Subject
Lyne/Schiff Lo film in UK
Date
Body
Adrian Lyne's movie has cleared the first hurdle to being shown in the UK,
according to press reports yesterday. The reports, in two mid-range conservative
tabloids (one of which, the 'Daily Mail' printed a scathing review of Nabokov,
the book and the movie by William Oddie some months ago) claim that the British
Board of Film Censors has passed the movie more or less uncut with an '18'
certificate.
Both stories were printed as the lead front-page story, and both followed the
line "Should this terrible film be allowed into the country?" with the
implication that they would oppose it for general (and unspecified) moral
reasons. Buried deep in the Mail article is the admission that the chairman of
the BBFC consulted with psychiatrists and experts on paedophilia, and was only
prepared to allow the film to pass on the understanding that expert opinion
thought that it would not encourage paedophilia or any particular behaviour of
an existing paedophile. The expert opinion received was unanimous on this point.
A BBCF certificate would render difficult (although not, as the law stand,
impossible) a prosecution under the existing obscenity or indecency statutes.
The law on child pornography was amended recently and it may well be
sufficiently vaguely written to allow such a prosecution.
The BBFC certificate may not suffice for Lo to appear in cinemas here, since
local authorities have the power to prevent specified films from being shown in
public in their areas - a power that has been used against previous
controversial films, including the JG Ballard/David Cronenberg 'Crash' and Monty
Python's 'Life of Brian'. Local authority standards vary enormously so it could
be that Lo and Humbert will travel to only certain parts of our island.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
|* Dr. Jerry Goodenough *|
|* Philosophy Sector Tel: 01603-592095 *|
|* School of Economic & Social Studies Fax: 01603-250434 *|
|* University of East Anglia E: j.goodenough@uea.ac.uk *|
|* Norwich NR4 7TJ *|
--------------------------------------------------------------------
according to press reports yesterday. The reports, in two mid-range conservative
tabloids (one of which, the 'Daily Mail' printed a scathing review of Nabokov,
the book and the movie by William Oddie some months ago) claim that the British
Board of Film Censors has passed the movie more or less uncut with an '18'
certificate.
Both stories were printed as the lead front-page story, and both followed the
line "Should this terrible film be allowed into the country?" with the
implication that they would oppose it for general (and unspecified) moral
reasons. Buried deep in the Mail article is the admission that the chairman of
the BBFC consulted with psychiatrists and experts on paedophilia, and was only
prepared to allow the film to pass on the understanding that expert opinion
thought that it would not encourage paedophilia or any particular behaviour of
an existing paedophile. The expert opinion received was unanimous on this point.
A BBCF certificate would render difficult (although not, as the law stand,
impossible) a prosecution under the existing obscenity or indecency statutes.
The law on child pornography was amended recently and it may well be
sufficiently vaguely written to allow such a prosecution.
The BBFC certificate may not suffice for Lo to appear in cinemas here, since
local authorities have the power to prevent specified films from being shown in
public in their areas - a power that has been used against previous
controversial films, including the JG Ballard/David Cronenberg 'Crash' and Monty
Python's 'Life of Brian'. Local authority standards vary enormously so it could
be that Lo and Humbert will travel to only certain parts of our island.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
|* Dr. Jerry Goodenough *|
|* Philosophy Sector Tel: 01603-592095 *|
|* School of Economic & Social Studies Fax: 01603-250434 *|
|* University of East Anglia E: j.goodenough@uea.ac.uk *|
|* Norwich NR4 7TJ *|
--------------------------------------------------------------------