No, this isn’t a thread about MJ. I was just looking over my DVDs the other day, and thinking about how much I really enjoy The City of Lost Children. Now, it’s something that’s always kinda given me a funny feeling in that, there seems to be some hint at a romantic relationship between One (a strongman in his early to mid thirties) and Miette (an orphan girl of about 10). Then, of course, there’s the ever classic case in another absolutely amazing film, Leon: the Professional, where again, there are strong hints at a budding relationship between an adult male and a 10-12 year old girl (much more noticeable in the directors cut).
Of course, in both of these movies, the relationships seem to be pushed more on the side of the little girl, so most of it seems to be just fanciful romance in the minds of small children. Eh, it happens. Little girls fall in love with their older sibling’s friends, and it’s no big deal. But in both these films, there’s a bit more too it where the men don’t just seem like plain and simple “protectors”.
And yet, aside from the slight twinge of “Hmm…that’s kinda icky,” it’s really no big deal. Is it just because the male characters in both films are bother rather childlike that makes it seem a non-issue and exceptable, or is there something more? Or do I just need more sleep?
eh-hem…“acceptable”. My appologies.
It’s pretty amazing how Brian Cox is able to present his character as to gain the audience’ understanding and sympathy in L.I.E.
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In comics, there was a character in Grant Morrison’s Sebastian O called the Abbe, a wealthy, corpulent Victorian dandy/spy who took in very young street urchins, fed them, educated them, and presumably molested them. Morrison was aparently daring the reader to think less of the Abbe than of the respectable society that abandoned them to the street in the first place.
Abbe died within a few pages of his first appearance, so squeamish readers weren’t made to dwell on the disturbing implications for very long.
I think in the films in the OP, it’s acceptable because it is not consumated. The ickyness is turned up a notch because both of the men in those films seem incapable of having a relationship with an adult woman. Well, really any sort of person. The relationship with the young girl is pretty the only relationship the men have. So the men have this sad life that the young girl is the only joyful thing in it.
Of course how joyful are the lives of the two young girls from those two films?
Not very.
I also think those films there is a certain “a child shall lead them” sort of view. Both of those men are pretty beaten down by life and they find a sort of redemption through being lead by the young girl. The men are jaded and tired and the relationship with a young girl helps them to use their stregnts for a higher purpose then before. (at least I think that’s what happend in CoLC, it’s been too long since I’ve seen that)
I’ll accept just about anything if there are higher artistic goals to be acheived, but I thought the highly sexually charged wrestling scene between Angie Harmon and Frankie Muniz in Agent Cody Banks was very inappropriate. No higher artistic goals, just a 30 year old woman pinning her crotch up against the face of a 15 year old boy.
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I’m sure Frankie Muniz cried himself to sleep every night.
Personally, I got far less of a creepy vibe from the full cut of Leon than the chopped-up American release of The Professional–the former, to me, made the level of care on Leon’s part in response to Mathilda’s (heartbreaking) attempts to be grown up far more clear than the latter.
The creepy angle never even occurred to me with City of Lost Children, precisely because One was basically just a permanent child–even younger than Miette in many ways–in a great big lummox’s body.
The Professional creeped me out on that account; haven’t seen Leon.
It’s the same film. The Professional was the title used in the US.
Many people refer to the directors extended version as Leon or Leon: The Professional and the US release as simply The Professional.
Which raises the question: Can a “normally sexed” 15-yr-old boy be sexually abused by Angie Harmon? Though once I start the GD thread asking it I’m sure to get many valid points and sad personal experiences thrown back at me and I’ll feel guilty for even asking. I’ll just leave it at, “Were I 15 Angie Harmon could stick her crotch in my face any ol’ time.”
I don’t know but now I want to see the movie.
One was also on a mission to rescue Petit Frère (Little Brother) and as such I found it hard to see him as anything but “Big Dopey Brother”. I never got any impression that he had anything other than pure thoughts towards Miette as another “family” member (even though they found each other and weren’t related). He found a surrogate “Little Sister.”
However, I do remember seeing the movie and thinking “wow, they made Miette look, er… ‘sexy’, almost.” and both my friend and I thought that was a little disconcerting. She wasn’t overtly sexual, but they gave her widom, street smarts, and made her almost like a mini-adult at times. She was an attractive kid in an outfit with a rich red hue that half the time reminded me of Alice in Wonderland’s jumper, the other half of the time made me think “hmm, I wonder if they make that in my size?” (I’m female BTW). There were times she appeared to be very grown up and often was much more of an adult than One… but she was always clearly a little girl. Hence it was disconcerting.
She was a child but you ended up empathizing with her character in a more adult context – meaning, I kept thinking of her more as a peer, whereas when I saw Whale Rider I empathized with the kid more nostalgically (remembering what it was like to be her age).
Never hought that One had anything but innocent thoughts, but I was aware that Miette had an adult spark that I found slightly disturbing.
City of Lost Children is a great movie, and provocative. I love the juxtaposition between One and Miette. One has a childish intellect within an adult body, whilst Miette has an adult intellect within a child’s body. Miette was acting controlingly towards One. She was the person who was using One, and yet she was the child.
Did anyone else see the thread title as Herpes and Pedophiles?
That’s kinda what I’m getting at. One seems to have more of a “Big Brother” feel about him, but with Miette’s puppy love towards him, combined with her more adult nature, it makes for a rather awkward situation. And it’s the same in The Professional; in both cases, it’s the young girl in power, and if they were to push things, it’s made rather unclear as to how either adult would react. That’s what makes it even more disconcerting.
Still, both movies are amongst my top ten favorites, and I have nothing but happy thoughts for all the lead characters. But still, it gets one thinking…
Depending, of course, on which particular pre-Marlowian myth one believes, a case for Dr. Faustus as a pedophile/child molestor is not difficult to present. The stronger elements of the Marlowe presentation do not, AFAIR, strongly present those elements of him as his downfall but rather reinforce his “unholy” desire for knowledge (specifically, black magic, and especially his deal with the devil) as his downfall.
The more uncomfortable elements of Faustus, to Marlowe’s audience, are more than likely not the same elements that make Faustus an undesirable sort today (again, depending on the myth one believes, he was a child molestor, necromancer, braggart, foolish experimenter, etc).
how about Kitty Pryde and Colossus in classic X men