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

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

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

It was a product of its time.

I’d do what Robert Evans did.

A) A LOT of cocaine.

B) Make medium budget adult oriented dramas with up and coming top talent (Rosemary’s Baby, The Conversation, The Godfather, The Odd Couple).

C) More cocaine.

Inside Out touched my heart.

Soul touched my soul.

Was he really? Or was that just strong fan-casting?

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

Sherpico

For every Bird, Capote, or Malcolm X there are dozens of movies like The Blindside, Alexander, or Jobs.

It has not changed, no. ELVIS is a bonkers Luhrmann film more than a traditional biopic, which is why it works imo. WEIRD is yet another parody of biopics which shouldn't be done unless they can do something that WALK HARD didn't do better. And OPPENHEIMER is not out yet lmao. It can still suck ass, but in any case it's not a biopic. It's only about Project Manhattan apparently.

> 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).

South Africa: District 9. We have so many languages and cultures, it's hard to pick a film that everyone would know, but District 9 was pretty major for us, I'd say.

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Personally I don't find musicians lives to be particularly I threshing especially when filtered through the needs of arc based dramatic story telling.

Someone one lime Oppenheimer was a pretty odd and contradictory person, not popularly well known outside a few quotes. Nolan will likely have some interesting structuring devices, with the use of black and white possibly moving to that format for scenes after trh bomb test. Beyond finding the subject more interesting, Oppenheimer is more interesting to me than most biopics becausenirsnacruslky interested in being a film and seeing ehat you can donwithinnthst medium. A lot of biopics are are only slightly above the made for TV movies thst used to play on VH1 or whatever.

>Bella cleverly reinvents the female-lead action genre pairing a sexy and unapologetic rock n’ roll edge with the gritty heightened realism of 80’s New York City >

Sounds more like a gender flipped Maniac Cop to me, plus Weaving kinda already did notes of this as her Slayer-loving character in Mayhem

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

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

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

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

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

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

I think too many biopics tried to cover too much of a persons life. I think it's better to just narrow down to a specific period in their life. Or focus on a specific event.

Music biopics should look to a film like Rocketman for inspiration. They not only narrowed down the story. But making it a musical really made u feel what they were feeling at specific moments in their lives.

Then of course have good writing, acting, cinematography, and directing.

My guess is pedo

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

Curiosity got the better of me. Unfortunately.

bruh

Maybe they are sworn enemies. Maybe Leo's an anti-semite or something. Not trying to start rumors-- Leo is one of my favorite actors... But it does seem odd...

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

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

Would love to see him give Sam Raimi another shot!

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

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

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

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

It insists upon itself, Lois.

But really, this movie has been on my radar since I was a kid when I saw the trailer hundreds of times on the Last Crusade VHS tape. But I've always had this block towards it, like I'd rather watch paint dry than watch The Godfather. I even bought the Blu Ray trilogy once and returned it before I opened it. Think I'll go grab it on 4k thanks to this thread. Decades of procrastination dies tonight!