Cinema
All films intended for theatrical release have to be granted a visa by the Ministry of Culture, upon the recommendation of Commission for film classification (Commission de classification cinématographique), which can give a film one of five ratings:
- Tous publics (universal): suitable for all audiences
- Déconseillé aux moins de 10 ans (-10): Not recommended for under 10 years
- Interdit aux moins de 12 ans (-12): Forbidden for under 12s
- Interdit aux moins de 16 ans (-16): Forbidden for under 16s
- Interdit aux moins de 18 ans (-18): Forbidden for under 18s
Cinemas are bound by law to prevent underaged audiences from viewing films and may be fined if they fail to do so.
The Commission cannot make cuts to a film, but it can ban it, although this latter power is rarely used. In practice, this means that most films in France are categorized rather than censored.
Although there are no written guidelines as to what sort of content should receive which rating and ratings are given on a case by case basis, the commissioners typically cite violent, sexual and drug related content (especially if it is deemed to be graphic or gratuitous) as reasons for higher ratings. By contrast little attention is paid to strong language. However sexual content is much less likely to produce a high rating than in many other countries, including the United States.
Films that have received comparatively low ratings in France compared to the U.S. include:
- American Beauty, U
- Fat Girl, -12
- Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, U (Rated R in US)
- Eyes Wide Shut, -10 (Rated NC-17 in US)
- Kids, -12
- Taxi Driver, -16, reclassified to -12
- Ichi the Killer, -12
- Braveheart, -10 (Rated R in US)
- The Exorcist, -12
- Van Helsing, U
Read more about this topic: Censorship In France
Famous quotes containing the word cinema:
“Compare ... the cinema with theatre. Both are dramatic arts. Theatre brings actors before a public and every night during the season they re-enact the same drama. Deep in the nature of theatre is a sense of ritual. The cinema, by contrast, transports its audience individually, singly, out of the theatre towards the unknown.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is something between art and life. Unlike painting and literature, the cinema both gives to life and takes from it, and I try to render this concept in my films. Literature and painting both exist as art from the very start; the cinema doesn’t.”
—Jean-Luc Godard (b. 1930)
“Strangers used to gather together at the cinema and sit together in the dark, like Ancient Greeks participating in the mysteries, dreaming the same dream in unison.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)