RE: [dvd-discuss] clean flicks and moral rights

["Richard Hartman" <hartman(at)onetouch.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeremy Erwin [mailto:jerwin@ponymail.com]
> Sent: Friday, January 24, 2003 2:51 PM
> To: dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
> Subject: Re: [dvd-discuss] clean flicks and moral rights
> 
> 
> 
> On Friday, January 24, 2003, at 11:49  AM, Arnold G. Reinhold wrote:
> > At 2:42 PM -0500 1/23/03, Jeremy Erwin wrote:
> >> On Thursday, January 23, 2003, at 08:59  AM, Arnold G. 
> Reinhold wrote:
> >>> Consider, for examples, "Topsy Turvey" a film about Gilbert and 
> >>> Sullivan with a gratuitous crotch shot,
> >> The BBFC gave Topsy-Turvy, uncut, a '12' rating (and 
> Gosford Park a 
> >> '15', for that matter). Mike Leigh is a British director, and, I 
> >> believe the film was originally released in Britain. It sort of 
> >> belies  the argument that such scenes were included solely 
> to drive 
> >> up the  rating. Rather, the film was imported, and the 
> MPAA, feeling 
> >> prudish,  gave it an 'R'.
> > This assumes Mike Leigh had no inkling that the film would 
> be released 
> > into the U.S. market, the most lucrative in the world, nor any 
> > knowledge of the impact MPAA ratings have on U.S. ticket 
> sales. I find 
> > that hard to believe. To me a quick flash of forbidden body parts, 
> > enough to guarantee an R yet not enough for a financially 
> ruinous NC, 
> > is a clear signature of rating manipulation. If Leigh 
> really thought 
> > it was artistically necessary for the audience to see the 
> debauchery 
> > that went on in 19th century Parisian brothels (the scene in 
> > question), he would show more than  a prostitute lifting 
> her skirt for 
> > a moment.
> Perhaps you're not as familiar with Leigh's other works-- they are 
> typically quite "gritty," and Leigh's other films are typically rated 
> "15-18" by the bbfc. Quite a stink was raised, in fact, when "All or 
> Nothing" was given a "18" (roughly equivalent to NC-17) for a 
> certain, 
> ahem, vulgarity. The US has not been Leigh's primary market, and most 
> of his films have been restricted to art houses.
> 

One thing to consider is that different regions have
different ideas of what is offensive.  The Europeans
(and England) seem to be much more open about mere
flesh than we are here in the U.S. of A.  Otoh, I don't 
think they "appreciate" violence as much as we do . . .


-- 
-Richard M. Hartman
hartman@onetouch.com

186,000 mi/sec: not just a good idea, it's the LAW!