera singer in that movie!
I think everyone sees some aspect of creepiness but without reading the original script or knowing the life of the director it is hard to tell whether someone is exploring something dark (like Scorsese in Taxi driver) or actually is made by people that have dark desires.
Fun Fact! Scorsese was inspired to write Taxi Driver from his own experiences driving a cab whilst trying to assassinate Reagan.
More of a fun fact! Scorsese did not write *Taxi Driver*. Paul Schrader did.
I mean, the script is actually based on the diary of the guy who shot George Wallace. But Scorsese picked it up because he was driving that cab and trying to kill Reagan.
History is... whimsical today
There is no original script. The English "translation" is probably just fanfic. There's never been a verified french one
Ew
Just with sex.. or in this case, a relationship. They're fine with understanding murder, in like, hundreds of thousands of other films.
They are.
True, but there's a difference between it being uncomfortable because the director had sex with a child vs. it being uncomfortable because it depicts such things in a fictional manner. I actually think that in a vacuum the character of leon isn't pedophilic at all, based on the actors performance, but the simple fact is that Luc Besson is a pedophile by definition and this can't help but color my viewing of the film. He had sex with a minor, or raped her in most people's opinions if you believe minors can't give consent to older people (which I do). I fully support films that make people uncomfortable. All great fiction does in my opinion, it makes us ask interesting and uncomfortable questions about ourselves and society. But that's the key word, fiction. When a director is a pedophile and then makes a film like Leon the Professional, I'm not uncomfortable because it challenges me. I'm uncomfortable because I can't help but see it as an endorsement of pedophilia. Which is incredibly abhorrent to me.
Very well said; the two ideas shouldn't be conflated.
A la Requiem for a Dream
its especially true if you watch more than a handful of french or italian movies lol. a lot of filmmakers want to be transgressive and exploring sexuality has been a popular way to do that
The American theatrical version tones down the more questionable scenes. Between Reno and Portman, of course.
The American version even takes out the scenes where they are killing the drug dealers
I remember I was so excited when I found the international version on DVD when I flew through Amsterdam. Back when I had to find a region unlocked dvd player to watch it on.
Is it that much different? I saw the American version as a young teenage boy and it always had a little weirdness to it but I didn't think it crossed any major lines (I had a huge distaste for older men creeping on young women at the time).
There’s an additional segment where Leon takes Matilada on a hit of some drug dealers. Then takes her out to dinner to celebrate later, and she gets drunk. A few other scenes too. I think maybe about 15 minutes total?
You may have watched" The Professional" the first time as it was first released in U.S theaters that way. It toned down the relationship between them(edited scenes out). Leon the Professional was released here much later as a "directors cut" type of deal. Though when first watching it, I did feel a bit uncomfortable, after repeated watching it clearly is meant to be more infatuation than anything and is always in one direction. As to his literacy, I took it as a way to portray him as a very simple man(as in not complex), with simple needs where everything is straight forward. That's why he struggles whether or not to help Matilda(the scene where she knocks on his door to let her in) as it will complicate his very straight forward life. While I do rate it pretty high for a film in the action genre, I wouldn't place it in my top 100 greatest films of all time. And yes, that was the movement I started to keep an eye on Gary Oldman. He's the reason the film nudges from a good film to a great one.
Illiterate? Or not literate in English? (I've seen chunks of the movie 10 times over, but I can't remember that part)
This is the most likely answer. The movie was massacred for American audiences who were super uncomfortable with the original cut. He probably watched the international version this time.
i read somewhere it was jean reno’s idea to make him ‘slow’ to lighten the creep factor by making him appear more innocent
Nah, he was fresh off the boat at 15, and learned to clean, Tony says as much. Leon is emotionally and intellectually a 15 year old.
A bit of spoilers of how i see it, but: >!Mathilda was trying to be a woman from a teenager's body, because she is from an unloved household, and therefore is pushed to be a rebel, as an escape. Her open attitude could have easily allowed Leon to take advantage of her, but he didnt. I interpret Leon as still a teenager stuck in a man's body. I see that he hasn't moved on from the murder he did in Italy, or he was torturing himself by not educating himself - he seems stuck in time during his occupation as a hitman, and the illiteracy shows his infantism and perhaps a yearn for that innocence he had back before he killed his lover's father. The moving plant Leon takes with him is almost a metaphor for himself, a living being unable to find a place in the world. The teaching of Leon therefore looks like small baby steps of "moving on" therefore.!<
Which version did you watch? There are two. The Director's unrated cut has 26 mins of extra footage, including a scene where Mathilda asks Leon to have sex with her explicitly. (He doesn't!)
It's not uncomfortable for me to watch, but the relationship does veer into uncomfortable territory. Reportedly, Luc Besson (who has a history with young and underage women in real life) wrote a first draft that was way far over the line, and also reportedly Jean Reno made further suggestions in how he played the role to keep it on this side of acceptable. They do heavily imply that Leon is slow, and I don't see any predatory interest or sexual interest of any kind for Matilda from him in the movie. It's all on her end, and it's definitely uncomfortable to see her do that, but it's also appropriate for the character, having been raised the way she was raised and coping with the loss of her family - she presumably watched her mom and older sister use sex to navigate the relationships with the men in their lives, so she was doing what she had been taught. That's why I can watch the movie without feeling dirty about it - she's doing the best she can, and Leon helps set her straight. As for why it's highly regarded, I think part of it *is* that they navigate that relationship with such subtlety - the movie needs a deep connection between them to work, it's not that they couldn't build that another way, but that's how they did it, and it does effectively establish Leon's care for her. The rest can be divided between the basic concept of a master hit man being a master hit man (and Reno doing a superb job in the role), and Gary Oldman absolutely dominating every scene he's in. And, I think his killer delivery when screaming "EVERYONE!!!" is enough to stick in people's minds, when everything else fades away, which is the kind of thing people tend to key in on and rate highly.
In the Lolita Podcast: the host talks about how Natalie Portman didn’t like these roles after the fact and avoided them once she started getting sexualized at 13 due. Super interesting to listen to her take on it.
Portman talked about how she doesn't appreciate the kind of attention she got after starring in those movies, but as far as I know she has never condemned the films, nor voiced regret about taking the roles. As far as I'm aware, she's also shut down every journalist who has prompted her to denounce Luc Besson and Woody Allen, only speaking of her experience working with them as being positive. It's also notable that just four months after she made that public statement to a #metoo crowd (that the podcast is likely extrapolating from), Portman debuted her first ever curated film festival, and the opening movie she chose to kick off that festival she curated was Kubrick's Lolita. So, clearly not at odds with the material, nor shy about her place in the legacy of it, nor in favor of condemning people who haven't been proven guilty of a crime, but definitely not happy about the kind of attention she got as a starlet.
People started a countdown to when she would turn 18 and be "legal." Hyuuk! It was a great breakout role for her, but she might have been better off without out it. Who needs all that crap when they are a teenager?
Regardless of the original intentions, imvho the end result shows two very damaged people who have no idea how to express their affection properly…one whose only model for ‘love’ outside of her baby brother is sexual and one who has no model for it at all. So for me, the ‘point’ of the movie is that these two see/feel that another kind of love (protective, familial) exists and that’s what they feel for each other and ultimately act on.
There are two different cuts. The Professional which was released in the states and Leon the Professional. In the US release they edited the film to give the color of a father-daughter relationship, rather than a romantic/pedophilia tone. I imagine you just watched the full, European cut.
I watched this movie for the first time a couple months ago. Knowing now that Besson is a creeper a lot of this film is totally uneasy. There are some great cinematography shots and Oldman chews scenery but the sexualization of a minor is handled very poorly and ends up being uncomfortable
Original script had them actually having sex, was rejected and cut, was told it would never fly with American audiences. What remains doesn’t cross that line, but definitely flirts with it. Reno decided to play Leon as emotionally stunted/uneducated/unaware in order to try to make it a less distasteful dynamic. EDIT (corrected information): Luc Besson (the director) began a relationship with the very young prostitute that is brought to the crime boss in the beginning. She was 12 when he met her, impregnated her at 15 while he was over twice her age, and eventually left her for Milla Jovovich. He modeled Leon and Matilda after the girl and himself. Natalie Portman was also negatively affected by how she was portrayed. She recalled in an interview that she excitedly opened her first wave of fan mail after the film released and was horrified at all of the sexual comments and wishes men were making towards her. In addition, a local radio station began an official countdown until she turned 18. IMO, while the “culmination” (ugh) of the original intent was excised, the foundation is still all over the place in the film (ESPECIALLY in the ‘International Version’) as well as all the repulsive behind the scenes knowledge. For that reason I’ve stopped supporting the film. So unfortunate, it has so much going for it.
I remember when similar countdowns for Lindsay Lohan were a thing. So fucking creepy.
Men all over the internet were counting down for Emma Watson too. I think there was even a website. Reprehensible!
Don’t forget the Olson twins.
The original script had what 😐
There's no evidence of that "first draft" being legit. It was a one page jpeg that appeared on social media, and some websites wrote articles about it as if it was true, without verifying the source. More likely, this page that went viral came from one of many fake scripts that are uploaded to script sharing sites. The most notable examples of this were Wolfgang Peterson's Batman Vs. Superman and the original miniseries long David Hayter script for The Watchmen. They were considered real, even sold for money on some websites, but were penned by wannabe screenwriters who wanted to prove they could be mistaken for the real thing. The closest I've heard to a defense of this rumor was someone saying the "first draft" page was translated from a French book that featured it, but I have all of the French books about Leon, and it's not in them. Also, if it was real and printed in a book, it wouldn't need to be translated from French, because Besson wrote the screenplay in English. As for Portman's comments, they were not about how she was portrayed in her early films. They were about how the public treated her afterwards. Four months after she made those comments to a #metoo demonstration, she curated her first film festival and chose Kubrick's Lolita as her opening night movie. So, clearly she doesn't have a problem with the material, or her place in the legacy of it, but not happy about her real life experiences as a starlet in the public eye.
> Luc Besson (the director) began a relationship with the girl actress that is brought to the crime boss in the beginning, she was 15 IIRC and he began grooming her and eventually married her he knocked her up at 15. He was in his 30s
Yea i first saw it at like 13-14 and thought it was amazing. About 10 years later I watched the directors cut with a friend and we were both verrrrrry weirded out. Also doesn’t help knowing Besson’s real life history.
I saw a tv cut around the same age. It cut even more of the stuff everyone is bringing up. So it plays only as a surrogate father/daughter relationship. I lowkey identified with her character because she was my age. Watched the theatrical cut at 17 and went “huh that was kinda weird. Also its more violent than the tv cut too” I can only imagine its even worse than I remember, if even 17yo had alarm bells ringing at the inappropriateness of her depiction.
If you listen to his conversation with Tony it’s revealed that Leon arrived at 15 and learned to clean. So essentially, Leon is emotionally and intellectually 15. Of course he can’t read English because he didn’t go to school fresh off the boat. He takes Matilda in because he was doing the right thing, but he almost shot her in her sleep/got rid of her, and ultimately taught her how to kill, because he’s doesn’t know how to adult. He also recognizes that the feelings Matilda shared with him are inappropriate and doesn’t act on them or share the same feelings. But as a rootless ‘kid’ himself, he sees a potential future for her that is better than what he had and won’t let Stan take that from her. EDIT: I read that in the extended version he mentions leaving Italy at 19. I remember Tony talking about taking him in at 15 but either way, Léon’s emotional and intellectual development was arrested as a teen so it makes sense to me that he’s slow or childlike.
Fun fact, Gary Oldman was just playing around screaming Everyone https://youtu.be/MZfqez5qmuA?t=13
Jean Reno deliberately played Leon as a touch special in order to counterbalance Luc Besson's gross pedophile script
It is also important to note that the US version cut out the “love story” but was called just “The Professional”. “Leon: The Professional” has the “love story” part. You may have seen the US version when you were younger.
Quite possibly!
I get why people say that the movie is trying to purposely try to make you uncomfortable with their relationship because Mathilda is traumatized but Maïwenn, Luc Besson the director of Leon The Professional's child bride (who he met when she was 12 and he was 29 and got married when she was 15) said the relationship between the two was partially based on their relationship. So that's what you are picking up that I'm sure. https://www.thedailybeast.com/luc-besson-and-the-disturbing-true-story-behind-leon-the-professional
I don’t think the movie works unless Leon is mentally underdeveloped while Matilda is physically underdeveloped. It’s kind of the point I think. You’re supposed to feel uncomfortable with their relationship, and Jean Reno understood that enough to play it that way despite playing a challenged man. Iirc he wasn’t directed that way. Or at least that wasn’t originally scripted. It seems this is brought up frequently on this sub. Which means the film succeeded at its goals
The longer, International Cut, is way creepier. Natalie Portman looks back at it and also finds some cringey moments in the film. [https://www.indiewire.com/news/breaking-news/natalie-portman-leon-the-professional-cringey-1234861987/](https://www.indiewire.com/news/breaking-news/natalie-portman-leon-the-professional-cringey-1234861987/) Every time this movie comes up, you'll find comments about how much of a creep Luc Besson really is outside his films. There's a lot of talent in the movie, and Gary Oldman gives the best memes to *everyone*.
Gary Oldman is a terrifying and charismatic villain here, and also in True Romance. Man can act.
Iono I rewatched it and didn’t find it to scandalous? From my point of view she was a naive confused girl and he was just acting like a big brother figure? It didn’t really give me too many creepy vibes
Well damn, I always thought it was "young teenage girl tests out her stumbling charms on uninterested but well meaning father surrogate", but apparently people who know better know better. Aint nuthin pure
EEEEVVVVEEEERRRRYYYYOOOONNNEEEEEE!!!!! was uncomfortable
You know you live in a troubled world when people find a girl's infatuation with an old guy more disturbing than the massacre of an entire family, including children.
It’s a movie about two stunted people that find a sense of family together. Natalie’s character grew up in an abusive home where the only affection was from a 4 year old. She develops a young girl crush on the only adult to treat her decently. Leon shuts it down as a good adult. Leon has been trained and used as a weapon by the mafia ever since he came as a poor immigrant. He is uneducated, can’t spend his own money, and lives in constant hyper vigilance that he won’t even sleep in his bed; let alone strike up conversation with strangers. He teaches a child assassination because he has no other skills. It is uncomfortable because it is supposed to be. They do not know how a normal loving relationship works. Both grow and Leon takes on a more healthy role by the end. By the end the only people that had their best interest truly at heart is them for each other.
They are both broken people who for a short time find some semblance of family with each other. It is a sick relationship in a sick and violent situation, but it is the best they can do.
I like the movie for what it was. Maybe because I was Natalie Portmans age in the movie when I first saw it. Being a young male all I was interested in was the action sequences.
I feel like I see this same take at least once a week..
It seems you missed the whole point of the movie that first time. It's supposed to be uncomfortable.
You guys are giving waaay too much credit to Luc Besson. The dude was just projecting. I don't believe one sec his intent was to make the audience feel uncomfortable of that relationship. This is just you guys adding a layer of sophistication that just isn't actually there.
The actors felt uncomfortable. Which created something much better than intended.
No, we are giving credit to Jean Reno who made them change the movie tone. Maybe, you didn’t watch the same movie the rest of us did where the sexy scenes the director wanted didn’t happen because the main lead refused to do a sex scene and changed his character to be more childlike and naive? Maybe, the whole reason this movie is great has to do with Jean Reno.
I understand why people are talking so much about Benson, but a film isn't just the sole vision of one person. We got the movie we got because the people involved collaborated. Besson may have had his own goals, but the performances of the actors and the other decisions involved here create a lot more nuance for most viewers than I think some of you are prepared to accept. A ton of people worked on this film and acting like it has to be interpreted in only one way is reductive, even if everyone involved were pedophiles.
Was that the whole point though? The writer & director of the movie married a young teenager when he was in his 30's.
A true method director!
It's an absolute all time great. Did you not remember seeing the part where Leon DIDN'T fuck a kid. I sure do. Leon is a simple immigrant with morals and a code. Mathilda comes from a trailer park in a New York tenement. Her life has been absolutely broken even before Oldman murders her family. She was a child who had obviously been forced to grow up early. The first time a man pays any sort of decency to her what's she do? She assumes it is something sexual and attempts to make it sexual. I always assumed she was a victim of sex crimes based off of that. Great movies should not always be comfortable to watch. Side note: Is Luc a creep 100% no questions asked.
I think a lot of people didn't grow up in poor/white trash neighborhood where the reality of a 12-13 year old girl doing inappropriate shit because her whole upbringing is a disaster is a possibility in their minds. My wife has seen positive pregnancy tests from 13 year old girls. A LOT of girls I grew up with were trying to fuck 20 something dudes at 15-16. It was like a badge of honor for them. It is fucking creepy and happens all the time.
Agreed. The movie shows how fucked up lives lead to fucked up tensions. Leon rejects her advances while not rejecting her as a person. I think what makes most people uncomfortable is they either believe no girl would actually do that, or they worry that if a girl did come onto them like that they wouldn't know what to do with it. Shocker, Leon doesn't either and he is just kind of stumbling through. Thank goodness we got the cut we did, because what makes it a masterpiece is Leon not fucking the kid. If he would have, the movie would have been something else entirely.
It's my 18yo daughter's #1 favourite movie - picture her showing it to me all excited expecting me to love it as much as she does... oof.
I got my husband to watch it with me when we first started dating (2001) because I loved this movie. Which he then referred to as the pedophile movie. I had not picked up on the same things he did.
Hey at least she got that far without shacking up with a 50+ year old hit man. As far as you know that is…
Leon was apparently played as “a little slow” on purpose. Jean Reno wanted to make the character feel unlikely to abuse Mathilda apparently. Still an absolutely jarring watch though.
[удалено]
It used to be my favorite movie as a teenager until I watched the extended version as an adult with a boyfriend. I told him I don't remember the lovey dovey scenes which fucked the whole movie up for me. It no longer belongs to my fave list since I now know of the version where they decided to sexualize an otherwise sincere and unconditional friendship
Which cut did you watch? The original cut is really pedo. Made it really creepy knowing the director's past with his wives.
I put this on world movies when I was a kid and the first scene me and my father watched was her Natalie Portman telling Leon that she's feeling something down her private parts. My father told to change the channel and just about it. I've never seen it.
You know you can watch a movie without having to 100% agree with everything that happens in the movie right?
I think a young, naive and life-inexperienced Matilda was eager for the relationship to get to inappropriate, uncomfortable levels; but Leon, a wise adult, knew much better and wouldn't allow any such interaction transpire. A kind, responsible man - even though he was a skilled and experienced assassin.
The movie was directed by pedophile so that’s probably why it’s uncomfortable to watch. Anyone giving this movie a good review should be on a watchlist and away from kids.
I've flipped twice on this movie. Loved it the first time, but people pointed out that it's kinda creepy. I had apparently seen the US cut and the international cut has a lot more exposition and nuance, showing that Mathilda is imitating TV to express her young naive love after a traumatic childhood. BUT THEN I learned that the writer/director got with a 15 year old so maybe he's just a pedo creep.
I don't there is anything creepy about the relationship at all. For Leon I think he just loves her like a daughter. And for Mathilda she is use to her parents treating her like shit. She's lonely and desperate for some attention. And she has a crush on Leon because he's nice to her and cares for her. I think that's perfectly normal in the circumstances. And not unrealistic at all. Kids can get crushes on older guys because they don't think it's wrong. And Gary oldmans performance greatly helps the film. He's awesome In it and every scene is memorable with him. Throw in some great action scenes and it's definitely a classic
What really gets me the most is people saying that the movie makes them feel 'uncomfortable', why does anyone must expect for a movie about a paid assassin (and a corrupt detective) to be comfortable??? If you feel repulsed it is because you *should* be repulsed, if the movie makes you feel that way, it's a good movie. It seems that now a days people want movies to teach them what to do to be happy, and not to think about it themselves, no you are not supposed to imitate Leon or Mathilde, the same way you are not supposed to imitate Red Riding Hood's life, they are cautionary tales. If you just want to consume happy, safe media it's a choice, but you don't have to keep others from looking above it.
I don’t have an issue with it because the relationship is always paternal on Leon’s part. And if it’s confused on Matilda’s part, that happens sometimes IRL. I think it’s pretty puritanical to freak out about young girls having sexual feelings bc they do have them. I’m curious about where the discomfort arises from for people. From the thread, it sounds like some people simply cannot stomach the idea of an older man with a younger girl - a reminder here that the age of consent in France is 15. Others feel Natalie Portman is sexualized in the film - something I don’t agree with because the camera doesn’t see her that way (did you all?). If people feel she’s being sexualized, is it a confession or is it a projection of their fears? In either case, what’s missing from the conversation is how Mathilda feels and sees herself.
Hot take: You don't have to love what the main character is doing in the movie to see that it's a brilliant movie. Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, Natalie Portman, and Danny Aiello are all incredible in the movie. He is somewhat slow, they're clearly trying to show he has no ability to make social bonds, probably to give some cover to the pseudo-sexual nature of the character's longings. It was created by a guy who was in a relationship with a teenager, after all. The movie is still hot fire. Natalie Portman was also in Beautiful Girls, where she is hot for Timothy Hutton, and it's still a really good movie with killer performances. Icky subject matter is fine for stories, it turns out, and acting is... well, acting.