Charlotte Gainsbourg has said she refused to watch *Kung-Fu Master!*, the 1988 film in which she appeared alongside her mother, Jane Birkin, because she disliked it. Her reaction is notable because the film’s premise—a relationship between an adult woman and her teenage daughter’s friend—has long made it uncomfortable and controversial.

Directed by Agnès Varda, the French drama starred Birkin as a mother who becomes romantically involved with a 14-year-old boy played by Mathieu Demy, while Gainsbourg played her daughter. Gainsbourg was still a teenager during production, and later described the film as “horrible”, saying simply: “I didn’t like it.”