Films That Earned A Second Look

The Age

Tuesday April 23, 2002

COMPILED BY SOPHIE DOUEZ

ROMANCE

Originally banned because it featured real rather than simulated sex scenes, the ban was overturned in January, 2000, after the film's distributors appealed against the classification board's decision. Romance was then given an R rating.

SALO (120 DAYS OF SODOM)

Banned for 17 years from 1975 before being given an R rating in 1993. Four years later, the film was again banned in Australia after the Queensland Government asked the federal attorney-general to intervene and apply for its reclassification. The film tells the story of adolescents who are seduced by soldiers, and imprisoned and tortured at Salo.

HANNIBAL

Sequel to the Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal's initial MA rating was upgraded to R after the Queensland Government wrote to the federal attorney-general asking that he have the film's classification reviewed. The film is graphically violent, with one scene depicting a man's brain being removed and eaten.

THE EXORCIST, DIRECTOR'S CUT

In 2001, the Victorian Justice Department used the Theatres Act to ban the R-rated film from being shown on Good Friday, fearing it would offend Christians. Premier Steve Bracks intervened to reverse the decision after a public outcry. The film depicts a Catholic priest's exorcism of a

12-year-old girl who has been possessed by the devil.

LOLITA

Although the novel was banned in Australia, the original version of Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film about a middle-aged man who falls in love with a 13-year-old girl was not banned in Australia. The 1999 remake of the film, rated R, was subject to a campaign by several high-profile conservative politicians who felt the film should be banned.

IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES Nagisa Oshima's film depicting explicit sex scenes was banned in Australia after it screened at the Melbourne Film Festival in 1977. The ban was overturned in 2001 when it was resubmitted to the classification board and given an R rating.