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Danny Baldwin · Posted: 03.13.2004 12:13 am Post subject:

If you knew our previous governors, you'd be glad to have Arnie.
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Michael Scrutchin · Posted: 03.20.2004 12:20 am Post subject:

Just got this press release in my inbox...

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Sony Pictures Classics Loses Appeal

Over NC-17 Rating for Young Adam

New York, March 19 ? Citing extreme sexual content, the MPAA ratings board declined Sony Pictures Classics bid to appeal the NC-17 rating given to Young Adam, directed by David McKenzie and produced by Jeremy Thomas, who also had a recent bout with the MPAA over the Bernardo Bertolucci's sexual charged film The Dreamers.

Specifically, the board raised an issue about two characters engaging in an intense fully clothed lovemaking scene. This further stirs the debate about what classifies as an NC-17 rating and the stigma that often goes along with it.

"We really think the ratings board has got to get with the program and get

with the future," comments Tom Bernard, co-president of Sony Pictures

Classics. "What's needed is a hard R rating to distinguish the quality films

like Young Adam and The Dreamers from Debbie Does Dallas or any other porn movie."

"Basically, what you're doing is giving signals to the audience and the MPAA is giving a negative signal right now," Bernard added. "The way it stands, how can an audience distinguish what's art from what's hardcore smut? Audiences avoid the picture because of this rating."

This is the second NC-17 film that Sony Pictures Classics has distributed,

following the 1997 release of the foreign import Broken English. At the time, writer/director Gregor Nicholas had a similar response to the MPAA's NC-17 designation for his film, stating that "there is something wrong with the system which tells us that exposure to acts of violence will leave young audiences untainted while exposure to acts of love will somehow corrupt them."

Young Adam, directed by David McKenzie and staring Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton, Peter Mullan and Emily Mortimer, will be released in the US by Sony Pictures Classics on April 16.

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Some random thoughts...

The MPAA's problem with this "intense fully clothed lovemaking scene" in Young Adam makes me think of the scene that got James Toback's Two Girls and a Guy an NC-17 back in 1997. It's a lengthy, intense scene, with lots of making out and implied oral, but we don't actually see anything, as Heather Graham and Robert Downey Jr. are in shadows, silhouetted against a wall. There's no nudity (save for a partial glimpse of an ass), no explicit closeups. It's intense and realistic, but tastefully done. Toback re-editted and re-submitted 14 times before the MPAA gave him an R -- and the R-rated version shows everything that the NC-17 version does, only the duration of the scene is trimmed (by less than a minute), making it slightly less intense than its NC-17 rated counterpart.

I'm also reminded of American Psycho, which had to fight for an R for its theatrical release but was later released on video in an unrated version. That film's director, Mary Harron, said that the MPAA's problem with the three-way sex scene wasn't that it was too explicit or anything -- it was Christian Bale's soulless expression as he looked at himself in the mirror.
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matt header · Posted: 03.20.2004 6:11 am Post subject:

I'd like to give a huge shout-out to my uptight, prudish surrogate parents - oh, excuse me, MPAA ratings board - that thinks it knows what American should watch better than its citizens. Yes. Thank you. Keeping the world safe for reactionary ignorant hypocrites everywhere.

Twisted Evil

!!!

Danny Baldwin · Posted: 08.22.2004 1:07 am Post subject:

Ach. Couldn't find the R-Cards thread, but I need to vent.

Today, my friend's mom bought us tickets to Open Water, legitely. We walked in, and the ticket taker let us in. But, as we walked into the auditorium, an employee asked to see our IDs. Even after his mom came and said it was fine we were seeing it, they still wouldn't let us in. I offered to pay for her ticket, then have her bail, but she didn't go for it. Darnit. We're hitting a different theatre that I have a perfect track record at parental-buys on Tuesday. I was so goddamn excited, too.
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the night watchman · Posted: 08.22.2004 4:45 am Post subject:

And herein lies the problem with the MPAA's rating system. Let's compare and contrast, shall we?

Open Water is "Rated R for language and some nudity."

Alien vs Predator is "Rated PG-13 for violence, language, horror images, slime and gore."

First of all, "slime" takes a movie into PG-13 territory? There goes the G rating for the children's flick Pond Scum: The Movie.

Anyway, Open Water contains no violence, no gore, a single scene of nudity but no sex, and some rare (if legitimate) instances of swearing. Yet, it gets slapped with an R, while the carnage in AvP is nearly family-friendly. But here's the real difference between the two movies: Open Water = independent; AvP = big studio.

Anywho, good luck seeing Open Water, Danny. It's going on my top ten list for 2004.
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"If you're talking about censorship, and what things should be shown and what things shouldn't be shown, I've said that as an artist you have no social responsibility whatsoever."

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Danny Baldwin · Posted: 08.22.2004 6:56 am Post subject:

Here's what makes no sense: we had parental permission and walked in, paying the correct studio. But, any kids who bought tickets for Alien vs. Predator and went against their parents' will got to see it. Arg.
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the night watchman · Posted: 08.22.2004 4:08 pm Post subject:

Well, I went off on a tangent, but, yes, you're right, you and your friend should have gotten into the movie. Both of your parents should complain to the management. I mean, do they require parents to stay during the showing so that they may throw their bodies in front of the screen (in slow motion screaming "NO-O-O-O-O-O!", of course) when something inappropriate pops up? Lame.
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"If you're talking about censorship, and what things should be shown and what things shouldn't be shown, I've said that as an artist you have no social responsibility whatsoever."

-David Cronenberg

matt header · Posted: 08.24.2004 8:53 pm Post subject:

Danny Baldwin · Posted: 08.24.2004 9:01 pm Post subject:

Well, just saw Open Water at a different theatre without any trouble. Coolage.
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frostiang · Grip Joined: 25 Aug 2004 Posts: 11 Location: Salem, OR

I never thought all that much of the MPAA because I am old enough to see all the movies I want. Ratings did not exist for the most part of my youth and when they came, I did not see R rated movies anyways. But I was not a big fan of movies period and only saw a few a year at maximum.