Why did Netflix allow this film?

[latheritup]

Please take a second to watch the video on this link, this is the final dance scene of the new movie on Netflix called Cuties.

mobile.twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1303908536553017349

I cannot understand why Netflix thought this was the right film to add to their selections. These are children.

There are several petitions going round to get this removed off their platform.

our daughters will be raised believing this is normal. This sexualized behavior is expected. Do we want this? No
Isn't that the point of the film though? (Not that I dont think people's objections about the means through which the message is delivered are unvalid).

^ @vigoro yes but we don’t need child actors to produce a show like this to bring awareness. No, as I said previously we don’t film child rape to show people what is not okay and although yes it’s out their online somewhere however in no shape or form would we get actors to make a film about it to make a point.

I've just watched it.

I have very mixed feelings. On the one hand, I thought it was a poignant story which probably represents, obviously to an extreme degree, the lives of many immigrants in Paris. Also, the acting - especially from the girl in the lead role - was great. I also really liked the ending. On the other hand, I wish they could have made it without all those highly inappropriate - to put it mildly - dance scenes. The sexualised nature of the dancing was kind of central to the story, and the viewer was meant to be shocked, but you would think that a talented director would be able to come up with some way to hint at all this without making it so explicit.

As others have said, those girls - children really - are going to have those scenes following them around for the rest of their lives. They're way too young to understand the implications of it all. How could their parents sign off on this? I guess they're probably 'stage parents' thrilled at the idea of their little girls becoming film stars. Hard to get away from the uncomforable fact that this was adults exploiting children for their own benefit.

@Floatyboat

I genuinely have no idea what the true purpose of the film is.

I think you should go away and try to understand the context before starting an indignant thread about something.

Tell that to the increasing number of grotesque peodophiles out there watching this, It shouldn’t be shown. It’s very uncomfortable for a reason and Netflix have seriously messed up here.

This is too Much. Let our children be children .

Let our children be children

Is that not the purpose of the documentary?

@Floatyboat

Let our children be children

Is that not the purpose of the documentary?

It's not a documentary.

Pedophiles don't care for the context. They see little girls doing extremely inappropriate dance moves with the camera zooming in on their private areas. The fact that people are defending this is scary.

Are there two films being discussed here? The original and a Netflix remake?

If so, then for the original French film the cultural context is hugely important in loads of ways. For one thing, until very recently (2018) I think France had no age of consent regarding sex. There were two cases where 28 yr old men had sex with 11 yr old girls, and their lawyers argued successfully that the girls had consented and the men were not charged with statutory rape. This caused a huge Public outrage and eventually in 2018 the age of consent was set at 15. So France has no history of a formal age of consent and, yes, a Long-standing belief that young girls can consent to sex.

The other key cultural context is the clash between immigrant and French cultures. The UK is multicultural- by and large, as long as they are not breaking any laws, immigrant communities are free to express themselves in the way they dress, eat, worship etc. France is the opposite: it has a strict policy of assimilation. This means that immigrants who want to live here are expected to adopt French ways of living, eating, dressing and behaving. This leads to massive clashes and produces scenes like armed police on beaches telling Muslim women to take their clothes off (when some local mayors banned the burkini). Or Public school canteens refusing to have a pork-free menu. Locally, we had a proposed women-only swimming session banned because of the perception that it was pandering to the Muslim community.

So for the younger generation of largely Muslim immigrants, trying to assimilate into French life while negotiating with their older, less assimilated relatives - that’s really hard, and what the film captured.

Netflix - of course they do what generates the highest viewing figures. Sex sells, and dangerous / forbidden / illegal sex probably sells even better. I watch a lot of Netflix but increasingly it strikes me as media-by-numbers. I read somewhere that they buy huge amounts of data from Google, to know what topics / stories / issues etc people are currently interested in - then they very very quickly produce content to match that. It’s not driven by good storytelling, just by exactly the same data driven pandering to the masses that advertising is

It's not a documentary

Oh, my mistake.

This is a thought provoking piece from Janice Turner.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/8c46aad6-f461-11ea-9de6-a6e4d4016fb7?shareToken=e196d311d52618102baf33fd9f6a2fbd

Are there two films being discussed here? The original and a Netflix remake?

No, Netflix have bought the distribution rights to the French film. There’s no remake.

It reminded me of the pageant dance scene in ‘Little Miss Sunshine’

@IcedPurple

I've just watched it.

I have very mixed feelings. On the one hand, I thought it was a poignant story which probably represents, obviously to an extreme degree, the lives of many immigrants in Paris. Also, the acting - especially from the girl in the lead role - was great. I also really liked the ending. On the other hand, I wish they could have made it without all those highly inappropriate - to put it mildly - dance scenes. The sexualised nature of the dancing was kind of central to the story, and the viewer was meant to be shocked, but you would think that a talented director would be able to come up with some way to hint at all this without making it so explicit.

As others have said, those girls - children really - are going to have those scenes following them around for the rest of their lives. They're way too young to understand the implications of it all. How could their parents sign off on this? I guess they're probably 'stage parents' thrilled at the idea of their little girls becoming film stars. Hard to get away from the uncomforable fact that this was adults exploiting children for their own benefit.

Exactly what I felt watching it. Which is a shame as the film was a great opportunity for important social commentary and was otherwise very well made and acted.

Anyone who thinks pedophiles are going to sit through two hours of subtitled French drama about racism and cultural identify just for a few seconds of fully clothed children doing a bit of suggestive dancing, when there are millions of photos and videos of children fully naked being forced to engage in actual sex acts easily available online, is naive.

I agree the way Netflix has marketed it is creepy and exploitative and wrong. No one would even know about those scenes if not for Netflix exploiting them to create controversy.

Anyone who thinks pedophiles are going to sit through two hours of subtitled French drama about racism and cultural identify just for a few seconds of fully clothed children doing a bit of suggestive dancing, when there are millions of photos and videos of children fully naked being forced to engage in actual sex acts easily available online, is naive.

Anyone who doesn’t think that the dance routines and other parts haven’t already been ripped and edited together and uploaded to a platform is perhaps naive too.

And I doubt the language is a barrier.

Winesalot, agree. This is one of the first things to happen, I expect. It will have been doing the rounds on the dark net for ages and be old news by now.

What on earth those girls' parents were thinking when they gave permission for their children to play these parts is beyond me. The parents must be groomed as much as the kids.

Just wondering about the polygamy thing. How did the husband get to bring wife number 2 to Paris? Perhaps they weren't wed in a legal ceremony but if so, how did he get her a visa to live in France?

Of all the violent rape movies that come out of film festivals, ones that have had critics upping and leaving, been denounced, of the myriad ways women have been carved up and brutalised on screen for decades, and this is the one we draw the line at? There have been plenty of arthouse films with children raped and murdered and so on, and I've no idea why this one in particular has gotten people so riled up.

Yes, it's grim, it's supposed to be grim. Just like every other film where people said 'oh but it's art' and then pumped rape scenes into our homes, normalising it as a needed part of any popular media.

@IcedPurple

I've just watched it.

I have very mixed feelings. On the one hand, I thought it was a poignant story which probably represents, obviously to an extreme degree, the lives of many immigrants in Paris. Also, the acting - especially from the girl in the lead role - was great. I also really liked the ending. On the other hand, I wish they could have made it without all those highly inappropriate - to put it mildly - dance scenes. The sexualised nature of the dancing was kind of central to the story, and the viewer was meant to be shocked, but you would think that a talented director would be able to come up with some way to hint at all this without making it so explicit.

As others have said, those girls - children really - are going to have those scenes following them around for the rest of their lives. They're way too young to understand the implications of it all. How could their parents sign off on this? I guess they're probably 'stage parents' thrilled at the idea of their little girls becoming film stars. Hard to get away from the uncomforable fact that this was adults exploiting children for their own benefit.

Former child actor. No, we're usually very aware. Discussions and meetings are held even when the audition is booked, and I would discuss with my mum and agent the role, the requirements and what the implications might be. My first role led to a considerable amount of bullying, but I knew that was a risk. I was still proud of the role.

I turned down a number of sexually suggestive roles - abuse victims, provocative Lolita teens - you think the BBC are innocent? I once received a script that would require me to simulate urinating on an older man. I was 16 - mostly because I was a fairly sheltered, innocent kid and I knew I wouldn't have the foggiest how to do the roles justice. I knew the girls who got the parts, though, and they were supported throughout.

"Stage parents" usually choose much more popular roles to hit a wider audience. It isn't part of their plan to choose divisive themes or debated topics.

@TempestHayes

Of all the violent rape movies that come out of film festivals, ones that have had critics upping and leaving, been denounced, of the myriad ways women have been carved up and brutalised on screen for decades, and this is the one we draw the line at? There have been plenty of arthouse films with children raped and murdered and so on, and I've no idea why this one in particular has gotten people so riled up.

Yes, it's grim, it's supposed to be grim. Just like every other film where people said 'oh but it's art' and then pumped rape scenes into our homes, normalising it as a needed part of any popular media.

But you don't get a zoom in on the rape actually happening, it's acted out. These are young girls actually bending over for the camera and touching themselves.

It’s also not the case that media has been a free for all of sexual violence and exploitation with no push back or line drawing. Many people have critiqued and put in complaints about film content prior to this.

Films are censored and the film owners are told they must remove certain scenes before a film can be distributed. There are limitations on what can be shown in a rape scene. Censors insist on the removal on any rape scene where a woman is shown enjoying being raped. If it were for censorship and it were just left up to the creative vision of directors, we would be seeing a lot worse than we currently do. If it wasn’t for female actors pushing back against exploitation and the public pushing back, we would be seeing a lot worse.

I don’t like the narrative being pushed that we were all very passive about exploitation until this film appeared. There are mechanisms for resolving this. Why can’t these scenes be removed under existing laws around child exploitation? And why is the long history of the fight against media content being ignored?

If you ignore what people are telling you the film is about, and instead trust the evidence of your own eyes, this is plainly obvious. There is no non-nefarious reason to shoot the dance scenes in the obviously pornographic way they have been shot. it's not an accident that the scenes were shot that way. It's the purpose of the scenes. If you were revolted by the footage, it's not because you're too unsophisticated to get the director's vision, or because you are too prudish. It's because you're not a paedophile. You are not the audience for this

How mad that we have to remind people to trust their own eyes. But the reality is we're groomed from childhood by the media to accept abuse, to ourselves and others and ignore our uncomfortable feelings. It's so important to point this out ♥️ @DonkeySkin

@Vigoro

Okay, just watched the trailer and it is deeply uncomfortable viewing.

It does, however, strike me as very odd and hypocritical that people are criticizing this movie by sharing it's most uncomfortable scenes.

I dont think that's particularly different to what the film itself is attempting to do.

Still used real-life under-age children in those scenes though.

What were their parents thinking?