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

[Jeremy Erwin <jerwin(at)ponymail.com>]

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.

"The suggestion that [Topsy-Turvy is] in a different genre from my 
other films is preposterous."
--Mike Leigh
http://www.salon.com/ent/col/srag/1999/12/23/leigh/
--Jeremy