Edinburgh 2002

Rape scene tests censor's nerve

French director says he would rather see film banned in the UK than cut
Britain's new chief censor, Quentin Thomas, faced his first headache last night when the director of a French film said he would rather the UK banned it than cut it.

Irreversible, a bleak epic featuring a nine-minute anal rape sequence and a man having his face pulped with the base of a fire extinguisher, had its UK premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival this week, where some film critics walked out of the industry screening. The film goes before the British Board of Film Classification on Monday when Mr Thomas will decide whether to suggest cuts.

The film, which opened in competition for the Palme D'Or at the Cannes festival, has been shown uncut across Europe, Japan and Canada. In France, it received a 16 rather than 18 certificate.

But the BBFC may add it to a line of French films, including The Pornographer and Baise-moi, where Britain has broken from the rest of Europe and requested cuts.

The French director, Gaspar Noé, said the film tackled the hideous nature of rape and if Britain could not stomach a scene exposing sexual violence, he would rather the film was not shown here.

He said: "If Britain cuts it, the film won't be released here. I can't understand how a country like England would ask for cuts when Cannes, the most bourgeois film festival in the world, showed it. You can't cut the film because of [its long takes]. It would become obvious to an audience that there had been cuts.

"US movies are much more damaging than this one, in their promotion of violence, power and weapons. Rape happens in life. Why can't it be shown on screen so people can have a clearer vision of it? On a moral level you can't object."

He added: "The worst reviews I have had are from people who left in the first 15 minutes or half way through the rape scene, and they didn't understand the whole experience of the film. They just saw the animal part of the movie."

Hamish McAlpine, owner of Metro Tartan films, the film's UK distributor, said he hoped it would be on general release here in January. He said: "As a British person I feel insulted that we are deemed by the censor to be immature and incapable of watching adult material. It is too early to tell how this new BBFC leadership will work. But it's unfortunate that this film is being used as the bellwether of whether or not the BBFC is to become more in line with the rest of Europe."

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