French director cites American sex mania

Agnes Varda, discussing the American premiere of her new French film Kung Fu Master, was surprised that the subject matter - love between a 14-year-old boy and a 40-year-old woman - should elicit such "strange queries" from the US press. "Is this related to sexual child abuse? Would you let your son do that? What if it were a man of 40 with a boy of 14?" In disbelief, Varda told a San Francisco Chronicle reporter, "the US was the only country in which the social issues of that kind of 26-year difference are raised as a problem."

When Matthiew Demy, who plays the boy in Kung Fu Master, was asked if it were difficult portraying love for an older woman, he declined to answer and debate the issue of cross-generational love. Discussing the possibility of such relationships between the generations, director Varda explained, "I have a son. I have imagination. And I have a strong feeling of what it is to be an adolescent... So, you say it doesn't exist. It does exist! Young boys feel in older women that first approach to sex and to a woman's body, in a nice way... what is related to human feelings, emotions and passions, I can deal with very well. I'm not afraid... only in this country do I get these three questions."

source: Article 'French Director Cites American Sex Mania' by P.T.; NAMBLA Bulletin, vol. 10, n. 7 (June and 10.5 wrongly on cover); September 1989