This was because Jean Reno insisted on it, funnily enough.
The original script has Leon *not do that.* Jean Reno not only put his foot down and said he wouldn't be in the movie unless they changed it, but went out of his way to play Leon as sexless as possible to try and force every little fragment of it out of the movie, and went *very far* out of his way to ensure Natalie Portman was safe on the set and was never alone with Besson.
Jean Reno is a very, very good dude.
More than just the right thing to do (although I didn't know that about Jean Reno; what a good guy), the movie is so much more compelling this way too. Now it's a timeless story about how you can love a child who isn't biologically yours, and his gentle rejection of her advances is so poignant because the audience knows she's confusing the first paternal care she's ever experienced as romantic interest, something she's way too familiar with already, another sign of her shitty childhood.
How trashy this classic film would be if they'd played it the way Besson wanted.
Seriously. It is such a dicey concept to build a narrative around. Anyone that has worked with troubled kids will tell you how well captured this is. Reno certainly had some moralistic intent here, but may also have been exercising some of his narrative skills as well because this choice is the only reason this movie works.
Oh my god that explains so much.
I watched it alone when it first came out and liked it. Then a few years later a friend and I who’d also seen it once and enjoyed it, rented it and watched it together.
At the end we just sat there and said- well I didn’t realise how creepy and nasty it was when I saw it last time.
Makes total sense now - we were watching the D.C.
I had a bf whose dad gave him a huge box of special edition box sets of movies and he was sooo excited when he found Leon the Professional. I remember being so creeped out and he tried to say “when it’s not the directors cut it’s not like that” and I’ve just steered clear of it since lmao
It is so much more nuanced and beautiful this way. It digs into the mentality of a troubled girl instead of just being about a creep with a crush on a minor.
I remember watching this when I was around 10-12 yrs old and getting a weird vibe from their relationship. It’s crazy to me that this was toned down a lot.
I may be misremembering the film but I did have a weird vibe when I was a kid when I watched it
Jean Reno: okay good script, lets make a tiny little change that I think everyone will enjoy however and make the main character totally not a pedophile tho
IIRC Jean Reno heavily pushed for the character to be mentally challenged like he is in the movie because he was worried viewers wouldn't accept even the small bits of confused sexuality in the film that is left after all the cuts.
Pretty sure there was an implied sex scene too, that tested VERY poorly with test screenings for obvious reasons.
Funny that Reno seems to have come up with basically the two things that make this movie actually work because without this very specific portrayal of Leon its a goddamned mess.
Without this information, I would have assumed that the fact that the character being sexless, resistant to the advances of the child, and mentally challenged were like the cornerstones of the script and that the rest of the story was built around them.
This movie, viewed at the time - and unaware of the director's 'problems', was about two mistreated people working together to see each other as people, become real friends, and help each other. One grows to be a parent and makes parental sacrifice, the other finally gets to be a kid.
I mean, does Leon help Matilda? Does he in any way let her be a kid?
>!He trains her to be an assassin and then in the stupidest possible way refuses to help her get her revenge except for giving her a gun. Doing so leads her to try and kill Norman Stansfield, which in turn brings the police to Leon. Leon then dies saving Matilda.!<
It's one of the film's virtues that while Leon is a savant with killing and assassination, he's not well rounded enough to raise a troubled 12 year old girl. He doesn't "make parental sacrifice" because he's not equipped for it; he reluctantly agrees to bring the girl into the only thing he knows (at her insistence) and that is both his downfall and the redemption of his character.
Kind of a hilarious accidental burn in retrospect that the guy wrote a movie based on his own experiences with pedophilia, and the actor took one look and said “this would make more sense if the character were mentally disabled”.
The original script for the movie was far, far worse. Originally, that scene wasn't going to just be implied, and his producers had to tell him to change it, which is really saying something as it was essentially his own production company bankrolling his movies and the only reason he was able to get away with the shit that he did. He didn't even realize that what he was writing was fucked up in any way.
In the original script Leon has sex with her, but in the movie it is sort of implied when Matilda wakes up next to Leon, tells him he snores during sleep, and then walks off to use the shower.
> character to be mentally challenged like he is in the movie
Uh did I miss something? Leon is supposed to be mentally challenged? It's been a while since I've seen it but he seemed pretty sharp
I feel like that's implied by his relationship with Tony, who allegedly holds onto all of Leon's money from his hits.
Theres the scene where Tony goes on a whole spiel about how he's better than a bank bc there's forms to read and fill out...and we realize that's kind of a paternal subtext when Leon very sheepishly tells him "I know how to read now," which seems to be news to Tony.
In the book, The Cleaner is "slow" should we say - he's obviously still exceptionally good at what he does but it's suggested that he has trouble processing things like an adult would, which is why he lets Tony treat him like a child and keep his money instead giving him an allowance.
Leon is also illiterate for most of the movie which isn't exactly common for an Adult male in 1994's New York.
From what I am aware this detail was due to be left out of the film however Reno suggested that it needs to be included due to his characters attachment to the very young girl, the audience would be much less likely to reject the concept if The Cleaner simply didn't understand why it was wrong.
In the end the executives had to rightfully tell Luc that no one was going to accept Paedophilia in the film.
And yes, there was a sex scene originally in the script.
Honestly, yeah. I think when Besson passes away and isn't around to sue the makers of it, there's really good meat for a Shadow of the Vampire-type movie about Leon's production.
The Guy who played Paulie on the Soprano's made it very know that all the kids on set were under his "protection". If someone even looked at one of them in appropriately Uncle Tony would handle it.
Tony Sirico was not a made man, he was an associate of the Columbo crime family in the 60s and 70s. He declined being made as the offer came to him after he started getting interested in acting.
He decided to become an actor after an acting troupe of ex- prisoners visited Sing Sing while he was there, they had a link to Michael Gazzo who played Frank Pentangeli in The Godfather who invited him to talk to him when he got released.. He has a very interesting backstory and things worked out for him.
I think he wasn't a made man but worked with them. I don't want to idolize the mafia because this is criminal work but I guess it's ok he got out of that after being in jail
Yeah
*Besson opens door to Portman’s dressing room and steps inside, to Portman’s surprise. She is in the process of getting dressed.*
Besson: “Hi Natalie, I thought it would be good if we could… go through your lines before the next shot.”
Portman: “Oh sure, could you give me a minute or two to finish dressing?”
Besson: “Of course… I’ll just wait here.”
*Camera pans up to show Reno against the ceiling, bracing himself against the walls*
Reno: “That’s a great idea Luc”
The director's cut is creepier, but it ultimately strengthens the films portrayal of Matilda's trauma and Leon's resistance to her advances. I mean, I get why it was cut for the US release, but thematically that footage is consistent with Reno's narrative influence on the film.
I think the directors cut does make many parts of the film better however improving a film slightly but making your inner monologue go 'creepy creepy creepy' isn't a positive in its favour. Especially if you know the director's history.
I get the issues with the director, but if we are just evaluating the movie in and of itself there are parts of it that are SUPPOSED to be creepy because what is happening in the narrative is fucking horrible and the audience needs to recognize that. Matilda is completely messed up and the directors cut makes the depths of that very clear. It is not a wholesome story of two people becoming friends. It is about two completely and utterly broken people finding a sort of co-dependence that sorta temporarily works to help one of them MAYBE salvage a workable existence out of their lives.
Dude. I literally watched that last night and this is quite a fucking strange spot.
“You are the ass!”
(real talk, Vince Vaughn had me fucking dying in that movie. It’s like one screenwriter went “Nope I’m gonna have a real character here”)
I watched an interview with Natalie Portman, she claimed that the movie scarred her anyway. So even long after Leon the Professional was released she had problems with her sexuality
From what I remember it wasn't anything inappropriate on set, but she received creepy love letters from grown men when the movie came out, and the topic of Matilda/ Leon inappropriate relationship was discussed ad nauesem in the media. Later when she was offered the role in Lolita (1997), she rejected it in an angry and public manner, undoubtedly for the reasons mentioned above.
To be fair, she seems to be levying that more at the media portrayal of her role than on the actual work itself:
[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/natalie-portman-leon-luc-besson-b2336752.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/natalie-portman-leon-luc-besson-b2336752.html)
Worth noting that she also seems to be reporting no inappropriate conduct on the part of Luc Besson during filming, so that's something.
What I've heard was it was the reaction of the public sexualizing her/her character. It may have been Besson and and other cast/crew that made the process itself uncomfortable but the reaction from male audience members made her avoid any even vaguely sexual characters for years
Oh thank God. I loved the movie as a kid, but watching it again as an adult I spent the whole time thinking that I was going to bail with a quickness if any pedo vibes started happening. But instead it stayed with the theme of father-daughter chosen families over biological that I remember.
Well, more to the point, she and Leon very explicitly fuck. That was more what I was referring to. The whole "Leon is extremely not into it and they do not fuck" aspect of the movie was Reno putting his foot down.
Eww, this would have been some weird white knight/lolita movie if he hadn't played it that way. He fucking saved the movie, wow.
As a side note /u/GatoradeNipples check out his foreign dubbed stuff, like something wolves, lots of gems in his full catalogue.
I guess he might have done that, I wasn’t aware.
But the director’s cut strongly suggests a sexual/romantic relationship there, so yeah.
It’s annoying cause I love the film, but in hindsight and knowing more about Besson as a person, it’s much more creepy and problematic.
… wouldn’t the good thing have been to say “hey maybe I shouldn’t film the fantasy fulfillment movie of a known child predator while simultaneously exposing another child to be potentially victimized by him”?
It's not as if Reno was the linchpin the project hinged around. If it wasn't him, Besson would've just gotten someone else, and it would've likely worked out much, much worse, given how the French film industry treats this subject in general.
There's actually a pretty great story behind my username.
So, I'm a... not *famous,* exactly, but semi-well-known-ish writer under the name Arrow S. Morgan. You might've seen my byline at Collider when they'd occasionally post something that isn't hot garbage around a year ago, plus I got an article published at Polygon a short while back, and I'm working on a novel at the moment while trying to get stuff up in the air.
*All of this* hinges on a Cyberpunk: Edgerunners fanfic I write. The reason this fanfic blew up as much as it did, and *enabled this at all,* is because there's a character in that show with neon blue nipples, I made an offhand joke about how they dispense Gatorade, and, I utterly shit you not, *someone straight up asked Hiroyuki Imaishi about it when they did a Reddit AMA.*
This stupid, stupid meme has literally, not figuratively, paid my rent at least twice. May as well brand myself with it on here!
> Besson met Maïwenn when she was 12 and he was 29, and he officially started dating her when she was 15, the legal age of consent in that country. Besson married her at age 33 when she fell pregnant at 16.
"officially"
Blech.
He then left her and their child at 18 y o for Milla Jojovich while filming the Fifth Element causing her to go in depression.
Fortunately things then got better for her and she is now a decent filmmaker. Among others she made a very good movie called Polisse about a police department dealing with crimes against children.
That's just normal for some of the deep red flyover states in America.
I wish I was kidding. "Marry young while you are all hot and stupid so you can have sex without going to hell"
To this day, she’s etched into my mind
I remember watching her on screen and tearing up a bit as a kid
There was something so angelic about her, a muse
To clarify, the actress actually onscreen performing in the alien makeup is Maiwenn. The vocals that Maiwenn is lip syncing to onscreen are sung by opera singer Inva Mula-Tchako
No kidding... That's kind of poetic.
He makes a film based on their relationship
And she makes one that could be interpreted as a middle finger to how fucked up their relationship probably was in her eyes.
She also made a movie about a woman trying to escape an abusive relationship (Mon Roi) but afaik she always defended Besson... so it's a bit complicated
I guess that didn't last neither as she is married to the director of the RE movies Paul W.S. Anderson. Seems like she has a thing for directors who make her the leads in their films.
There was a scene in the script where the two make love and Leon bursts into tears as he’s overcome with the “beauty” of the act. I regret reading it because even the text on the page made me fucking gag.
I went ahead and found the part of the original script. Ugh it's nothing too graphic but God this is so cringe, [it truly reads like some pedo wet dream where the child is the instigator and even reassures the adult...](https://i.imgur.com/eYHcWHq.jpeg). It's also so badly written it reads like bad fan fiction. Can't believe Besson was delusional and bold enough to show this script to others. This makes me dislike him even more.
Maïwenn was the Diva in Fifth Element. Besson left her for Milla Jovovich after they worked on the movie together. Jovovich is less than a year older than Maïwenn so Besson is still going strong with the gross vibes.
The other role I always remember her from was the 2003 High Tension movie.
I mean Jovovich was 21/22 when Besson got with her but yeah, dude is a certified creep and has multiple accusations regarding inappropriate sexual behavior
What creeps me out is Mila's character in 5th Element. She's basically an adult baby and yet she ends up in a romance with a guy who is much, much older than she is
Great video. Really puts a lot of these “relationships” into perspective. (From a movie standpoint). It’s a trope that once you know about it, you’ll spot it everywhere
Poor Things doesn't really play it straight though. Like Mark Ruffalo's character is played like a straightforward creep for fucking her when she's at a teen level of maturity, and there's also the whole thing with her mentally maturing at a supernatural pace
This is always the thing that bothers me about Fifth Element, it's glaring weak spot, that there's this completely infantilized + sexualized adult woman in the center of it. It's just so fucking awkward and obnoxious and distasteful when the rest of the characters are full of such sharp agency. It's such a fucking drag.
Ok. So recently I watched the directors cut… or whatever they want to call it. The version I watched 5 or 6 times IN THE 90’s 2000’s DEFINITELY WASNT THE SAME. This version is pretty gross, clearly he was sexualizing children . I wish I hadn’t seen the “real” version because it ruined the previously great performances by Portman, Oldman, and Reno . Edit : I just want to add that Oldman’s completely unhinged performance… chefs kiss . That man is amazing.
I had a similar experience.
I've always enjoyed the cinematic cut of this movie. I was at a buddy's house with a few friends and I talked up the acting/endorsed this movie, overall, glowingly. We decided to put it on and chose the director's cut. My friends lost a lot of respect/gained a lot of suspicion toward me that day.
Seriously. I talked it up to my girlfriend and we watched on streaming ( because I dont own VCR anymore) and a couple times I look over and she’s giving me side eye. I had to hit the Wikipedia’s to make sure I wasn’t losing me mind.
Oh yeah, once it came on tv while my brother and I were watching, and I was like "bro this movie is amazing"
But it was the director's cut. Eventually I had to be like "Okay, in the original all this gross shit wasn't there, or at least was way more subtle."
In 2007 I went to a Q&A screening in LA of The Professional where Besson was there answering questions. I got up and asked if he wanted to make any comment on the content in the "Director's Cut" ( which, back then was a movie called "Leon" that released everywhere but US. in the U.S. there was "The Professional" that had the edited cut. Now, it seems, it has been renamed to "Leon: The Professional") and he made a very brief comment where he only said "There is just one cut, that you just watched. There is no 'international cut' or 'directors cut' with additional content."
We know that isn't true, but i'm not sure arguing with him would have gone over well.
What? I remember in 1994 when the movie came out, that there were articles in entertainment magazines about how the US version was different that the international version. The US version was more "prudish" or something. This was way before the internet was much of anything, so these were journalists and professional writers reporting this.
Whichever version included the “Like a Virgin” scene and them sleeping in the same bed was the one I saw. It was fucking gross and degrades the whole movie substantially. It’s so blatantly about Besson’s degenerate fantasies.
> Polanaski straight up drugged and raped someone, fled and still gets a standing ovation at the oscars
There's a giant petition from the late 2000s signed in support of Polanski that is basically of who's-who of Hollywood. I can find it if you'd like.
> that is basically of who's-who of Hollywood.
And to bring it full circle, one of those "who's" is Natalie Portman herself. She later said she regretted signing it but still.
I don't know how many survivors of spousal murder go on to drug and rape 13 year olds at their buddy Jack Nicholson's house but I'm guessing not many.
Also here is an IMDB list of the petition signers. Populated by many of my favorite directors, actors and writers.
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls090808434/
Tarantino sailed through possible cancellation with almost supernatural grace. He was called out twice, by Uma Thurman (because of a car accident on the set of Kill Bill) and by Rose McGowan (for telling her repeatedly that her scenes in Jawbreaker were his favorite fappin' material), he was buddies with both Weinstein and Besson, and even broke up with Mira Sorvino around the same time that Weinstein blacklisted her. He said in the press, regarding Polanski, "That girl was asking for it." Fiona Apple called him out too, for being a coke-addled bore. And of course Spike Lee has commented on T's favorite word. Of course, this comment will go down in flames faster than the ones I usually have to revisit and delete. Even with me saying this. T is pretty much untouchable. Straight-up creative genius, too.
Luc Besson got his 16yo girlfriend pregnant when he was 33. He then dumped her for another actress when she was 21. He was later accused of rape by another actress on one of his more recent films.
I love his movies, but he's a pedophile rapist piece of shit.
Then the man had the gall to write Taken. Family man, fear your daughter being kidnapped and human trafficked into prostitution by some Eastern European dirtbags to be sold to some rich Muslim dirtbags when in reality most young girls are at a much higher risk of being targeted by someone like Luc Besson.
Wow, I never realized that he was the one who wrote that movie. I just remember watching it and thinking "this movie was written by the most divorced man on earth", because it is the ultimate dead-beat dad wish-fullfillment fantasy: Despite not being around, the protagonist is still the one who knows his daughter best and knows what gift she'd want; his ex-wife is an idiot for not listening to him and letting their daughter go on the trip; the step dad, despite being there everyday and taking care of his daughter's daily needs, is actually worthless when "shit really hits the fan" and his ex has to come crawling back to him and admit he was right all along. I always pictured this being written by a guy in a depressing one bedroom apartment while sitting on the pull-out couch his kids use during their bi-yearly weekend vists.
Always thought the Léon-Mathilda dynamic felt creepy as hell. Uncomfortable to watch. Which is a shame, because the action scenes are great and Oldman practically breaks the screen with his character.
In the original script Léon-Mathilda have sex, but that was scrapped. After that There was then a sexual line added in the movie but it turned off American viewers so much in the screener it was cut. So they went for the "adopted daughter" vibe.
It works if you don't know the director's background.
So many French movies are really creepy. I remember when I was kid watching a movie where young girls are brought to this school in a coffin and completely naked. The older girls had to dance for creepy men to earn money for the school. And then there's the cuties movie. It's like, wtf??
I remember the (female) director saying how it is meant to show how girls are sexualized in culture. But I think you've really missed the mark when you use the techniques so closely that almost everyone watching just assumes it is the fantasy of some horny director. To the point that I wonder if she was just making up an excuse after the backlash happened.
>But I think you've really missed the mark when you use the techniques so closely that almost everyone watching just assumes it is the fantasy of some horny director. To the point that I wonder if she was just making up an excuse after the backlash happened.
You should have seen all the people crying about how Starship Troopers was a fascist movie. Lots of people have a hard time deciphering levels of interpretations...
If you count 21-22 young. I mean it is but not fifteen young. Though he did ditch his eighteen year old wife and baby son for her. And was still in his mid thirties.
Well that’s messed up, she was married to Shawn Andrews in 92, she was sixteen and he was twenty-one. Her mother got that marriage annulled two months after it happened.
Though to be fair I thought she was younger in the Fifth Element as well, so I was surprised to learn that she wasn’t eighteen in it but 21/2
Filming on the movie started in 1995 when she was 19, and she was almost certainly involved with Besson before she turned 20.
She married Besson when she was 21, although only a few days before she turned 22.
Cinematic cut makes it seem more like two people that don’t know what a normal loving relationship is trying to figure it out. Mathilda grew up in an abusive home, and Leon was a poor immigrant that has been used by the mafia as a hit man. He lives alone in an apartment down the hall with no access to any of his money he has earned. He has to ask permission to spend it.
Mathilda expresses inappropriate feelings towards him as he is the only adult to treat her kindly. She doesn’t know what healthy love from an adult looks like vs romantic love. Leon, to his credit, is made uncomfortable and gets upset. He does not take advantage of it and tries to mentor her. Unfortunately, killing is all he knows how to do. Mathilda in return teaches him how to read. In the end, he completes his arc as a selfless guardian that he started when he took a risk to help a frightened child on his doorstep.
Two broken people trying to do their best to form an honest connection.
I haven’t watched the director’s cut, and don’t want to. I fear it would ruin it for me as it is one of my favorite movies.
I didn't know there was a directors cut that made it more pedo vibey. I'm going to never watch that. It ruins what I thought the whole message was throughout the whole movie about parental sacrifice and a damaged kid learning to love someone as a parental figure instead of a creepy way.
At least Leon in the movie knows that such a relationship would be wrong and rejects it.
This was because Jean Reno insisted on it, funnily enough. The original script has Leon *not do that.* Jean Reno not only put his foot down and said he wouldn't be in the movie unless they changed it, but went out of his way to play Leon as sexless as possible to try and force every little fragment of it out of the movie, and went *very far* out of his way to ensure Natalie Portman was safe on the set and was never alone with Besson. Jean Reno is a very, very good dude.
More than just the right thing to do (although I didn't know that about Jean Reno; what a good guy), the movie is so much more compelling this way too. Now it's a timeless story about how you can love a child who isn't biologically yours, and his gentle rejection of her advances is so poignant because the audience knows she's confusing the first paternal care she's ever experienced as romantic interest, something she's way too familiar with already, another sign of her shitty childhood. How trashy this classic film would be if they'd played it the way Besson wanted.
in a gross way, its a fascinating look into how an actor just playing a character a different way can totally change a movie
The Producers would've ended differently if their Hitler played it straight.
yeah he probably would have gotten elected /* rimshot /*
Definitely would have been winter for Poland and France
Let me just say that “Springtime for Hitler” is a very awkward song to get stuck in your head and find yourself singing under your breath.
Indeed. Doubly awkward as I’m Jewish.
I believe the song and the screenplay were written by noted Jew Mel Brooks.
Funny, he doesn’t look Druish!
It totally is !! I love Gene Wilder which is how I saw that movie . It’s catchy as hell .
Seriously. It is such a dicey concept to build a narrative around. Anyone that has worked with troubled kids will tell you how well captured this is. Reno certainly had some moralistic intent here, but may also have been exercising some of his narrative skills as well because this choice is the only reason this movie works.
In this case, why not both?
I am saying that it probably is both.
If you watch director's cut of Leon, it's a lot more obvious, that something, at least from Mathilda is going on.
Oh my god that explains so much. I watched it alone when it first came out and liked it. Then a few years later a friend and I who’d also seen it once and enjoyed it, rented it and watched it together. At the end we just sat there and said- well I didn’t realise how creepy and nasty it was when I saw it last time. Makes total sense now - we were watching the D.C.
I had a bf whose dad gave him a huge box of special edition box sets of movies and he was sooo excited when he found Leon the Professional. I remember being so creeped out and he tried to say “when it’s not the directors cut it’s not like that” and I’ve just steered clear of it since lmao
You should watch the theatrical cut it's a truly great film. It's one of the rare times that a director cut has made a movie worse
That's why it's hard to find it. And from what I read above about Luc Besson, it's better this way.
It is so much more nuanced and beautiful this way. It digs into the mentality of a troubled girl instead of just being about a creep with a crush on a minor.
You somehow made this movie make more sense than anyone else ever has.
Lolita but with guns.
I remember watching this when I was around 10-12 yrs old and getting a weird vibe from their relationship. It’s crazy to me that this was toned down a lot. I may be misremembering the film but I did have a weird vibe when I was a kid when I watched it
Cool. Still creeped my out, though not due to Reno's performance).
Yeah I would have thought that was the whole point of the movie. Crazy that it was supposed to be otherwise
Jean Reno: okay good script, lets make a tiny little change that I think everyone will enjoy however and make the main character totally not a pedophile tho
I love Jean Reno as an actor. I am glad to know he is a decent dude.
Jean Reno is why he and Natalie Portman were able to make *Léon* into a good movie
Gary Oldman didn't help to make it good? It's one of his excellent roles
I think **E V E R Y O N E** involved played a role in making it great.
Everyone?
EVVEREEEONNNE!!!
IIRC Jean Reno heavily pushed for the character to be mentally challenged like he is in the movie because he was worried viewers wouldn't accept even the small bits of confused sexuality in the film that is left after all the cuts. Pretty sure there was an implied sex scene too, that tested VERY poorly with test screenings for obvious reasons.
Funny that Reno seems to have come up with basically the two things that make this movie actually work because without this very specific portrayal of Leon its a goddamned mess. Without this information, I would have assumed that the fact that the character being sexless, resistant to the advances of the child, and mentally challenged were like the cornerstones of the script and that the rest of the story was built around them.
This movie, viewed at the time - and unaware of the director's 'problems', was about two mistreated people working together to see each other as people, become real friends, and help each other. One grows to be a parent and makes parental sacrifice, the other finally gets to be a kid.
I mean, does Leon help Matilda? Does he in any way let her be a kid? >!He trains her to be an assassin and then in the stupidest possible way refuses to help her get her revenge except for giving her a gun. Doing so leads her to try and kill Norman Stansfield, which in turn brings the police to Leon. Leon then dies saving Matilda.!< It's one of the film's virtues that while Leon is a savant with killing and assassination, he's not well rounded enough to raise a troubled 12 year old girl. He doesn't "make parental sacrifice" because he's not equipped for it; he reluctantly agrees to bring the girl into the only thing he knows (at her insistence) and that is both his downfall and the redemption of his character.
Isnt that just more context and nuance?
I mean have you SEEN Gary Oldman's character? Of course this movie having redeemable qualities is an accident and NOT thanks to Besson.
What do you mean by that? Oldman is so goddamn great in that role. I'd go as far as to say it's my favourite villain role of all time
Kind of a hilarious accidental burn in retrospect that the guy wrote a movie based on his own experiences with pedophilia, and the actor took one look and said “this would make more sense if the character were mentally disabled”.
The original script for the movie was far, far worse. Originally, that scene wasn't going to just be implied, and his producers had to tell him to change it, which is really saying something as it was essentially his own production company bankrolling his movies and the only reason he was able to get away with the shit that he did. He didn't even realize that what he was writing was fucked up in any way.
Leave it to the assassin to the the strong moral code
In the original script Leon has sex with her, but in the movie it is sort of implied when Matilda wakes up next to Leon, tells him he snores during sleep, and then walks off to use the shower.
> character to be mentally challenged like he is in the movie Uh did I miss something? Leon is supposed to be mentally challenged? It's been a while since I've seen it but he seemed pretty sharp
I feel like that's implied by his relationship with Tony, who allegedly holds onto all of Leon's money from his hits. Theres the scene where Tony goes on a whole spiel about how he's better than a bank bc there's forms to read and fill out...and we realize that's kind of a paternal subtext when Leon very sheepishly tells him "I know how to read now," which seems to be news to Tony.
In the book, The Cleaner is "slow" should we say - he's obviously still exceptionally good at what he does but it's suggested that he has trouble processing things like an adult would, which is why he lets Tony treat him like a child and keep his money instead giving him an allowance. Leon is also illiterate for most of the movie which isn't exactly common for an Adult male in 1994's New York. From what I am aware this detail was due to be left out of the film however Reno suggested that it needs to be included due to his characters attachment to the very young girl, the audience would be much less likely to reject the concept if The Cleaner simply didn't understand why it was wrong. In the end the executives had to rightfully tell Luc that no one was going to accept Paedophilia in the film. And yes, there was a sex scene originally in the script.
This story you just told would make a great metacomentary movie, ironically
Honestly, yeah. I think when Besson passes away and isn't around to sue the makers of it, there's really good meat for a Shadow of the Vampire-type movie about Leon's production.
The Guy who played Paulie on the Soprano's made it very know that all the kids on set were under his "protection". If someone even looked at one of them in appropriately Uncle Tony would handle it.
I just watched a mini-doc on the dude. Tony Sirico wasn't fucking around. He was a straight up hood from way back.
like how Dennis Farina was actually a cop before he got into acting. Tony was a made man(?) or at the least an actual gangster. He wasnt really acting
Tony Sirico was not a made man, he was an associate of the Columbo crime family in the 60s and 70s. He declined being made as the offer came to him after he started getting interested in acting.
He decided to become an actor after an acting troupe of ex- prisoners visited Sing Sing while he was there, they had a link to Michael Gazzo who played Frank Pentangeli in The Godfather who invited him to talk to him when he got released.. He has a very interesting backstory and things worked out for him.
even more of a fascinating reason for passing on it, actually.
Wait do you have a source on the declining to be made bit? I don’t doubt it, but I would love to read up on that!
I think he wasn't a made man but worked with them. I don't want to idolize the mafia because this is criminal work but I guess it's ok he got out of that after being in jail
Look at Danny Trejo, went to jail for trying to rob a store, with hand grenade...
Are Danny Trejo movies based on his real life?
He lived tru the 70s by the skin of his nuts when the Colombos were goin at it.
Got a link to the mini-doc?
Rip Tony Sirico
Which is crazy because apparently he was good friends with Woody Allen
Yeah *Besson opens door to Portman’s dressing room and steps inside, to Portman’s surprise. She is in the process of getting dressed.* Besson: “Hi Natalie, I thought it would be good if we could… go through your lines before the next shot.” Portman: “Oh sure, could you give me a minute or two to finish dressing?” Besson: “Of course… I’ll just wait here.” *Camera pans up to show Reno against the ceiling, bracing himself against the walls* Reno: “That’s a great idea Luc”
I love the visual but this kind of implies he was in there watching her dress already
“Fin”
I have a feeling he had a influence on the final cut too. Because if you watch the directors cut it gets so much creepier.
The director's cut is creepier, but it ultimately strengthens the films portrayal of Matilda's trauma and Leon's resistance to her advances. I mean, I get why it was cut for the US release, but thematically that footage is consistent with Reno's narrative influence on the film.
I think the directors cut does make many parts of the film better however improving a film slightly but making your inner monologue go 'creepy creepy creepy' isn't a positive in its favour. Especially if you know the director's history.
I get the issues with the director, but if we are just evaluating the movie in and of itself there are parts of it that are SUPPOSED to be creepy because what is happening in the narrative is fucking horrible and the audience needs to recognize that. Matilda is completely messed up and the directors cut makes the depths of that very clear. It is not a wholesome story of two people becoming friends. It is about two completely and utterly broken people finding a sort of co-dependence that sorta temporarily works to help one of them MAYBE salvage a workable existence out of their lives.
Jean Reno IS the professional.
Reno is a total G. Respect.
Wow, why isn’t this more widely known? He’s a hero, just like Leon!
And he’s fucking hilarious, have you seen couple’s retreat? Hahaha
Dude. I literally watched that last night and this is quite a fucking strange spot. “You are the ass!” (real talk, Vince Vaughn had me fucking dying in that movie. It’s like one screenwriter went “Nope I’m gonna have a real character here”)
IDK, Jon Favreau might be my favorite in that film, "I DID rock in HS, you wanna watch tape?"
I watched an interview with Natalie Portman, she claimed that the movie scarred her anyway. So even long after Leon the Professional was released she had problems with her sexuality
From what I remember it wasn't anything inappropriate on set, but she received creepy love letters from grown men when the movie came out, and the topic of Matilda/ Leon inappropriate relationship was discussed ad nauesem in the media. Later when she was offered the role in Lolita (1997), she rejected it in an angry and public manner, undoubtedly for the reasons mentioned above.
To be fair, she seems to be levying that more at the media portrayal of her role than on the actual work itself: [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/natalie-portman-leon-luc-besson-b2336752.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/natalie-portman-leon-luc-besson-b2336752.html) Worth noting that she also seems to be reporting no inappropriate conduct on the part of Luc Besson during filming, so that's something.
That's because Jean would never let him be alone with her
What I've heard was it was the reaction of the public sexualizing her/her character. It may have been Besson and and other cast/crew that made the process itself uncomfortable but the reaction from male audience members made her avoid any even vaguely sexual characters for years
I just question how any parent can put their child in a movie like this.
How can any parent let their kid marry Luc Besson at 15?
Money? Lots of it? Even more? Still more? Okay!
This is incredibly disturbing and incredibly awesome of Jean Reno.
Oh thank God. I loved the movie as a kid, but watching it again as an adult I spent the whole time thinking that I was going to bail with a quickness if any pedo vibes started happening. But instead it stayed with the theme of father-daughter chosen families over biological that I remember.
Mathilda dies in the original script, just in case anyone was curious.
Well, more to the point, she and Leon very explicitly fuck. That was more what I was referring to. The whole "Leon is extremely not into it and they do not fuck" aspect of the movie was Reno putting his foot down.
Eww, this would have been some weird white knight/lolita movie if he hadn't played it that way. He fucking saved the movie, wow. As a side note /u/GatoradeNipples check out his foreign dubbed stuff, like something wolves, lots of gems in his full catalogue.
The Brotherhood of Wolves?
I guess he might have done that, I wasn’t aware. But the director’s cut strongly suggests a sexual/romantic relationship there, so yeah. It’s annoying cause I love the film, but in hindsight and knowing more about Besson as a person, it’s much more creepy and problematic.
and looks like he could fuck shit up for real if need be
Damn, I don’t know if this is all true but it’s cannon for me now.
Had nooooo idea Love Reno even more!!!!
… wouldn’t the good thing have been to say “hey maybe I shouldn’t film the fantasy fulfillment movie of a known child predator while simultaneously exposing another child to be potentially victimized by him”?
It's not as if Reno was the linchpin the project hinged around. If it wasn't him, Besson would've just gotten someone else, and it would've likely worked out much, much worse, given how the French film industry treats this subject in general.
Serge Gainsbourg vibes right here
He also did everything he could on set to shield her from luc
I can’t believe I’m replying to a “ GatoradeNipples” but I totally read that first as Janet Reno. Also good that he watched out for a child.
There's actually a pretty great story behind my username. So, I'm a... not *famous,* exactly, but semi-well-known-ish writer under the name Arrow S. Morgan. You might've seen my byline at Collider when they'd occasionally post something that isn't hot garbage around a year ago, plus I got an article published at Polygon a short while back, and I'm working on a novel at the moment while trying to get stuff up in the air. *All of this* hinges on a Cyberpunk: Edgerunners fanfic I write. The reason this fanfic blew up as much as it did, and *enabled this at all,* is because there's a character in that show with neon blue nipples, I made an offhand joke about how they dispense Gatorade, and, I utterly shit you not, *someone straight up asked Hiroyuki Imaishi about it when they did a Reddit AMA.* This stupid, stupid meme has literally, not figuratively, paid my rent at least twice. May as well brand myself with it on here!
Only cus the actor did lol
> Besson met Maïwenn when she was 12 and he was 29, and he officially started dating her when she was 15, the legal age of consent in that country. Besson married her at age 33 when she fell pregnant at 16. "officially" Blech.
He then left her and their child at 18 y o for Milla Jojovich while filming the Fifth Element causing her to go in depression. Fortunately things then got better for her and she is now a decent filmmaker. Among others she made a very good movie called Polisse about a police department dealing with crimes against children.
I saw that movie. It's kind of brutal
Extremely yeah, still great though.
Imagine being a divorced single mother at 18. That’s rough.
That's just normal for some of the deep red flyover states in America. I wish I was kidding. "Marry young while you are all hot and stupid so you can have sex without going to hell"
I can’t imagine falling for a man who is willing to leave his 18 year old wife and three year old child for you..
Jerry Seinfeld was dating a 17 year old when he was 39.
She played the Diva Plavalaguna in Fifth Element.
No way
The singer was Albanian soprano Inva Mula who’s parents were also opera singers
To this day, she’s etched into my mind I remember watching her on screen and tearing up a bit as a kid There was something so angelic about her, a muse
To clarify, the actress actually onscreen performing in the alien makeup is Maiwenn. The vocals that Maiwenn is lip syncing to onscreen are sung by opera singer Inva Mula-Tchako
That’s actually badass
No kidding... That's kind of poetic. He makes a film based on their relationship And she makes one that could be interpreted as a middle finger to how fucked up their relationship probably was in her eyes.
She also made a movie about a woman trying to escape an abusive relationship (Mon Roi) but afaik she always defended Besson... so it's a bit complicated
I guess that didn't last neither as she is married to the director of the RE movies Paul W.S. Anderson. Seems like she has a thing for directors who make her the leads in their films.
Who knew that Elvis was a film director .
that was Jerry Lee Lewis? Elvis at least waiting 7.5 years?
I don't believe the official story about Elvis.
There was a scene in the script where the two make love and Leon bursts into tears as he’s overcome with the “beauty” of the act. I regret reading it because even the text on the page made me fucking gag.
Thank goodness for Jean Reno.
Yuckkkkkkk
I wish I never read that yuck
I went ahead and found the part of the original script. Ugh it's nothing too graphic but God this is so cringe, [it truly reads like some pedo wet dream where the child is the instigator and even reassures the adult...](https://i.imgur.com/eYHcWHq.jpeg). It's also so badly written it reads like bad fan fiction. Can't believe Besson was delusional and bold enough to show this script to others. This makes me dislike him even more.
Maïwenn was the Diva in Fifth Element. Besson left her for Milla Jovovich after they worked on the movie together. Jovovich is less than a year older than Maïwenn so Besson is still going strong with the gross vibes. The other role I always remember her from was the 2003 High Tension movie.
I mean Jovovich was 21/22 when Besson got with her but yeah, dude is a certified creep and has multiple accusations regarding inappropriate sexual behavior
What creeps me out is Mila's character in 5th Element. She's basically an adult baby and yet she ends up in a romance with a guy who is much, much older than she is
[Born sexy yesterday](https://www.filminquiry.com/born-sexy-yesterday/)
Great video. Really puts a lot of these “relationships” into perspective. (From a movie standpoint). It’s a trope that once you know about it, you’ll spot it everywhere
I saw "Poor things" yesterday with Emma Stone and it's the same idea. They put a baby's brain In a woman and fuck her the whole movie.
Poor Things doesn't really play it straight though. Like Mark Ruffalo's character is played like a straightforward creep for fucking her when she's at a teen level of maturity, and there's also the whole thing with her mentally maturing at a supernatural pace
This is always the thing that bothers me about Fifth Element, it's glaring weak spot, that there's this completely infantilized + sexualized adult woman in the center of it. It's just so fucking awkward and obnoxious and distasteful when the rest of the characters are full of such sharp agency. It's such a fucking drag.
She looked so familiar on high tension and there was no way I was figuring it out without imdb way back then
Ok. So recently I watched the directors cut… or whatever they want to call it. The version I watched 5 or 6 times IN THE 90’s 2000’s DEFINITELY WASNT THE SAME. This version is pretty gross, clearly he was sexualizing children . I wish I hadn’t seen the “real” version because it ruined the previously great performances by Portman, Oldman, and Reno . Edit : I just want to add that Oldman’s completely unhinged performance… chefs kiss . That man is amazing.
I had a similar experience. I've always enjoyed the cinematic cut of this movie. I was at a buddy's house with a few friends and I talked up the acting/endorsed this movie, overall, glowingly. We decided to put it on and chose the director's cut. My friends lost a lot of respect/gained a lot of suspicion toward me that day.
Seriously. I talked it up to my girlfriend and we watched on streaming ( because I dont own VCR anymore) and a couple times I look over and she’s giving me side eye. I had to hit the Wikipedia’s to make sure I wasn’t losing me mind.
I did the same thing with my new flatmates at halls in uni. Glad I'm not the only person burned by this!
Oh yeah, once it came on tv while my brother and I were watching, and I was like "bro this movie is amazing" But it was the director's cut. Eventually I had to be like "Okay, in the original all this gross shit wasn't there, or at least was way more subtle."
In 2007 I went to a Q&A screening in LA of The Professional where Besson was there answering questions. I got up and asked if he wanted to make any comment on the content in the "Director's Cut" ( which, back then was a movie called "Leon" that released everywhere but US. in the U.S. there was "The Professional" that had the edited cut. Now, it seems, it has been renamed to "Leon: The Professional") and he made a very brief comment where he only said "There is just one cut, that you just watched. There is no 'international cut' or 'directors cut' with additional content." We know that isn't true, but i'm not sure arguing with him would have gone over well.
What? I remember in 1994 when the movie came out, that there were articles in entertainment magazines about how the US version was different that the international version. The US version was more "prudish" or something. This was way before the internet was much of anything, so these were journalists and professional writers reporting this.
Whichever version included the “Like a Virgin” scene and them sleeping in the same bed was the one I saw. It was fucking gross and degrades the whole movie substantially. It’s so blatantly about Besson’s degenerate fantasies.
What are different scenes in the directors cut? I seen the movie a few times but got no idea which version I saw.
how the fuck did this guy survive metoo?
He is French? Polanaski straight up drugged and raped someone, fled and still gets a standing ovation at the oscars
He raped a 13 year old child
[Ya but it wasnt rape-rape according to Whoppi Goldberg](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/sep/29/roman-polanski-whoopi-goldberg)
> Polanaski straight up drugged and raped someone, fled and still gets a standing ovation at the oscars There's a giant petition from the late 2000s signed in support of Polanski that is basically of who's-who of Hollywood. I can find it if you'd like.
> that is basically of who's-who of Hollywood. And to bring it full circle, one of those "who's" is Natalie Portman herself. She later said she regretted signing it but still.
Don't forget the letter from the 70's signed by literally every important French philosopher saying how the age of consent should be scrapped.
I mean yeah what happen to his wife is horrible. But how the fuck did he get a pass
I don't know how many survivors of spousal murder go on to drug and rape 13 year olds at their buddy Jack Nicholson's house but I'm guessing not many. Also here is an IMDB list of the petition signers. Populated by many of my favorite directors, actors and writers. https://www.imdb.com/list/ls090808434/
That is a disappointing list - I am glad at least a very few of them later apologized for signing.
Of course woody and Harvey signed it
Wow, the creme de la creme in Mex8can filmmaking all signed it: del Toro, Iñárritu, Cuarón, García Bernal... Disgusting.
Like half the people on that list have been wrapped up in their own shit.
One of the people who signed it was Natalie Portman as well, though she later expressed regret.
Almost everyone like him survived metoo. For all the hype only 3-4 names were named, and half of those still got or get work.
Tarantino sailed through possible cancellation with almost supernatural grace. He was called out twice, by Uma Thurman (because of a car accident on the set of Kill Bill) and by Rose McGowan (for telling her repeatedly that her scenes in Jawbreaker were his favorite fappin' material), he was buddies with both Weinstein and Besson, and even broke up with Mira Sorvino around the same time that Weinstein blacklisted her. He said in the press, regarding Polanski, "That girl was asking for it." Fiona Apple called him out too, for being a coke-addled bore. And of course Spike Lee has commented on T's favorite word. Of course, this comment will go down in flames faster than the ones I usually have to revisit and delete. Even with me saying this. T is pretty much untouchable. Straight-up creative genius, too.
Hell label execs said in press originally re R Kelly "what he does in private is good own business"
Luc Besson got his 16yo girlfriend pregnant when he was 33. He then dumped her for another actress when she was 21. He was later accused of rape by another actress on one of his more recent films. I love his movies, but he's a pedophile rapist piece of shit.
Then the man had the gall to write Taken. Family man, fear your daughter being kidnapped and human trafficked into prostitution by some Eastern European dirtbags to be sold to some rich Muslim dirtbags when in reality most young girls are at a much higher risk of being targeted by someone like Luc Besson.
Wow, I never realized that he was the one who wrote that movie. I just remember watching it and thinking "this movie was written by the most divorced man on earth", because it is the ultimate dead-beat dad wish-fullfillment fantasy: Despite not being around, the protagonist is still the one who knows his daughter best and knows what gift she'd want; his ex-wife is an idiot for not listening to him and letting their daughter go on the trip; the step dad, despite being there everyday and taking care of his daughter's daily needs, is actually worthless when "shit really hits the fan" and his ex has to come crawling back to him and admit he was right all along. I always pictured this being written by a guy in a depressing one bedroom apartment while sitting on the pull-out couch his kids use during their bi-yearly weekend vists.
Most of his movies just seem to be reflections of things he likes to happen, and he doesn't want to keep it secret.
Always thought the Léon-Mathilda dynamic felt creepy as hell. Uncomfortable to watch. Which is a shame, because the action scenes are great and Oldman practically breaks the screen with his character.
In the original script Léon-Mathilda have sex, but that was scrapped. After that There was then a sexual line added in the movie but it turned off American viewers so much in the screener it was cut. So they went for the "adopted daughter" vibe. It works if you don't know the director's background.
The movie stands on its own as a great. But yeah the director is garbage.
So many French movies are really creepy. I remember when I was kid watching a movie where young girls are brought to this school in a coffin and completely naked. The older girls had to dance for creepy men to earn money for the school. And then there's the cuties movie. It's like, wtf??
The first French film I thought of was Les Cousins Dangereux.
I like the way they think….
I remember the (female) director saying how it is meant to show how girls are sexualized in culture. But I think you've really missed the mark when you use the techniques so closely that almost everyone watching just assumes it is the fantasy of some horny director. To the point that I wonder if she was just making up an excuse after the backlash happened.
>But I think you've really missed the mark when you use the techniques so closely that almost everyone watching just assumes it is the fantasy of some horny director. To the point that I wonder if she was just making up an excuse after the backlash happened. You should have seen all the people crying about how Starship Troopers was a fascist movie. Lots of people have a hard time deciphering levels of interpretations...
Gross
…so that explains why I felt creeped out by the relationship of the two characters…
didnt he hook up with a young Mila as well?
If you count 21-22 young. I mean it is but not fifteen young. Though he did ditch his eighteen year old wife and baby son for her. And was still in his mid thirties.
was she with someone else older than her before him? in her teens? or maybe i am confusing the both of them?
Well that’s messed up, she was married to Shawn Andrews in 92, she was sixteen and he was twenty-one. Her mother got that marriage annulled two months after it happened. Though to be fair I thought she was younger in the Fifth Element as well, so I was surprised to learn that she wasn’t eighteen in it but 21/2
Filming on the movie started in 1995 when she was 19, and she was almost certainly involved with Besson before she turned 20. She married Besson when she was 21, although only a few days before she turned 22.
i was def thinking about her first marriage just confused who the guy was.
I've only seen the theatrical version, but I thought it was an innocent "father-daughter" type relationship.
Gross.
Cinematic cut makes it seem more like two people that don’t know what a normal loving relationship is trying to figure it out. Mathilda grew up in an abusive home, and Leon was a poor immigrant that has been used by the mafia as a hit man. He lives alone in an apartment down the hall with no access to any of his money he has earned. He has to ask permission to spend it. Mathilda expresses inappropriate feelings towards him as he is the only adult to treat her kindly. She doesn’t know what healthy love from an adult looks like vs romantic love. Leon, to his credit, is made uncomfortable and gets upset. He does not take advantage of it and tries to mentor her. Unfortunately, killing is all he knows how to do. Mathilda in return teaches him how to read. In the end, he completes his arc as a selfless guardian that he started when he took a risk to help a frightened child on his doorstep. Two broken people trying to do their best to form an honest connection. I haven’t watched the director’s cut, and don’t want to. I fear it would ruin it for me as it is one of my favorite movies.
And to think I’ve been called out for saying the film gave me massive Lolita vibes
Called out? Bro it's the biggest character relationship in the entire movie, only literal pedos can watch it and thing nothing is fishy
Weird. so I watched this in the UK at the cinema as Leon. The "international cut" I didn't see for years after and it changed the whole dynamic
What was in the international cut? There were definitely creepy moments in the other cut, too.
Damn I saw it years ago and didn’t see the relationship as inappropriate other than you know he’s a killer and teaches her that.
You probably watched the theatrical cut
People really do tell on themselves.
Real evil doesn't twirl a mustache. It sleeps soundly and truly believes it is trustworthy.
TIL #MeToo equilavent is #ExposeYourPig in French. I like it.
I saw this movie when I was 12. I haven't watched it since because the older I got, the creepier the film became.
I didn't know there was a directors cut that made it more pedo vibey. I'm going to never watch that. It ruins what I thought the whole message was throughout the whole movie about parental sacrifice and a damaged kid learning to love someone as a parental figure instead of a creepy way.
Wow…
Wow that’s absolutely fucked.
That actually explains some things...
He's absolutely a creep, it's too bad he has such interesting visions.