Netflix, Inc. indicted by grand jury in Tyler Co., Tx for promoting material in Cuties film

[AnOminous]

Do we know specifically in Texas where the case will be tried? There's a lot of hipster enclaves out there now.

Tyler County, Texas, a small and very rural Texas county with slightly over 20,000 population. It is not the county which contains the city of Tyler, Texas.

 

[mr.moon1488]

Tyler County, Texas, a small and very rural Texas county with slightly over 20,000 population. It is not the county which contains the city of Tyler, Texas.

Well, there goes their chances for a hipster bailout.

 

[Activelo]

Surprise, surprise, Netflix's CEO is still defending the movie.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainme...0-10-13/cuties-netflix-movie-ceo-ted-sarandos [A]

Spoiler: Full Article

Netflix CEO defends ‘Cuties,’ calls the film uniquely ‘misunderstood’ in the U.S​

By CHRISTI CARRAS | STAFF WRITER
OCT. 13, 2020 | 11:51 AM

Netflix Chief Executive Ted Sarandos is not entertaining any backlash to the controversial French film “Cuties,” which many detractors have accused of sexualizing young girls.

Appearing at Monday’s virtual Mipcom marketing event, Sarandos reportedly defended Maïmouna Doucouré's award-winning debut feature about an 11-year-old Senegalese immigrant in France who rebels against her conservative family values and joins a “free-spirited dance crew.”

“It’s a little surprising in 2020 America that we’re having a discussion about censoring storytelling,” Sarandos said, according to Deadline. “It’s a film that is very misunderstood with some audiences, uniquely within the United States.

“The film speaks for itself. It’s a very personal coming-of-age film. It’s the director’s story, and the film has obviously played very well at Sundance without any of this controversy and played in theaters throughout Europe without any of this controversy.”

In August, Netflix’s poster for the French drama ignited harsh criticism and an online petition to remove the title from the platform. The streaming giant promptly apologized for and changed the “inappropriate artwork” — which pictured its four preteen stars posing in costumes baring their legs and midriffs — but stood by the film.

Despite Netflix’s damage-control efforts, many continued to make assumptions about the movie and criticize its director, who received a personal apology from Sarandos while fielding “numerous death threats.” After “Cuties” premiered on Netflix internationally last month, a grand jury in Texas went so far as to indict the streaming service for “promotion of lewd visual material depicting a child.”

“I received numerous attacks on my character from people who had not seen the film, who thought I was actually making a film that was apologetic about hypersexualization of children,” Doucouré told Deadline in September, adding she hoped the haters would “understand that we’re actually on the same side of this battle” after watching the movie.

“I really put my heart into this film,” she said. “It’s actually my personal story as well as the story of many children who have to navigate between a liberal Western culture and a conservative culture at home.”

In a September column for the Los Angeles Times, culture critic Mary McNamara characterized “Cuties” as “an imperfect but insightful portrait of a girl beset by so many opposing forces” and noted it defied her expectations.

“What I found was a film about rage,” she wrote. “That sudden, inchoate, unidentifiable female fury that rises in so many girls, often self-destructively, when they realize that certain rules are not about protecting them but controlling them.

“‘Cuties’ is not about a girl coming to terms with her sexuality; sexuality doesn’t factor into any of her actions. It’s about a girl coming to terms with the nature of power and her immediate, and potentially lifelong, lack of it.”

 

[kcbbq]

Yeah, no one's talking about censoring anything, that's why TV episodes are getting pulled and Gone With The Wind has a 6 hour explanation of why you shouldn't watch the film beforehand.

 

[Love Soze]

This film is pretty tame compared to a lot of the child porn made by the French. Maladolescents (sp?) is basically a late night cable soft porn film starring two 12 year old girls. I think most of David Hamilton's films are a product of France's film industry. Cuties might be the least sexualizing of children French film ever made.

I've actually seen Maladolescenza. I wrote a paper on it for school. It is worse than Cuties. It's not just two girls, but two girls fighting over a boy. Including full nudity and sex scenes. The girls were 12 while the boy was 18. The french are sick fucks.

Fun fact, one of the girls, Eva Ionesco was exploited by her mother her whole life. At 5 her mother was selling erotic photos of her to galleries and magazines, including Playboy. Her mother finally lost custody when Eva was like 16. When she became an adult she tried to sue her mother to gain the rights for the photos of her because she desperately wanted them scrubbed from existence, they were so traumatizing. Wonder what stories will come out with these Cuties girls in a few years.

 

[Enyo]

Ladies and Gentle Kiwis..I have no news on this litigation. What I do have however might be of interest to you: A French journalist's opinion of the legal matter regarding Cuties, written in French, and translated by myself. Published in Marianne, which is not exactly your run-of-the-mill left-wing newspaper, but is unfortunately affected by the plight known as Atlanticism, which means that they are..somewhat obstinate to follow America's left-wing on some points.

Original article in French

Archive

Spoiler

« Moral Order » [ Marianne likes to punctuate their articles with a nifty expression, that summarize their opinion of a matter, before getting their headlines and the article itself. ]

“Mignonnes” and Netflix : The Internationale of Puritanism is Unleashed

By Olivier De Bruyn

Published on the 9th of October, 2020.

The subject of many violent controversies in the USA, the streaming on Netflix of the movie « Cuties », by filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré continues to unleash passionate responses. The latest event to date: The announcement by the State of Texas of a legal procedure against the platform, which isn’t that provocative. A saddening state of affairs.

The controversy is certainly not at all « Mignonne » and it now takes place in the courtrooms...A quick summary : Last August, on the silver screens of Continental France, came out « Mignonnes », a movie made by Maïmouna Doucouré, which follows the adventures of a 11 years old preteen, Amy, who joins a young girls’ dance group that favors suggestive and lascivious coreographies, to seduce the entertainment industry.

Preceded by a flattering reputation and having received awards in major international film festivals – Jury’s award at the Sundance Festival, special mention in the Berlin Festival –, the movie, although it has awkwardnesses, gives a sensible account of the identity issues of a contemporary kid that is trapped by the contradictory demands of her Senegalese family. On the “societal” level, the films also strongly denounces the early sexualization of preteens and the commercialization of it.

“My characters are torn between between two female oppressions” explained the filmmaker last August. “The one that her mother inflicts upon herself by accepting polygamy and another, found while searching for a new freedom, in which she loses herself”

Nothing to get worked over, then, and the movie’s opening day in France goes without trouble or rows.

“An erotic interest for sex”

The same cannot be said outside of Continental France’s borders. The film had been bought by the plateform Netflix for international distribution – renamed “Cuties”, and had been promoted with a different poster and far more provocative than in France – causes dissension in the United States. In the most conservative fringes of the Republican side, “they” denounce without having seen a single frame, an “obscene” movie and “they” call upon the courts to investigate possible violations of the laws of child pornography ( Nothing less ) and to demand the withdrawal of Cuties from the platform. On the front lines of this puritan fight: the extremely reactionary senator from Texas: Ted Cruz.



This week, a sudden reversal happened, since we are learning that the platform has been indicted by a Grand Jury in Texas, Tyler County, to the east of Houston. According to the plantiff, Netflix has "knowingly promoted” images that would present “obscene exhibition” of minor genitals”, causing an “erotic interest for sex”, a crime that be punished by jail time in this conservative State. We are waiting for what will follow, given that no date of hearing has been fixed at the time we write these lines.

A not so provocative Netflix

A plot from the most retrograde Republicans against Netflix, this emblem of freedom of expression and of the right to be provocative? Reality is less black-and-white than that…


The platform, although it has streamed several documentaries made by the Obama couple, has never distinguished itself by its ideological commitment. Except in an involuntary way when, in 2019, Netflix was the target of controversy and accused of censorship for having pulled out of its catalog a few episodes of South Park, so as to not vex certain communities that could have felt “insulted” by said series. Or last June, when they had erased from their same catalog an episode from the sitcom Community that had the “misfortune” to show a white character disguised as a black person.


An intolerable “blackface” according to the new norms defended by all kinds of identitarians that don’t all belong to the side of the zealous Republicans, far from it.


In the kingdom of new correctness, Netflix also does not ever try to vest itself into the virtues of resistance. And if the platform today ends up on the defenders’ bench, it is only one of many consequences of the steamroller that is the new forms of puritanism, highly prized and defended by the most “hardcore” fans of Trump, a few weeks from the US’ presidential elections.

A phenomena which, furthermore, does not only affect the Unites States. Early september, “Mignonnes” has been forbidden from being broadcasted in Turkey, after a legal action from the Ministry of Family and Social Matters of Erdogan’s gouvernment, that judged that the movie risked “to expose children to abuse and compromise their psychological development. From the United States to Turkey, from new forms of correctness “boosted” by the electoral dates to the leaden weight of censorship, “Mignonnes” has found itself under the spotlights of the worst projectors of this era...Until the next episode, alas….

As you can see, the situation is perceived so differently that I can't even laugh. Anyway, I hope this was informative.

lol it's about time the guillotine made a comeback in france.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

At least this story shows that not all are crazy in Clown World.

Gone With The Wind has a 6 hour explanation of why you shouldn't watch the film beforehand.

Reminds me of that "edited for seniors" version of Gone With The Wind in The Simpsons.

Didn't that movie used to have a war in it?

 

[Clockwork_PurBle]

Yeah, no one's talking about censoring anything, that's why TV episodes are getting pulled and Gone With The Wind has a 6 hour explanation of why you shouldn't watch the film beforehand.

I find it interesting that *society* or the media at least seems to view racism as worse than sex crimes.

That's why Dukes of Hazzard has been pulled but reruns of the Cosby Show still air.

 

[Hongourable Madisha]

It isn't a free speech or censorship issue, if adults want to talk about how raping kids is cool, then that's their business (though everyone else will call them nonces, and if they're actually confessing to a crime then they can expect law enforcement to intervene, but they do have a right to say it). The issue is with real child actors being exploited and sexualised. Then it's not just a depiction of abuse, it's an actual form of abuse.

 

[Sweetpeaa]

Ever heard of a little American film called ''Thirteen''?

 

[Cuck Shack]

Ever heard of a little American film called ''Thirteen''?

Thirteen wasn't bad at all. The worst part was a five second scene when the teenage girl flashed a boy and you could only see her lower back as she lifted her shirt. I tried to watch Cuties so I could form my own opinion but I didn't get very far. It was too uncomfortable to watch. If you want to talk about fucked up pedo American movies, then bring up Pretty Baby. There was actual full on child nudity in that film.

 

[Shit Megami]

Frenchies and Jews: bad news

 

[Xarpho]

. The french are sick fucks.

Fun fact: name a French cartoon made in the last 15 years that wasn't pandering to fetishes.

 

[AnOminous]

Yeah, no one's talking about censoring anything, that's why TV episodes are getting pulled and Gone With The Wind has a 6 hour explanation of why you shouldn't watch the film beforehand.

Classics get removed while some piece of pedo shit, that's the hill they'll die on.

If you want to talk about fucked up pedo American movies, then bring up Pretty Baby. There was actual full on child nudity in that film.

But muh artistic merit. I haven't seen that but I did see Blue Lagoon. It is pretty fucked up how virtually every underage Brooke Shields movie was just an excuse to get her naked at some point. They were basically softcore child porn.

 

[Sage In All Fields]

Fun fact: name a French cartoon made in the last 15 years that wasn't pandering to fetishes.

Iron Man Armoured Adventures?

 

[Super-Chevy454]

I've actually seen Maladolescenza. I wrote a paper on it for school. It is worse than Cuties. It's not just two girls, but two girls fighting over a boy. Including full nudity and sex scenes. The girls were 12 while the boy was 18. The french are sick fucks.

Fun fact, one of the girls, Eva Ionesco was exploited by her mother her whole life. At 5 her mother was selling erotic photos of her to galleries and magazines, including Playboy. Her mother finally lost custody when Eva was like 16. When she became an adult she tried to sue her mother to gain the rights for the photos of her because she desperately wanted them scrubbed from existence, they were so traumatizing. Wonder what stories will come out with these Cuties girls in a few years.

I think it would be interesting to see Eva Ionesco confronting Maïmouna Doucouré, but then there might be the chances it might be a nothingburger as well.

 

[Silent Observer]

While there may be no legal punishment, I'm glad that it's on record that this film is softcore pedo porn. Honestly Netflix should have taken this down by their own volition when they had the chance. Now they have to keep Cuties up and be known as pedophile protectors, or risk being called corporately reckless by OR submissive to public censorship (which will turn their brand into carrion for their vulture competitors)

 

[kcbbq]

But muh artistic merit. I haven't seen that but I did see Blue Lagoon. It is pretty fucked up how virtually every underage Brooke Shields movie was just an excuse to get her naked at some point. They were basically softcore child porn.

Blue Lagoon shows that the US can do it, too, but maybe all the people who could have knocked some sense into the filmmakers were so coked out they didn't care, it was 1980 afterall. At least they used a body double for the sex scene. Still, they used a body double for Molly Ringwald in The Breakfast Club for the up skirt shot and she says it creeps her out anyway, but that might be #metoo mental gymnastics.

Pretty Baby had a French director. Leon/The Professional had a French director, and if that film didn't sexualize Natalie Portman... It's really hard to think of any French films that don't sexualize children.

 

[Auricularia Cornea]

While there may be no legal punishment, I'm glad that it's on record that this film is softcore pedo porn. Honestly Netflix should have taken this down by their own volition when they had the chance. Now they have to keep Cuties up and be known as pedophile protectors, or risk being called corporately reckless by OR submissive to public censorship (which will turn their brand into carrion for their vulture competitors)

Netflix really backed themselves into a corner taking so long with even responding to the entire issue, if they took it down early or even had a semblance of foresight and didn't put it on their platform they'd be massively better off. Now they have to choose a reason for people to potentially no longer support the company.

 

[Troonologist PhD]

Blue Lagoon shows that the US can do it, too, but maybe all the people who could have knocked some sense into the filmmakers were so coked out they didn't care, it was 1980 afterall. At least they used a body double for the sex scene. Still, they used a body double for Molly Ringwald in The Breakfast Club for the up skirt shot and she says it creeps her out anyway, but that might be #metoo mental gymnastics.

Pretty Baby had a French director. Leon/The Professional had a French director, and if that film didn't sexualize Natalie Portman... It's really hard to think of any French films that don't sexualize children.

I wonder if number one Molly Ringwald fan Connor Bible knows this?