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REPORT CENSORS MISSING THE TARGET Is stopping Irish 16- and 17-year-olds from seeing a movie about the teen drug scene really how our censorship system should be working, asks Katy Hayes ew Irish-made lms get an 18 appeal, distributors Wildcard asked this is actually the case. The Queen of Connolly that, as a parent, I would be classi cation. In the past ve the Irish Film Classi cation O ce (Ifco ) Ireland, Conor Horgan’s documentary happy for my older teens to see Kissing years, there have been six, and to have another look. The 18 rating was about Panti Bliss, got a 15A from Ifco Candice, he replies: “You are perfectly most of those were horror or upheld. Compounding Freedman’s while the BBFC handed it an 18. entitled to think that. It [the 18 cert] is dystopian. There was Love unhappiness is the fact that the BBFC, “Cardboard Gangsters was a very my opinion, and my opinion is Eternal in 2014, which was the UK classi cation o ce, passed Kiss- easy 18 because it was relentless, challengeable to an appeals board — I Fheavy on the suicide and necrophilia; ing Candice with a 15 cert. visceral violence and, regardless of am not speaking ex cathedra. Another and Let Us Prey in 2015, which was a Ifco has two exclusionary catego- where that lm was made, it would be person will come along and say the lm fantasy bloodbath with mutilated body ries, 16 and 18, which mean anyone 18,” he says. “Kissing Candice was one should be banned, and they are parts. The Survivalist, released in 2016, under those ages should not be admit- of those marginal calls between 16 and entitled to their opinion too.” was a futuristic dystopian ick involv- ted to cinemas. The rest are “parental 18 but, because it involved teens, It could be argued that teenagers ing bloody violence and starvation- advisory” categories, which mean because it involved drugs and a should not be excluded from thought- coerced sex. Last year we had Card- children are admitted provided they murder, that is the tipping point. The provoking lms such as Kissing Candice board Gangsters, directed by Mark are accompanied by an adult who has three things together in contemporary and Dublin Oldschool, but rather O’Connor and starring John Connors, deemed the lm appropriate viewing. Ireland made it an 18. That’s my should be encouraged to see them and which had the familiar gangster- lm Ger Connolly, Ifco’s director of opinion. The distributors of any lm discuss their themes. Kissing Candice, tropes of drug use and gory violence. classi cation, says: “We’re basically have an appeal mechanism if they’re in locating its schoolgirl protagonist on Now another Irish lm has had an mechanics, we’re not critics, and we not happy with my decision.” the margins of a violent drug s subcul- 18 cert attached to its release, and don’t give ratings for quality. We try to Connolly says the appeals board can ture, asks questions about challenges this one seems anomalous. Kissing look at everything on its merits from a be rapidly assembled, but formal faced by youngsters . The characters in Candice, directed by Aoife McArdle, is classi cation point of view, according appeals are rare. In fact there have Dublin Oldschool are young adults with a purposeful slice of social realism with to our set of public guidelines. These been only six in the past nine years, jobs, but the seeds of their problems something serious to say about youth are broadbrush, and sometimes the none of them relating to Irish lms. were sown much earlier. culture and teenage feminine desire. It context of a particular lm can play a Several times a year he does get asked All of this is becoming increasingly has a lot in common with Dublin big role, more than just the bare by distributors to have “another look” moot as lm distribution methods Oldschool, Dave Tynan’s lm of Emmet content of a scene.” at a lm on an informal basis, and he expand to include streaming, where no Kirwan’s script, which opens in Irish Connolly agrees that there is a per- readily does so, but “it would be quite age restriction can be e© ective. Mean- cinemas this week. This also ception Ireland is stricter than other unusual for me to change my mind”. while, reports of teenage murders have portrays drugs use by young jurisdictions, but he doesn’t think He points to some comments online become a more regular part of the Irish people, but has been granted a that suggest Kissing Candice’s 18 cert CATHRO MIKE news cycle, including the tragic killings less restrictive 16 cert. was due to sexual content — there is a of Cameron Reilly, 18, and Ana Kriegel, Andrew Freedman, scene in which Candice masturbates, He points out that the Ifco website positive outcome,” Connolly explains. look at the whole movie, you will see that by the end of the lm you wouldn’t 14, in the past two months. If ever teen- producer of Kissing Can- and she also explicitly expresses her provides descriptive information to “If a guy abusing drugs suddenly the outcome in its totality is completely want to touch drugs ever again.” agers and their parents needed to have dice, admits he was We’re not critics, sexual desire — but he says this is not help people make up their own minds. becomes a success, then you have a contra to that scene, and there is a This all seems more a matter of their consciousness raised about drugs “disappointed and the case. “The days of puritanical This applies not just to parents, but to problem. But if the guy abusing salutary lesson in it all”. judgment and opinion rather than and violence, now would appear to be surprised” by the 18 and we don’t give classi cation are gone,” Connolly says. general audiences as well. drugs has to face his demons and Dublin Oldschool producer Dave “mechanics”, however. Though the the time. The question can reasonably cert, which is likely ratings for quality “Our job is to re ect public expecta- So if drug use were a key factor in comes out the other end with a positive Leahy is aware of this. “If you’re going drug users in Kissing Candice don’t be put: by not letting them see Kissing to depress box- tion. I hate people using the word pushing Kissing Candice into the 18 message, it does have a bearing on to make a lm that has a drugs sub cul- learn lessons or face their demons, the Candice and Dublin Oldschool, what ofice returns. ‘censor’. I look on this o ce, as it has category, why did Dublin Oldschool not classi cation.” ture, the feedback we’ve had [from lm does give a highly negative por- exactly are we protecting our young Though the pro- Fully focused Connolly evolved, as being for consumer advice. get that classi cation? “One of the Connolly says someone might argue Ifco] is that the context is important,” trayal of drugs and their impact. Drugs people from? c ducers did not says ilm-makers can There are rules, but I don’t think we are things you take into consideration, par- that a certain scene appears to contra- he says. “We show drugs but — without are used only by a marginal and nega- make a formal appeal decisions MEADE BRYAN censors as such.” ticularly in talking about drugs, is a vene the general guidelines, “but if you giving away the ending — you could say tively portrayed gang. When I tell Kissing Candice is reviewed overleaf 12 24 June 2018 24 June 2018 13 FILM Irish ilm and TV directors are infatuated ichael Inside, a new Irish ostensibly not encouraging or condon- leads, one of the latter’s many outings Playing with ire From left, In Bruges played for laughs. The lm becomes of Cahill, down to the vision Jason has movie from the director ing any of the action, whil e glorifying it ALAMY as a gangster. with Brendan Gleeson and Colin ruthless only when an Englishman of himself as a little boy at the end. Frank Berry, won the best all the same. This is the moral crux at John Boorman’s portrait of real-life Farrell, Cate Blanchett as Veronica (Ralph Fiennes ) arrives to impose disci- A question explored only sporadi- with making gangster movies — but feature lm award at the the heart of the gangster lm, and it crime boss Martin Cahill , The General , Guerin, and Gleeson in The General pline on the unruly Irish mobsters. cally is whether there is a danger that Iftas last month. Berry’s applies to Scorsese or Coppola as much was controversial because of its sympa- The following year’s Perrier’s presenting gangsters getting high on should we worry that the genre is debut, I Used to Live Here as anyone else. Would they really want thetic presentation of Cahill, also Bounty, directed by Ian FitzGibbon, “yokes” and having access to lots of M(2014) , was a gritty engagement with a any of these colourful gangsters played by Gleeson . He was depicted as was the most visionary of these Irish “mots” is unintentionally promoting glamorising the lifestyle, asks Katy Hayes working-class community struggling rocking up to their residences in a Robin Hood type, a “working-class gangster lms, with a surreal existen- the criminal lifestyle. RTE broadcast with teen suicide. This time he has Manhattan or Napa County ? hero who never worked a day in his tial gloss bringing sophistication to the ive series of Love/Hate between focused a cinematic lens on the world Irish cinema has embraced the gang- life”, as the promotional material format.

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