Reception
The film provoked a storm of publicity and debates, one of which was about the fictional representation of disability. Film critic Mark Kermode's reaction was to shout "Il est merde! Il est merde!" from the back of the auditorium during the official screening of the film at Cannes, a spontaneous review for which he was ejected from the venue.
Channel 4 aired the film unedited in 2005 as part of the channel's "Banned" season exploring censorship and cinematic works. Viewer complaints prompted an Ofcom investigation, which came out in favour of Channel 4. In its ruling, Ofcom found the film "not in breach" of the relevant Code under the specific circumstances of the broadcast, that is "the serious contextualisation of the film within a season examining the censorship of film and television, its artistic purpose, the channel which transmitted it, the strong warnings before the film and prior to the scene in question and the scheduling after midnight." Ofcom added the caveat that, "While we do not consider the film was in breach of the Code on this occasion, we must consider carefully the acceptability of any similar content on an individual basis."
The Idiots is an adult-only film in Argentina, Australia (though it has been shown uncut on TV with an MA rating), Chile, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, the United States, and the UK. In Switzerland and Germany, the film ran uncut with a 16-years rating in theaters, followed by a DVD release with the same rating and several uncut television airings.
The Idiots was ranked #76 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.
Read more about this topic: The Idiots
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