The 10 most problematic films and series according to our readers

We asked you on social media which of your favorite films left you completely disillusioned when you watched them. Here are your best answers. REP. the 90s.

The Classic: Friends (1994)

This is the series that appeared most often in your answers. Friends it hasn’t stood the test of time and has left you with terrible memories. In the series, womencharacters transgender (Chandler’s mother) or ex-fat (Monica) are the scapegoats of men, mostly white, straight and thin:

Between the gross-phobic jokes about Monica, the tasteless jokes about Chandler’s mother… In 2024 this would not happen.

Exasperation: Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)

Realizing that a film or series from our adolescence was full of ideas sexist representations, It hurts, but it can also be liberating. He is becoming aware of the clichés that they have shaped our imagination, consciously or unconsciously.

Seeing the harmful representations to which we were once blind also means understanding where the complexes, prejudices and reflexes come from that we are not always aware of but which influence us in our relationships with ourselves and with others:

Permanent fatphobia while the girl is, at worst, 42 years old: has really upset my perception of what a woman’s body needs to be like to be attractive and loved.

You also had trouble seeing again The devil wears Pradawhich, as one of our readers points out, “he explains to us that we are ugly when we wear a size 38”.

The Surprising: Beetlejuice (1988)

Some films tend to fly under the radar of feminists even though they deserve the same critical scrutiny. One reader told us she had completely disillusioned in reviewing Cockroach juice after 10 years :

I still love the universe so much, but the character of Beetlejuice is a predator who sticks his hands in his ass and wants to marry a girl. When I saw it again 2 years ago, after maybe 10 years without having seen it, I said to myself “oh yes, now I almost feel guilty for having appreciated this film so much”.

Vintage: Just Married (1999)

Imagine: you leave your boyfriendAt that time the press decides to investigate you. This scenario may be terribly retrograde, but it still serves as intrigue just Marriedthe cursed twin of Pretty Woman (1990 romantic comedy about which there would undoubtedly be a lot to say), with Richard Gere and Julia Roberts:

When I was younger, I loved this “love story” played by the Pretty Woman actors. Watching it again the other day, I didn’t last 5 minutes. It is the story of a journalist who wants to write an article about a woman and her love life after her third marriage, which she annulled… He does what he wants, right? A great “shame” awaits us

The Unromantic Junkie: Gossip Girl (2007)

This is one of the most recurring headlines in our survey. Over the course of the episodes and seasons, Gossip Girl he tried to convince us thatbeing abused by a man is sexy. Spoilers : no one believes it. Chuck Bass’ name often appeared on the list This series did worse:

“On Gossip Girl, everyone is fatphobic and hates poor people. The very principle of the series, about this permanent espionage, is problematic. Chuck is a rapist and the worst part is that the series tries to buy him a conscience.

The Indestructible: the James Bond saga (especially the first phase with Sean Connery, from 1962)

62 years of discomfort6 different actors and nothing less than 25 films. Since 1962, the James Bond saga has tirelessly recycled the cliché of the borderline controlling relationship with a much younger woman. If the last parts with Daniel Craig show efforts in giving a less objectified and retrograde representation of these female characters, the first parts do not stand the test of time.

For Cary Fukunaga, the director of Death can waitSean Connery’s James Bond was “practically a rapist”. In the Hollywood Reporter columns the director mentioned a scene fromOperation Thundera 1965 film in which James Bond forcefully kisses a nurse. He later suggests that he will withhold information that could cost him his job if she agrees to have sex with him, he rapes her. Unbearable sequences when we return to them years later:

The character’s relationship with women seems particularly toxic to me: a middle-aged man seduces very young women (even teenagers as in Operation Thunder), in total disregard of their consent. These films today give me the impression of glorifying behavior close to rape

The Painful: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

What once only looked innocent Magic resonates very differently today. In your opinion, the fourth part ofHarry Potter it is the one that resists time the least:

In addition to the author’s transphobic remarks, which made me a little disgusted with the universe, in Goblet of Fire there are many quite sexist genre clichés (shots of buttocks and chests while underage girls are on the entrance stage of the beaubatons) , both schools transmit quite dated genre clichés – on the one hand very sexualized and graceful girls, on the other muscular and brutal men without any finesse.

Not recommended for children: Disney’s Peter-Pan (1995)

Some Disney films are must-sees among the top films we hate to rediscover as adults. In particular, you have entrusted us with the difficult vision of one of the most seemingly harmless cartoons, Peter Pan :

Peter Pan has been living in Neverland for 30 years, he and the others haven’t learned how to wash underwear yet and have to go look for a girl who does? Little brother Michel is ready to go to war but Wendy has to stay at home? What about the representation of female relationships, which are nothing more than jealous whores and always ready to do something bad… I had started showing it to my children (nostalgia for my childhood) but I stopped halfway because I don’t really feel comfortable with this paean to patriarchy.

The Uncanny: Léon (1994)

In Lion, we follow a hitman (Jean Reno) who takes under his wing Mathilda (Natalie Portman), a twelve-year-old girl who is the sole survivor of her family’s massacre. The man will make Mathilda a “cleaning lady”, like him. Despite its qualities, the film resonates differently when we know that the director married and had a child from a girl half his junior. Luc Besson had done it 31 years old, when Maïwenn was 15 :

Growing up, I discovered the relationship between Luc Besson and Maïwenn and I can no longer see Léon without being embarrassed by the relationship between Jean Reno and Natalie Portman.

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