In the french movie: Mauvaises Fréquentations I noticed that Maud Forget, the protagonist, is depicted as a sweet and innocent teen. I checked the IMDB again: her date of birth is May-7-1982, meaning that she has 17 or maybe 16 when the movie was shot (1999).
I’m not a militant against kids sexploitation (not in favor, of course, I just don’t make movements and don’t worry more than neccesary), but can filmmakers in French do anything with teens under 18? (by contract, of course) Is there no laws that rules the movie industry? It’s not the first european movie I see which shows some nudes and sex scenes with actors too young for comfort.
Note: I insist, I’m not scandalized by this stuff, only pointing it.
I’m not sure about the legal framework in France, but there is a higher acceptance than in the States that teenagers or even kids are sexual beings. That doesn’t mean that we’re in favour of 13 year olds having sex during school breaks, paedophilia, etc, but French audiences by and large are not as shocked to see this depicted in films. I mean, after all, everyone knows damned well that teenagers are very much sexual beings, because we’ve all been teenagers at some point.
In a wider context, French audiences don’t have the same hang-ups about nudity in films that Anglo-Saxon audiences do. When I was growing up in the UK, because of the film age ratings system, I couldn’t see a whole load of films. Then I’d go back to France for the holidays and you can’t turn on the TV for half an hour before coming across a pair of breasts. I used to love those shower gel adverts.
The age of consent in most European countries (and I suppose, in France as well) is 16. For most purposes, you’re not really an adult yet, but you’re considered “sexually” adult, with all the legal occurences that implies.
(stating: I’m not shocked by teen movies, and not discussing if teenagers have sex or not)
Ok, then I have to re-propose the OP: I’m just amazed that with all the children abuse and paedophilia stuff wandering around, some filmmakers can do those kind of movies without being convicted.
It seems to me that putting young teens in a movie (mainstream or not, like Larry Clark’s), performing or depicting explicit or almost explicit sexual acts, it’s the same thing that making it for private purposes, then considered a crime. Don’t answer as if I’m offended or scandalized by this, I repeat, it’s just curiosity.