COUNCIL OF EUROPE —~—— ------CONSEIL DE L’EUROPE

Strasbourg, 19th May 1967 DPC/CORC(66)5Final

COE042297

SMALL COMMITTEE OF RESEARCH WORKERS

"Influence of the cinema on juvenile delinquency"

Film censorship codes in Europe

by C. BREMOND

The following notes does not purport to give an exhaustive picture of the film censorship codes in force in the member countries of the Council of Europe. Despite the wealth of valuable information assembled (l) our knowledge of such codes is still incomplete; for if we rely solely on official texts defining the principles which are to guide censorship decisions, these seem to us, as a rule, too broad to allow a research study to "bite"on. Moreover, we know from the replies themselves that there is frequently a considerable gap between the letter of such rules and the spirit in which they applied. On the other hand, if we attempt to deduce the practice of - censorship bodies by analysing the decisions reached in particular casus, we come up against the opposite difficulty and find that the considerations which dispose the

(l) Cyclo-styled documents containing replies by member States to the Council of Europe Questionnaire.

6065 05.2/56.37 censors to leniency in one case and to severity in another are complex., so confused, often so largely intuitive as seemingly to defy analysis and hence any attempt to generalise the two types of difficulty are in fact inter-connected: the reason why official regulations are couched in general terms lies in the difficulty of generalising the grounds on which decisions are in fact taken. The censor lacks a- conceptual instrument to serve as an accurate- yardstick for judging the film itself and at the same time to give him criteria of the moral, social, political, ac-sthetic and cultural values involved, in differing degrees, in his judgements. Be it noted in passing that if this categorisation of censorship judgements remains nebulous, the fault lies with neither the censor nor the jurist, but in the backwardness of the social sciences, especially -in the branches of psychology, sociology, semiology and filmology concerned with investigating the audio-visual message. This deficiency explains the exploratory character of the present study. Rather than attempt a systematic description of the spirit and operation of European censorship codes, we are trying to determine the main areas for future research. We have used the information supplied to the Council of Europe by member countries but we have also drawn partly on documents from unofficial sources (such as the Office Catholique Francais du Cinema) in order to get a rough idea of the answers to the following questions:

- What types of message do the various conscrship bodies in Europe regard as dangerous in the films they are called upon to examine?

- To what sort of audience, and more particularly to which age group, are they regarded as being dangerous?

- What are the grounds, stated or implied, on which the censors' decisions and recommendations are reached?

~ In what circumstances io the alleged harrrfnl e ffect of a film- seen to he mitigatoci, or aggravated? In this study of the main catc-gories involved In censorship action we shall successively consider various leveln of the film message which present different problems not as a rule clearly differentiated. First, a distinction is drawn beteen the sub neet matter of the film and the director’s treatment of i3T. The treatment itself is looked at from two angles, content and form. Content is discussed from two aspects: first, the development of the theme by way of a plot, or story, which in its unfolding and the very manner of its telling portrays material of social or ideological significance; secondly, the internal arrangement of episodes and individual shots, tiieir inter-relationship and integration into the overall message of the film. Under form we enquire into the effects due to the adoption of a "tone" by~the director and those deriving from the stereotyped character of various categories of films. This gives us six sections:

Io Subje ct-matter. We shall endeavour in each instance to establish a foderanee scale, covering subjects more or less recommended, more or less disapproved, or banned either completely or for exhibition to certain age groups.

II. Story. We shall attempt to classify plots into those which can on the whole be regarded as positive in sentiment (likely to promote moral, patriotic, social, religious values and so on) or negative (pessimistic and destructive of the sense of values, or subversive and encouraging false values).

III. Sequences and individual shots. The two problems to be ' considered are: (a) the acceptability or absolute unacceptability of certain sequences or shots in themselves, irrespective of the context, in relation to different audiences;

(b) the conditions in which certain sequences or shots, in themselves more or less permitted or more or less censured, become either unacceptable or acceptable in their context.

IV. Tone. Here we shall try to define the censor’s approach to the various possible tones of a film for example, serious (indignation, factual) or imaginative (poetic, humorous) - in relation to the subject and to see where a given tone appears to a greater or lesser degree,to be approved or disapproved in the treatment of a given subject.

V. Types of films. We shall enquire how far, in which cases and in relation to what audiences the stereotyping of the film medium (into westerns, thrillers, horror films etc.) is seen as neutralising or, conversely, „as aggravating the harm­ fulness attributed to the content. VI. ^esthetic, cultural and documentary significance. Insofar as the censor takes account of the film's aes'chetAc, cultural or documentary ~alue cr lack of value in mitigation or reinforcement of his judgment of it; we shall consider how far, in which cases and. in regard to what audiences sb,ch factors enter into the assessment.

I. TOPICS AND SUBJECT-MATTER

The conceptions of "topic" and "subject-matter" are about as •■■ague as can be. To say that a certain kind of subject-matter cr a certain topic is danger :-us may mean Ofie of two things: either that there are matters which should on principle be excluded from the world of the cinema, even though they exist in the real world, or that certain plots developing those themes in a story should bo ruled out because of the tendentious conclusions they suggest. In the first case the subject is banned out of handj in the second, its narrative treatment is ccnae-mned.

Let us lock first at the former case. Arc there still subjects that are strictly taboo, so that chey cannot be handled in any form in a film destined for any audience whatsoever? European censorship authorities are increasingly reluecant to formulate this kind of ban. Uhere the law does so, it is usually a matter of applying co ohe cinema laws and regulations of a very general nature, which can in practice be applied with greater or less severity, according to the political climate. Then again, prohibitions bearing on subject-matter aro often, in law or m fact confused with censure of the ideological attitude adopted in the treatment of the subject- matter: merely to speak of certain things is often regarded as subversive in itself. The Turkish central film control board, for example lays down a series of rules which in effect lead tc the elimination of any topic with political, social or religious overtones. In Belgium, programmes must not include "scenes or films about or containing allusions to birth control". In France the notion of a public entertainment potentially detrimental to law and order (de nature à troubler l'ordre public ) similarly leads in practice tc the suppression of certain subjects. A project for a film on La Guerre d'Algérie elicited the warning that,"however circumspectly and tactfully those pictures of the Algerian tragedy, which is still so fresh in our memories and has left such deep marks on our minds, may be presented, "he presence in Franco of people who experienced it and suffered through it (repatriates and Muslims from Algeria) makes it inevitable that the showing of such a film even were it authorised by the- censorhsip board, would entail serious problems".

So there ares and doubtless always will be* some subjects that are politically taboo. This apart* one may say that today European censorship authorities tend as a whole to consider that no subject is bad in itself: a film is not tc be condemned for depicting evil but for depicting it evilly. The Norwegian answer to the Council of Europe- questionnaire is explicit in saying chat no subject is banned on principle* provided it is handled in an acceptable manner. In view of changing mores* adds the same document, a subject like homosexuality is moro readily tolerated today than it was fifteen or twenty years ago.

• This development is particularly clear in the Scandinavian countries. It is less noticeable in the Latin countries* where the -influence of the Catholic Church and other pressures keep alive the traditional attitude that some- subjects are immoral and "unhealthy" in themselves. What arc these subjects? Examination of the morality ratings awarded by thee,Office Catholique Franqais du Cinéma, shows ' their field'to be restricted to abnormal manifestalions of sex: for example "even chough a character in the film is converted to normal sexual behaviour* this film (le quatrième sexe) must be categorically rejected by reason of its very theme* female homosexuality". Similarly* one should not go to see La fille aux yeux d’or in which "under the pretence of holding a mirror to life* homosexuality in women is depicted. The tragic consequences of unnatural love and che more normal passion of the heroine for a young man provide only an illusory counterweight to this profligacy1'. In Labbra rosse* "the very theme.... enquiring into passionate liaisons of sixteen-year old girls with mature- men* is extremely unpleasant and dangerous". Or again* in Kagi "the theme of the iilm* senile impotence, is rendered yec more scabrous by the treatment of the scenario".

Despite such opposition* the notion cf "forbidden" (against nature) or "scabrous" (verging on the unnatural) topics is in retreat. It is gradually giving way to the notion of subjects that are "delicate" or "ticklish"* in themselves neither positive nor negative but necessarily becoming very positive or very negative; when thc-y deal with a serious problem (moral* social, political, metaphysical)* according as the problem is more or less correctly stated, handled with a greater or lesser degree of impartiality and given a satisfactory or not so satisfactory solution. A director who tackles this kind of subject obviously assumes a social responsibility and it is on this score that the censor may call him to account. On the other hand, a film on a "delicato" subject is in any case aimed at an audience capable of grasping its purport and coping with its unpleasant aspects. As complete prohibition (on grounds of moral offensiveness) .tends to disappear>' the trend towards banning exhibition to young people (on grounds of age) is asserting itself. The British Board of Film Censors states that some subjects formerly •proscribed, such as homosexuality and abortion, are today tolerated;, but automatically place the film in the X-certificate class (not for exhibition to children under 16).

A census and preliminary classification of these "delicate" subjects (based mainly on the ratings of the Centrale Catholique , suggests the following headings:

- Psychological, physiological and social problems of "normal" sex life, insofar as the film calls into question the limits of that normality;

- Psychological, physiological, psychopathological and social problems of "abnormal" sex?

- Psychological, physiological and social problems of procreation (pregnancy, abortion, painless birth etc.);

- Psychopathological problems ; ' - Problems of ,‘*lost wyoung. people or children (designed to make the adult, and the adult al 'ne, think about his responsibilities) ;

- Questions as to the legitimacy of institutions essential to social order; the limits to obedience to legally constituted authority (war crimes, conscientious objection, etc.);

- Problems with ideo-logical,^ political or'religijous implications.

The above list may be taken as reflecting, Subject to some variations in emphasis, the points for which all offi-old --or or unofficial censorships of a "conformist" tendency are on the look-out. It could equally well provide a starting point for an analysis of the themes which non-conforming thought welcomes

/ • A as leaven, as challenging the established order and ready­ made. ideas. In a spectrum ranging from mildly anarchistic irreverence to bitterest social criticism, verdicts such as the following will occur; apropos of Un monsieur de compagnie, notwithstanding the meagreness of the subject-matter, "the fact remains that in these days of rationalisation and productivity there is something very attractive in this eulogy of laziness and liberty"; apropos of The Loneliness of the long-distance Runner, we should hail a film which DARES to call in question the prison system of the country where it was made".

II. STORY

Cinema treatment begins with the development of the subject into a story. This will have a positive moral significance if it brings out the fruitfulness and success of those values which the censor regards as positive and the sterility and failure of those he considers negative. Conversely, a negative treatment will consist in denigrating positive values or exalting negative values, either by insinuating that true moral values are destined to fail, or by presenting as positive and likely to succeed values that are in reality negative.

Government censorship authorities are generally not expected to make direct mention of positive plots; their attention is focussed on the negative elements. On the other hand, unofficial bodies like the Centrale Catholique give us an exact idea of what the story told in the film should be. They merit our consideration at this point.

(l) Extolling the positive

Films with a positive plot are in the first place these which recount the struggle and triumph of a moral virtue (love of justice, courageous patriotism, the will to serve human progress or science, and so on) in the person of characters who remain positive from start to finish; next come plots about moral progress, narrating how a hero, initially second-rate or plain bad, goes through some crisis and comes out of it converted to Good. Such themes of inner progress are more ticklish than those of conflict between good characters and bad characters; values are likely to be confused for very young spectators, in the transition period of the story, when the germs of good are mingled with the sequelae of evil. On the other hand, stories of this kind, have a greater power of edification for a mature audience, since they demonstrate the possibilities of redemption inherent in human downfall. Further, they often bring in, at the critical moment of conversion, an especially positive mediating influence - the hero's heart responds to the revelation of grace, generally in-the person of a pure fragile creature. Here, from among a score of examples is an evaluation of The Bird Man of Alcatraz ; "...This film telling the story of the secret psychological "'development of a convict who became a different man from the day he adopted a fledgling bird is touching, poignant and eminently positive". Another redemtion theme isthat of temptation repulsed” a character who is already positive undergoes a crisis during which he is tempted to betray his ideal, but he takes a hold on himself and emerges victorious and strengthened in his belief. This pattern of development is even more delicate than the previous one: insofar as the hero, fully positive at the outset, has the spectator on his side, mature judgment in the latter seems necessary in order that he may first dissociate himself when the hero lapses, then share only in the positive motives when the struggle is on, and finally identify himself with the hero again in victory over temptation.

(2) Denunciation of the negative

As a corollary to plots on the final triumph of good there are those on the routing of evil. A blameworthy action becomes positi-o by demonstrating the catastrophic results it engenders. Logically, it soens that such plots amount to the same thing as the preceding type, but psychologically the accent is quite different. Their edificatory value is lower, in that they dissuado from doing evil rather than encourage to do good. Moreover, if the ’’lesson" is to carry conviction and the failure of the guilty must be felt to be the actual consequence of their acts (uhe logic being in no way related to strict scientific determinism, but stemming rather from the common notion of an ever-present justice governing the course of events). "VA-ry frequently the dénouements of films on the "crime-docsn't-pay" theme appear to the censor unconvincing, artificai, far­ fetched.

This denouncing 'of the negative is cf value only for that part of che audience which can grasp the import of the lesson. For che rest, it could have the reverse effect. Hence bans on exhibiting this type ; of film to the young. Tho FSK (German corporate censorship'body) comments as follows on its decision on A Rage- to Live: "I. ... a girl has intimate relations with men of the most varied types, not because she loves them but because she wants tc be desired. She ends, however, by marrying a sound, honest young man who'wants to help her and marries her although he knotfs all about her past. All goes well for a time, then a former lover turns,, up. The consequent adultery destroys not only the marriage but the life of everyone who has boen closely connected with the young wife... Despite the delicate problems dealt with, the filiïi was passed for exhibition to young people over sixteen because it seemccl more likely to aclminiscer a salutary shock then to arouse a wish to emulate. It was prohibited for unger age-groups because he girl's pathological urges would not be understood and the moral standards of tho undcr-sixteens might bo endangered”.

(5) Belittling the positive

These exemplary cause—and-effect plots have their mirror»image in negative plots where the bad go unpunished, evil triumphs and the good are undone. There are few examples from the Centrale Catholique morality ratings. The Flesh and the Hands tëîïo the ” apparently true story of a distinguished anatomist who hires killers to supply him with corpses: "... is any crime permissible in the cause of science? The author seems to propound the question without positi/ely answering it, since the- professor's success is ■ complete”. In Le- Cri du la chair "the characters seek fulfilment in physical union alone and those who ask of lo 'c anything but pleasure are disappointed. This pessimistic, erotic view of things obliges us tc call for its categoric rejection by all". Qv again, Summer and smoko, "... which seamed meant to show the good influence of a straight, 'but straight-laced girl on a drunken young libertine of a doctor, unfortunately has a worse than equivocal ending. The angel of purity, crossed in love, becomes the evil genius".

... It is the pessimism and fatalism of these films which .condemn them in the eyes of their judges. They are not ■‘ddeffiod immoral because they directly predicate evil but because they cast doubt on the worth-whileness of good. To be. honest,, vhis defect is not always so easily diagnosed as rhe • ; above-mentioned examples might lead one to suppose. A film can have a "bad" ending anecdotally and. yet hold a positivo message. Here, too, the- audience raust have òhe discernment . to sod beyond the superficial lesson of the plot to the more or less enigmatic message it both conceals and reveals. Docs tin. film hav^ a demoralising effect on the spectator, discouraging hope? Or does it, instead ask him not tc imagine that things will right themselvc-s providentially, cause him to reflect on the reasons for defeat and the pre-requisites for real improvement?

•A The 'Icier, could be taken further: the true moral import of a film would lie, not in propagatine the myths of benign providence ’ „(crime always punished, virtue always rewarded in the end),- but ii\ combating then. Viewed in this light, plots ordinarily regarded as immoral become healthy jobs of debunking. Merely co take- a stand against the current, ready-made- attitudes and the ideology lurking behind them is in itself worth while. Image et Son, f§r example, the left-wing review of the Liguo Française'de 1 1 Enseignement, praises the film Cibles vivantes! "Tn defiance of the IsUal pattern dictated by the censors1 taboos, the jealous character who arranges the murder of his rival by procuring a moral lapse on the part of his partner (with anonymous letters and odious machinations) is rewarded because his fiancée comes Sack to him. The will to kill has thus paid off'.'. So long asxliberal or progressive criticism continues to be an expression of minority opposition, it will readily assume this non-conforming attitude.

Thw position of official censorship authorities, which by definition are there to protect the established order and hence the half-aesthetic, half-moral conventions that define the normalcy of the majority, is coifferont. As a rule­ tti ey reject as fundamentally harmful and pessimist films in which the hero is shown as weak, pleasure-seeking and cowardly, disposed to wrong-doing and degration by a "nature" he does not try to fight against. Conversely, films which sympathetically depict the hero's efforts to combat evil, ç-ven though ho may fail, are judged favourably so long as they clearly show that- virtue is its own reward. Such, for example, is the opinion pronounced by the German conso^rshlp~ Trrr - The Hill: "-This-film is a fitting reminder to even the youngest viewers "M* the ind-i-vidual^s duty to opposé stupid, evil power, even though he'may Tail in the task". But the possibility of making an effective moral choioe__ the freedom to be free must still be the final lesson of the film. This is not so if the hero who chooses liberty appears ineluctably destined to failure, nor if the one who abandons himself to his demons appears to have no other choice in the matter. All censorships seem at one on this principle: the affirmation of freedom of choice and the negation of fatalism and pessimism constitute the touchstone of moral worth in a film.

' Commenting on the "theme of despair in modern life" handled in Lc Desert -rouge, the French censor wonders: "... is it a good thing to let - youngsters of eighteen wallow in this atmosphere of boredom, this climate of despair?". The Catholic censor condemns Until they sail "because it nowhere expresses the primordial truth that each of us is responsible, beyond a certain point, for his own destiny".' Similarly in Notte brava , ".... the author seems to suggest that out of the very excess of abomination and despair hope may spring, but this is so tenuous as to be practically imperceptible". The critic of Pourquoi, No. 8 (review of the Ligue Française do 1’.enseignement) writing from a marxist standpoint challenges the message of jpa vio à l'envers : "it is better, A. Jcssua tells us, to cultivate one's dream garden than go crazy amid the vain tumult of a gadget-ridden civilisation. Docs one need to point out how pessimistic that view is? ... There is realism of detail, authenticity of touch, a manifest desire to challenge social reality; but there is also an inability to envisage the necessary transformation of that reality, to go deeper into that revolt which, soon frustrated, is sublimated into escapism and a tasto for the fantastic?" .Unfortunately if the various schools of thought appear unanarn©us- in their approval, of freedom and their condemnation of pessimism tney are nevertheless, divided in their 1 appreciation of the facts, Nor oae, a given film uay end on a note of optimisa and hope, while for another it ends with the realisation of bitter failure. According to■the Catholic censor, Le Procès, based on a story by Kafka, "must be restricted to experienced adults who will be able to react and, faced with this conception of life as a dead-end, rediscover the significance of Christian hope". The same restriction is placed on Les séquestrés d1Altona, from the Sartre play, owing to "the philosophy of despair reflected in this film". A pro-Sartre critic, of course, would reject such interpretations - the moral of ambiguity is a moral of liberty. Conversely, the happy ending to an American comedy which the Catholic censor classifies as positive on account of its dynamic good humour will for a marxist or an existentialist suggest a slave mentality of capitalist idiocy. 0n such uncertain ground there is always someone more gullible than oneself and always someone to cry "pessimist".

(4) Glorification of the negative

Besides films which the censors condemn for the sin of pessimism and robbing man of hope, there arc those which create false hopes. The former are demoralising in the strict sense. The latter should be described as antimoral: not content with belittling positivo values, they propagate negative values. ./• Here we enter a sphere in which obviously the censor's assessment depends closely on the system of social norms he is supposed to embody. Through him the ruling ideology endeavours to repress subversive ideologies which challenge it. It is not surprising to find that, where the censor justifies his function by the necessity for authoritative protection of the moral order, the list of ideological matters that are reprehensible at the level of the film's overall message can be precisely defined. Conversely, where there - is a liberal tradition to defend freedom of expression, the rules by which a meaning might be attached to the conception "subversive film" vanish or give way to vague generalities.

The sensitive points for authoritarian censorships - within the Council of Europe then,broadly speaking, are found in the east Mediterranean countries and in countries under the influence of the Catholic Church - are much the same everywhere. They concern basically:

- respect for established institutions, political, social and military;

- mores (marriage, family, procreation);

- the church and religious beliefs;

In Turkey for example, the central film control board -reject scenarios if the film

(1) makes political propaganda in favour of a State;

(2) vilifies.a race or a nation; (3) is wounding to the sentiments of friendly States and nations;

(1) makes religious propaganda;

(5) makes propaganda on behalf of economic and social ideologies contrary’; to the national system; i (6) is contrary to public morals and wounding to national sentiment;

(7) insults the honour of the array and makes anti-militarist . propaganda; ;

(8) is harmful to the safety of the State;

(9) incites to crime; - \ (10) includes scenes which could be used as anti-Turkish propaganda. I From an equally political standpoint, but with the accent on anxieties arising from recent history, the rules of non-governmental FSK (German corporate censorship body) in principle exclude films liable to "encourage anti­ democratic (Nazi, Bolshevik etc.), militarist, imperialist, nationalist or racist tendencies; prejudice Germany's relations with other countries or harm its prestige abroad; violate or decry the fundamental principles of the constitution and the legal system in force, either in Federal Germany as a whole or in the Lender".

In Belgium, where censorship regulations are more particularly directed towards the safeguarding of morals, films or scenes must be excluded from programmes if they are "liable" to attack or cast ridicule on public morals or the established social order, such as those preaching or stressing free love and adultery or attacking or ridiculing conjugal fidelity, ....disparaging or deriding parental a.uthority and family life, .... showing contempt for authority, disparaging or deriding the established order".

Our purpose here has not boen to make a comparative study of the divergences in censorship regulations from one European country to ano cher, but rather to bring out the points of convergence. We shall therefore refrain from giving further quotations. The point to note, however, is that at present, and no doubt in the future too, the content of those regulations is irreducible. To the extent that they define good and evil on the basis of political, social, religious or historical considerations that may sometimes be thought legitimate and sometimes arbitary, sometimes enlightened and sometimes retrograde, they mirror the particular physiognomy of each state and can claim no universality'.

f

•/. III dill SUR ABLE EPISODES, SEQUENCES SHOTS INDIVIDUAL IMAGES

So far we Mauve discussed the subject or theme of a film as-though the subject were one and indivisible and as though the film had only one theme. That, of course,.is an arbitrary simplification. In fact the content of a film consists of a combination of many themes more or less—closely^ woven into the film's overall ''message". It is a single fabric of many threads, necessarily including some negative elements, if only to throw the positive ones into relief. Evil must be shown in order to demonstrate the good - that is logically, aesthetically and morally inevitable. But how fai is it necessary for one to go? -Tn whàt cir eumstancj».a-d - ' itself pernicious or scandalous, justified in terms ox its 3»lace in the general pattern of the ^message? At what point does it start-to do more harm than good? The usual tendency is for film-makers and critics, in the name of artistic, .liberty and freedom of thought, to assume that everything in a film is necessary to it in equal measure. The content aruL-ierngth of each shot is assumed to have been meticulously calculated by the director with intent to produce a unique effect. Any , cutting is decried as intolerable mutilation. Conversely, . censors, and especially censorship boards, tend to isolate--an -h episode, a scene or a picture from its context- and treat it as an independent item, which it would not be in the eyes of •) an ordinary cinema-goer. Censorship readily seises-on--detail which presents an image that is easy to perceive, to concept­ ualise, to quote in a discussion,, to the detriment of the-less - easily discerned idea which constitutes the film's ’^message".- - r ç ' - This tendency, moreover, is encouraged• on practical • - grounds..,..,. The great majority of commercial films have conventional plots which follow the norms of strict 'aesthetic and moral conformity. Their originality is limited to embroid ­ ering on this canvas variations of powerfully emotàve and ' . dramatic force. This pursuit of emotion and sensai^-on leads directors perpetually to outbid one another. They ccorrtinually transgress the recognized bounds of decency, whereas . the censor guardian of those boundaries, endeavours to held them in check. His jeb is then reduced to making cuts, often with tm£ . negotiated agreement of the producers, which, without Altering the general pattern of the work, remove or curtail details » shorten the duration of a shot or-remove a few frames whi£h may be considered either too dafung by current standards o:h too dangerous to susceptibilities which are still vulnerable?.* Study of documents sent by Member States of the Council of Europe and examination of the Catholic morality ratings yield a good deal of information, although not enough"f«or_a--'System- atic study of cuts. The cuts fall into two main categories; (x) The indecent, less reprehensible for its presence in the plot than for ns concrete representation on the screen. It is something One may acknowledge as existing in the abstract, but which becomes indecent or shocking when displayed as entertainment. To lake an extreme example, it is perfectly legitimate for a pl)t to imply sexual intercourse between husband and wife, but to show the act on the screen is not permissible. (2) The reprehensible , condemned not so much as a display of indecency as for inviting the spectator to be a party to the transgression of social or moral rules of conduct. Its presence in the film is a defiance of morality. It may involve nothing visually offensive on the screen, but its very existence is regarded as obnoxious for it is seen as making the abnormal appear normal and inciting to immorality. By way of example, the inverse of the last one, the furtive evocation of adultery without any suggestive allusions or sexy pictures, may be"held to be censurable in so far as it tends to present relationships of this kind as "normal".

(.1) The indecent

The great majority of examples of cuts are of thi 3 type. They may be classified provisionally into three groups (a) scenes and images judged to be injurious on account of excessive violence. (1) scenes and images judged to be indecent on account of the .sexual intimacy they reveal or suggest. (c) scenes and images judged to be pernicious on account of the monstrosities they exhibit.

(a) Excessive violence The violence is in some cases latent, a menace not yet translated into actual conduct but creating an effect of terror which is considered capable of seriously affecting the nerves of very young spectators. Thus the German censorship cuts a sequence in Emil and the detectives, when screened for under­ twelves, showing Emil shut up in a cellar by a gangster who demands the return of money at gun-point. The comment accompany­ ing this decision stresses the risk that children may identify themselves with a hero of their own age. Scenes of suspense which protract and gradually heighten the sense' of terror bound up with that kind of threat are frequently curtailed at the request of censorship bodies.

More often the violence is not latent but manifest, either simply as acts of violence or accompanied by the display of its effects on the victim. In many cases the cuts demanded appear to be concerned with the sjcecific horror associated with cold steel (a blade cutting, hacking, lacerating) or with the sight of blood (forming a pool, spurting, dripping, etc.). In Angélique II, the German censor­ ship demands the removal, for under-eiglrÇeens, of a sequence in which a man is stabbed in the chest with a dagger and blood is then seen spurting from the wound. In Sarny going south , the German censorship cuts, for the under-twelves, the scene ./. - 16 - DFC/CORC (66) 5 final where a leopard attacks and mawls a negro whose bloody corpse is then -seen. In Ursus, the Swedish censor cuts scenes from the film for adult exhibition showing an old priest being st stabbed, arrows piercing the breast of a young priest, and so forth. Further aggravations of this type of violence, like the mutilation of parts of the body (the eye, throat, hand), are frequently censored. In Cartouche , for example, the Swedish censorship cuts, again for adults, the picture of a‘hand which has Just been nailed to a door with a dagger. In- Arizona Raiders, the German censorship demands the cutting, for under- sixteehs,. of a scene where, during a card game, a gangster pins his partner's hand to the tabic- with a stroke of his-knife; when the weapon is pulled out, a big pool of blood forms. Pronouncing on the* film project of Grands chemins', the French control board considers that "...the only object of the scene where the cheat's fingers are crushed is .cruel detail and'it should be deleted or simply suggested." In Six femmes pour 1'assassin, the French censorship cuts the sequence of a sadist disfiguring a y “sung woman with a spiked iron gauntlet.

Injuries by burning or scalding form another group of frequently censored scenes. In From Russia with Love the Swedish censorship abridges, for adults, the scene in which James Pond's pursuers are seen burning in thöir boats in a sea of blazing oil. The same censorship abridges, again for adults, the scene in Spartacus where' the 'slaves' overseer is thrown' into a vat of .boiling soup and in Cartouche: a scene where a man is branded with a red-hot iron. . The French censorship cuts. the. scene in Six femmes pour 1’assassin showing a sadist holding. '. a young woman‘s hand and’ cheek against a white-hot stove.

Other cuts of a similar kind call for more complex analysis Thus in Erermo,il nemico di Roma, the German censorship cuts, for adults, a shot in which we see the Gallic chief thrust, a lighted stake into the breast of a Roman strung up hy his hands.. The combination of scorching with fire and stabhing with a crude weapon adds to the horrific effect (in the scale of horror, a knife is not so "clean" as a gun, and the wooden stake less "clean" than the metal blade); moreover the _ t, . position of the victim, unable to save himself with his hands or to twist about to protect his chest, is speeiacularly - perceived as horror heaped on horror.

In these examples there is a strong element of sadism in the attackers' behaviour and it is that sadism, as much as the horrible wounds, which constitutes the grounds for censorship. The case of scenes of torture, inquisition and so on is still clearer. In Sodome et Gomorrhe, the French censor orders "...substantial toning down of the torture scene during which a man dies and of the scene where the prisoners are executed by breaking, on the wheel." Any number or such examples, of course, could be quoted; the scene of torture is l cliche of historical adventure films, resistance films, spy films, horror films, and the like. More interesting to note is the cutting demanded

Finally, one more heading must be added:the effects of violence considered apart from the action that produces them: scenes of sufferjng, convulsions, dying and death. In Mr. , District Attorney, the German censorship cuts, for under-twelves, ■the close-up of the dying murderer's face. The Swedish censor- • ship cuts, for adults, pictures of pigs in their death throes in Monde Cano and of convulsions induced by electroshock therapy in Shock Treatment. In Bergjagd Im Frühling, the German censorship cuts, for under-twelves, a close-up of two dead grouse. In Ursus the Swedish censorship cuts, for adults, a panning shot of a ptiblic square piled with corpses, and in Shock Tre atme nt, again for adults, the medium shot of a corpse impaled on a fence. In Le Monstre aux yeux verts, the French censorship calls for the scene to be curtailed "...during which a young woman is disintegrated and is seen lying - if one can say that of her Ashes - on her bed."

Sex scenes

Besides sex scenes proper (comprising a.more or.less direct presentation of the sexual act), we include here erotic scenes of nudity or scant attire, as well as lascivious dances and rses. { The German censorship cuts, for adults, the sequence in Éungsleden in which a young man tries to make his companion give herself to him, and removes from the sound track, the »moans and sighs that accompany the performance of the sexual •act. In Vivre sa vie, the Norwegian censorship cuts, for adults * ■.a shot of a naked woman in a brothel, and the French censorship orders the deletion, from the same film of "...a picture of a leg stretched out in the foreground, with a man further back, which appears excessively suggestive even for adults." In Sexy Show, the Swedish censorship cuts, for adults, the last i part of a dance suggestive of coital motions. There is no need to prolong this list. However, it is important to note that, contrary to what one might e expect, sex scenes are relatively less often cat than violent ones.

We would also point to the problem presented to the censor .by what might be called indecency "of form". Something in itself innocent and harmless is made by a trick of montage or cutting to suggest an offensive situation. Thus in La femme de sable , the French censor points out "... an ambiguity in the juxtaposition of naked bodies side by side which titillates the imagination and then quickly brings it back to a reality more innocent than one supposes." The same censor rebukes Femmes spectacles for taking the audience into "...these beaut3- r parlors where women's bodies are manipulated with highly professional, but at the same time most caressing and suggestive gestures."

(c) The Monstrous - horrific

Several of the examples quoted under the heading of violence could be placed here as well; spasma, mutilation and disfigurement scenes, etc.. In Hush, hush, sweet Charlotte * the German censorship cuts the scene in which a man1s hand is ' seen being cut off, after which the bloody amputated stump tries to lift itself up. There we have twofold horror, mutilation plus the movement "contrary to nature". Similarly pictures of decomposing bodies or of skeletons are the more horrible if they appear to parody the living.

The showing, of actual »ons trasi trés is somewhat rarer. Vari ou censorships require cuts in La, dona sc imi a where - we see a young woman covered from head to foot with hair. In Tales of Terror, the Swedish censorship cuts, for adults, the scene, where, in a nightmare, two people .juggle with their heads.

(2) The reprehensible

Certain scenes of violence are censored less for the horrific wounds or the sadism they portray than for offending ■ . accepted standards of behaviour. Such, for instance, are the cuts required by the French control board invthe scenario of Meurtrier, showing police maltreatment of suspects, or by the German censorship, for undor-eighteens , and the police guard's words in Angels with Dirty F%ces, when he says to the , man sentenced to the Electric chair: "I'll tell the executioner to switch on slowly so that you have time to feel it burn." On similar grounds the Swedish censorship bans War and Peace for children under fifteen, on account of scenes like the one where Russian prisoners are executed by the French soldiery.

Violence to women is likewise frequently censored. The . Purple Gang is totally banned by tie Swedish censorship on account of the sequence, Intoralia, where a gang of hooligans attack a pregnant woman. West Side Story is banned for under- fifteens by the same authority, notably because of the sequence where a gang of youngsters'beat up the rival gangleader's girl-friend in a drugstore. (in thesç two examples, the offeneo DPC/CORC (66) 5 final - 19 - is aggravated by the fact that the male - female situation of attacker against victim is combined with showing several assailants attacking one unarmed victim.

A final case, that of "sacreligious" violation of respect for the dead. In Sarny Going South , the German censorship cuts for under-sixteens a scene showing the body of the hero's mother picked up and flung into a truck, while in Panera et circcnses it cuts, for adults 5 a scene where the carcass of a bull is dragged dusty and bleeding from the ring.

Among other types of scene banned as provocative or scandalous we have, in the matter of morals, the cut demanded by the German censorship, for the under-eighteens , of a sentence spoken by a girl in Satan mit roten Haaren: '.'1 want to be the one to decide what men I'll undress for", and in the natter of religious susceptibilities, the cut required by the same body, for adults, of passages in The Battle of the Villa Fiorita which night effend non-Catbolics. As to patriotic sentiments, there is the deletion the Prench board of censors requires the director of Qui ose nous accuser?, by cutting a certain scene which "demonstrates an intolerable tactlessness in its allusion to the death of a brother killed in Algeria and in the immediate sequel (the last post)"; lastly, the German censor­ ship, motivated by fear of a recrudescence of militarism, requires the deletion, for under-eighteens , of a sequence in Week of Gcrman-American Friendship where small boys are seen "playing with a machine-gun and having fun training it on people nearby."

The difficulties involved in assessing the harmfulness of. such scenes and the legitimacy, in a given instance, of the cuts imposed by the censor are for the tine being insurmountable. The relationship of the episode to the message as a whole ceases- to be clear once we leave aside the commonest stereotyped plots. In several of the foregoing examples, the scenes faulted might be deemed necessary to an understanding of the plot or the creation of "atmosphere". This is the problem of the relation­ ship of the significant part to the import of the whole. Ideally, the former should be assimilated into the latter, be perceived and communicated onlj7 through it. Two acts of violence for example, may assume positive -.leaning in a story of retribution tion where the first is the crime and the second the punishment; the negative quality of each of them separately is neutralised by their integration in the overall message. But can this resorp­ tion be total? Even in the spoken or written narrative, words conjure up "pictures"; they trigger off emotional reactions, arouse unpredictable and unmeasurable urges. Chateaubriand tells us he decided to forgo, at the end of his hartyrs , any bloody description of the death of his two heroes; the reader's imagination, he writes, would always have outstripped his own. The- same applies to the message of any story or pia;/; the act of violence is never entirely transmuted cither into a crime-that- wi 11 -bo -punished or into a well-doservcd-punishicent . Aside from its function in the plot, a spectacular episode or ingredient convejrs marginal information; this marginal informa­ tion is inherent in the signal itself, rather than in the data which are supposed to be transmitted in the signal, and can so overlay that message as to stifle it. How much more so do the properties of audio-visual communication enhance the power of suggestion of the episode directly portrayed on the screen (ges­ ture, attitude, speech), at the expense of the idea indirectly signified by the sequence of episodes. The justification for the censor’s preoccupation with these partly negative elements is that everyday experience shows them to be perceived and remem­ bered independently and to have a separate existence as spectacles in isolation from the .film. The normal relationship of means to end between the (spectacular) episode and the (moral) message of the film is reversed and the end serves as a pretext for the means. It is understandable that in reaching their verdicts censors generally, whether governmental or not, are prompted by the twin aims of toning down the concrete protrayal of the negative and to neutralising its abstract formulation. That which comes under the heading of indecency must be cut out or at least blurred, - while the reprehensible can be tolerated only if manifestly and unequivocally reproved in the film itself, Let us look at these techniques in esperation.

Toning down the indecent

, It will be readily agreed that to show only edifying spectacles is not possible, since edification automatically demands a "negative" counterpart to bring it into relief. But if .the negative is indispensable, it appears that the general I .. approach of censorship of bodies is that it is better to convey(it by words than by pictures; if words are used, discreet allusion ... • is better than blunt speech; and if one nevertheless chooses to protray it (since the cinema is, after all, a pictorial art), this is better done by roundabout methods (peripheral details - - incidentals, secondary effects etc.) than by straight depiction. In the general economy of cinematic communication, the positive should be displayed full-face and fully lit, the negative askew, in the background and in shadow. The quality most commonly praised in a director the censorship is that he remains "discreet" and avoids "pandering" in his treatment of the negative.. This appears to hold for films of all kinds. In standard- type films of conventional pattern (such as westerns, adventure or war films), the principle applies in particular to the. portrayal of scenes of'violence. In the treatment of "delicate" themes and problems it becomes the touchstone 'of the film-maker's purity of intention. It is in its translation of narrative (theme) into spectacle (pictures) that a film is most commonly criticised. The scenario of Vivre sa vie is condemned by the French pre­ censorship authority in these terms: "the proposed film seems to be a realistic- and unjustifiable evocation of prostitution and the usual scenes to which it gives rise". But the same film,, when made., is rescued by the Catholic censor: ". . .directed with modesty and discretion, this film relates, without a trace of complaisance, the sad course of a girl from the provinces who falls into prostitution. Rarely has the hideous fate of the prostitute been so sensitvely exposed. ./. * The alternatives of discretion and complaisance, however, è?o not the only possibilities in portraying the negative. Almost all censorship authorities acknowledge a third possibility, "realism". Here the negative is shown without attenuation but also without excess. It is accepted, in certain cases, that \he director should want to hit hard, not in order to indulge in unwholesome curiosity, but in order to achieve his effect. The result of "realistic" treatment is generally that the film is not passed for exhibition to children and young adolescents, who aro considered too impressionable to witness certain revelations^ fob older adolescents and for adults it derives justification from thé salutary shock it can administer and the awareness it can arçuse, provided, of course, that the seriousness of the subject and the documentary worth of the film are recognised. In a film on ah ethnographic theme the French censors make an exception in allowing the "profession of faith" of a prostitute happy in her.condition and proud of her profession. Commenting on Le petit soldat, the Catholic censor writes: "This film has the courage to denounce one cf the scandals of our times, torture, of which iany people seem hypocritically una.ware. But the portrayal of several of these torture scones is meant for a forewarned audience of adults."

The Norwegian censors mako this point very sharply in their replies to the Council cf Europe, stating that, in general, more scabrous scenes can be allowed in a realistic film dealing with problems objectively, and free of commercial or dramatic considera­ tions, than a film designed purely for entertainment; a brutal fight or a torture scene, they point out, may be tolerated in a specific film about the war or concentration camps but cut from a spy or gangster film.

Reproving; the immoral If the indecent cannot be totally obliterated from films, still less is it possible entirely to avoid scandalous situations, behaviour and words. To render these tolerable the filmmaker must resort to techniques that are the opposite of those mentioned above. It is no longer a question of toning down the negative, touching lightly and tactfully on its concreto manifestations, hut of uncompromisingly stressing its reprehensible character. The common­ est method is go put words into, the mouth of someone in authority, so that he appears to be voicing the director’s opinion, an explicit repudiation of immorality. The Catholic censor often complains of films in which an extra-marital liaison, a divorce, cr the remarriage of divorced persons is presented as something inevitable or, worse still, is openly approved. Thus in Les dimanches de Ville d'Avray, "...a liaison, not disapproved, must confine this film strictly to adults"; in Forty pounds of troi

In America this principle is expressed with a wealth of" .detail in the Hays code: "Our programmes," the Federal Communi­ cations Commission on Television, for instance, decides, "must: contain nothing which could in any way imply that the world of business is cold, unscrupulous, lacking in feeling and non­ material motives.. If a businessman is depicted in the role of a bad man, it must be made clear that he is not typical but is despised by his fellow businessmen as weli as the other members of society." . Without going to such detailed lengths, all censor­ ship authorities call for the- same principle to be 'applied when­ ever a danger of "hasty generalisation" has to T?e. halted.

* . . -In France, for instance, it affords a means of,counter- . acting the ambiguous nature of half-satirical, half-indulgent pictures of the "idle way of living of certain typ.es' of young people". The director of Les lions sont: laches'-is asked to "make it clear that the milieu described is confined to few hundred people drawn from neurotic, snob circles and has nothing in common with Paris society as. a whole." Similarly, the German censorship restricts 'Young Blood Hawke to adults: "...permission could not. be given for its exhibition to young audiences because no counterbalance to the frivolity of the hero and his friends is shown and there might accordingly he a risk of upsetting young viewers' scale of values and encouraging a wrong attitude, towards social climbing." IV TONS

T’io ton-.; of a fi In no to ea^ disentangles the two-part message consisting of the content presented on the screen through the medium of story and pictures and of an opinion about that content« It is hard to define in precise terras, for it may defend just as much on explicit forraulations(in the dialogue commentary and so on) as on ambiguous suggestion (in the photo ­ graphy, cutting, musical accompaniment, the piling up of comic or tragic effects, etc.). This kind of ambiguity is mainly characteristic of films out of the ordinary run, bearing the imprint of a director whose originality is hound up specifically with his use of a persenal and distinctive "tone". Eut the difficulty vanishes in the less impartant hut more usual case of films belonging to a particular genre of films (satire, comedy, propaganda play, western, spy film, etc.) where the conventions of f®rra are as rigid as those of content. The director's style is «bliterated by the conventions of the genre. There is a stereo­ typed tone for war films, for horror films, for light c0med3.cs and so forth.

The adoption of a given tone means that the director is taking an attitude, both aesthetic and m^ral, in regard to the stary he is telling. If it is to T*e positive, that attitude must he one of looking beyond the negative content to the ideal which denies it aad bey®nd the positive content to the ideal which inspires it. This reappraisal can take effect in various ways, first of all, anything depicted as being improbable tends automatically to he neutrali?3ed. That is why dilns restricted to stock characters, in that they display the stock characteristics of their genre, have less impact than those which present themselves as witnessing to the real world. The immorality of a farce in which the blunder ­ ing police sup.-riuterJA-nt is baffled all along the lino, the french censors observe, is ox no consequence since "... nobody can take seriously a story so far divorced from reality." The Catholic censor is similarly easy on Un drôle de paroissien, since the hero is "a likable sany whose exploits arc. purest fantasy. This greatly diminishes the impact which his totally false ideas of religious and of social life might otherwise nave."

A western, to patrons of the genre, is nothing hut a set of more or less subtle rhetorical variations of the western theme; hut a "parody" western, where the tone is one of aloofness from that theme itself, carries non-realism a stage further. Similarly. poetic fantasies, films in which the action takes place in a remote historical er geographical------w •'-n ~setting ~ and those in which the r-function ®f testifying is subordinate to the search fer aesthetic effect, may he regarded as having a certain tone in common, stereotyped c or net, which amounts to putting a caption under the pictures saying: "This is just a game." It still romains to be determined, 9_f course, to what extent, and to which audiences, the tone is discernible. Some degree of psychological maturity, combined with fair!” long experience of the cinema, seems essential. Examining Xe dosort rouge, the French censor admits that the poetical, symbolical transposition of this theme relieved i~ of the hitter- ness it would have had if treated in a realistic manner hut hone the less expresses strong reservations regarding the potential effect of such a film oa the young. The Catholic censor classes - 24 - r?C/CORC (66) 5 final as "morally dangerous for the majority of adults" films whose perniciousness he nevertheless'admits may be diminished by h __the historical nature, artistic merit or humorous cast of the work." That which is depicted and-perceived as real or plausible , on the ether hand, always demands the adoption of a personal attitude on the part of the director. He cannot evade the obligation ©f adopting a tone, which then commits him. In respect of the positive elements of his subject, the tone will be one of concurrence, respect, enthusiasm, as the case may be, while towards the negative elements three possible cones are allowed: indignation, factual statement, or irony.

The_morality ratings of the Office C'athollque du film francai_s afford "many examples of delicate or even scandalous themes rendered tolerable by the adoption of the appropriate tone, Thus a Soviet war film is a "long cry of protest against ■ the horror, the injustice and-the stupidity of war” - the sincerity of'the protest here 'justifies the pictorial cruelty; or Le Ceuteau dans la plaie,”... this tragedy of jealousy between an ill-matched couple, is spread before us in a perspect ■ ive which makes of it a case history ®f the disease and the consequences which ensue - crime and madness.” But it is irony above all that can palliate the most daring subjects. In La bonne soupe, "...the ironic style counteracts' the scabrous aspect of situations that are at times shocking" ; in Move over pDarl mg, the bigamy theme-'is "treated with humour and whimsy, avoiding offensive scenes"; in Murder at the gallop, "the- murders and the suspense are toned down by'the humorous tone."

Preliminary censorship opinion's addressed to French directors by the control- bo'ard frequently urge the need for relieving certain themes by caking a mocking tone. On the projected film Les lions sont laches/- the recommendation is to "use a light touch of irony, so that the atmosphere of the'screams .-should be net one of elation but of ridicule"-. Similarly they hope, on the subject of Lu Mouron pour les petits oiseaux, that "... the director will use'his talents to give the film that light tone which the author-has thried to adopt far the synopsis". .And again, on Le doulos, they' are afraid that all this excessive violence, these killings, may entail a ban-on the film for minors, under.eighteen, Unless the deliberate intention to "lay it on" is evident.

Mockery is-only debarred when its target is something sacrosanct. Then it degenerates into "black comedy." The Catholic censor is particularly severe about this. He' castigates La dona scimia which "delights in contempt of womankind pnd in black comedy that in at times odious]*; Aimez vous les femmes? which "handles in the tones of black comedy a rather gruesome subject that calls for moral reservations" (the literally gastronomic taste of female flesh); L'assassin connait la musique, in which "... the-black''humour does not excuse the distasteful intention of making fun of religious principles on the question of divorce and showing practising Catholics as retarded or sanctimonious". ./. - 25 - ■ DFC/COKC (.66) 5 y. TY?ES OF FILM

We have already noted the part played by the idea of the wgenre" as perceived by the spectator and as it affects the censor's evaluation of the film's dangers. We have also shown that, in general, the more a film is perceived as conforming to the pattern of its genre, the more is it stripped of reality and therefore judged harmless. This general assertion now calls for particularisation. For a start, some types are unanimously regarded as harmful by censorship authorities (horror films, for instance); secondly, the conventions of each genre are judged in oO;.ie cases leniently, in others severely. We can therefore establish a basic 'rating' for each genre, it being understood that each film comprises original features which aggravate or diminish the dangers inherent in the genre as a whole. We shall draw up a summary classification not purporting to be exhaustive , of the commonest types of film, and try to sketch their ©haracteris- tic features as the censor sees them. This chapter is based on a study of the morality ratings of the Office Catholiquo du Cinema Français , but the material could be confirmed from numerous documents borrowed from our other sources.

The western

The western occupies a privileged position among adventure films. Its aesthetic code and its ethical code, scrupulously defined in their mutual relationship, reduce the chances of surprise to a minimum.

The dynamics of the genre are positive: "... in this western, with its traditional fights an£ hard riding, we see the goodies triumph over the baddies ... a traditional western, where the Good are victorious and the Bad are punished", etc. If the film is not a "traditional" (or old-fashioned) western but a "psychological 11 one, the moral of the story is still more edifying: ©ne "describes the psychological development ®f a man of violence, transformed by the love of a woman", another deals with the theme of "the reha­ bilitation of a former dancer with a murky past wh® becomes a devoted wife"; yet another prints "a lesson in bravery on the part of a weak coward who at the point ®f danger pulls himself together so as to save the children in his charge", this film is des©ribed as "positive", because it shews "the desire to at&ne for past errors and extols friendship.

No lest positive are the manly virtues corresponding to these themes;, "..i all the legendary virtues are engagingly and force­ fully illustrated in La Conquête. Law and kindness triumph over blind force"; one filnP^.. extols courage, vigour and mutual help ­ fulness and the religious note is not lacking"; another "sincerely exalts the potentialities for human understanding and the respect for honour and the given word"; again another "brings out the true qualities of the soldier and the importance of IT"endship and esteem in the training of men"; or "... is calculated to promote the positive values oJ loyalty, love and friendship, together with the meaning of work". In yet another film "we have something rather unusua}., the .expression of sentiments of conjugal fidelity. sense of duty, • honour and faithfulness to a promise. 1! _ 26 - DPC/CORC (66) 5 final Usually the situation: are clear-cut, the characters uncomplicated, the duties unmistakable: 11.. . Taking as its heroes rougli,"'simple folk, this film is excellent family entertainment»; ».., (giere is no muddling of values and everything is done to make the outlaws odious". Occasionally, however, we find the bandit-t-qtrned-sheriff character,the "good-bad boy" inadequately whitewashed by a tardy convërsion to law and order.

This brings us to the crucial point of the western - the legitimacy of violence. The danger does not reside in the natux-e or the- partrayal of the scenes of violence; with some outstanding exceptions ("a discreet evocation for example), they - are regarded as being too conventional, too stereotyped, to do harm: "The acts of violence inherent in the western are so im­ probable that they cannot be taken sericuslyVOn the other hand the may bé reservations in respect of violence as used, qy positive’ characters. The fallowing are regarded as; negative: on the one hand, immediate resort to violence, on the other, the spirit of personal vengeance; legitimate; even praiseworthy: the invoca • tioii of legal force to redress an injustice; eminently positive: ‘the- spirit of non-violence, the endeavour to exhaust every means .of conciliation before reporting to trial by force.

Thus the "systematic, jpitlTess.. vengeance" in--Tres hombres buen pjy is. condonirtci; on the other hand, in a review of vintage westerns, "... the heroes are all on the side of justice, employing the forces of law 'and order when they can, and there is so"rauch shooting that it can no-longer count as violence". The lifevil’s Children is a "positivo film which clearly demonstra­ tes that the law must be stronger than personal justice, which only engenders hateful acts' of revenge"; He rides tall; is described as an "honest" western because it has "’"the virtue of openly disapproving violence of any kind and ex to"; Ling moral courage ", Law of the hawless "lias the merit of showing how the rule of law gradually comes to a region, given over to the lav/ ■ of the jungle and depicting the struggle of a brave man who rejects Violence and will not compromise his principles." * *0n "balance; therefore, the western is morally very positive. Nevertheless, the' Catholic censorship draws attention to the shadow of racialism present -in films where extermination of the redskins is depicted as a necessary cleaning-up job: "... somewhat brutal standards■of-behaviour towards the Indians", in How, the West was won ; elements- of more or less racialist hatred, "in Arrow head; but against that, in the pro-redskin western Oe^onlmo, the anti-raclalist theme in .turn goes too far, not even exempting the religion of the invaders, with a pastor" quoting Scripture in perverse justification of the wrongs done to the Apaches".

Historical or exotic adven'ture films

Compared with the western, with its sharply defined characteristics, other types of adventure film are scattered into an infinity of species and sub-species which would take too long to catalogue here . Taking the historical dimension alone, we fehôuld have to distinguish many categories; mythological, biblical, ancient Greece and Rome, early Christian, knights- in- armour, cloak-and-dagger and"so on, „each epoch demanding special analysis to take account of the themes typical of it. . Despite these variations of detail, some costants remain. The adventure film, as a rule, is vigorously optimistic. force is harnessed to right, and right triumphs over wrong. The heroes are magnanimous, chivalrous, imbued with filial sentiment, forgiv­ ing. In biblical and Christian times, an ardent faith sustains their undertakings.

These unfold inevitably in a context of violence, censidered to be of little danger so long as it stops this side of a certain threshold; for instance, mention is made of “numerous combats in which human life counts for little but which form part of the conventions of the genre in which everything is superficial'“. But often the threshold is crossed: hand-to-hand fighting, conflagra- ■ tions, massacres, torture of captives, abduction, rape, human sacrifice and so on may well belong to the conventions of the genre, but this does not make them any the less noxious. A film about classical times extols the "integrity, courage and magnanimity of the legendary Aeneas. Some battle scenes and hand-to-hand fighting sequences are less suitable for very young viewers11. In a film on the crusades, "faith in God upholds the hero in his fight against the infidels and unites his divided com­ patriots. But the film is punctuated with violent combats which make it appropriate for adult exhibition only". .. The comment on another film is: "... these adventures are a mixture of violence, battles, torture, and doubtful allusions and notwithstanding the example of loyal, noble love, should be strictly confined to adults". Of a corsair film,.we note "some good elements on the credit side: filial love, spirit of chivalry, humanity and'protect­ iveness towards negroes reduced to slavery, genuinely religious feeling. On the other hand the many battles, the coarse innuendoes of the.pirates ... etc.". In an epic of antiquity, "there is a degree of emphasis on the ritua.1 sacrifice of young women and the king’s cruelty makes this strictly e. film for adults".

ì Then, too, the despot's court, sumptuous and dissolute, in .. many films affords a pretext for questionable displays (lewd dances, bacchanalian feasts), "The'atmosphere and morals of ancient firnes unobtrusively illustrated in this vast canvas make it a work for adults and adolescents"; "this very broad approximation to ancient history includes some risque undress and poses which impel us to make moral reservations". In Gli amore di Ercole, s cant illy clad lovelies and a passionate love' scene ruin out this film for young audiences"*

Biblical films and pictures depicting the martyrdom o>£ the early Christians pose the problem of the adventure film acutely insofar as they are nonetheless big spectacular entert ailments and- hence have just as much to gain from sadism and eroticism as from religious sentiment. Obviously it is difficult for the Catholic censor to say at exactly what point the spectacle of tormented Christians in the arena becomes more perniciou-s than edifying. He points to fine examples, in II grolle di Roma, of courage and faith on the part of Christians struggling under the persecutions of the Roman proconsuls. However, the torture inflicted on them in the arena, and the cruelty' of the fighting are wrong for very young audiences". War and resistanco filma

Ilioru aro two. opposite typos of theme in war films:

- tho "patriotic” typo, which derives in ân unbroken lino from the adventure film and concerns defence of one's country, resistance to the invader and so on; - the "pacifist" type, which is concerned with the folly of war and the hollowness of patriotic arguments in,support of it.

Both tyyus of theme aro ordinarily classed as positive by the censors. The patriotic kind is approved to the extent that it portrays war as a training ground for bravery, tenacity, magnanimity, fellowship, self-sacrifice, discipline, leadership; as an exceptional circumstance which gives failures a fresh chance or reveals exceptional characters unsuited to tho mediocrity of the daily round. One such film "glorifies true heroism without bombast and' brings out the human qualities of solidarity and friendship"; in another there is "patriotism, the sense of duty, courage, heroism. The religious note, subdued, is not wanting"; in yet another "courage is uxtollud and indisci­ pline very distinctl;*- deprecated'', An army picture "constitutes a eulogy of tho bravery and solidarity of tho Soviet soldiers during the last war". Elsewhere the censor points to a "magni­ ficent lesson in courage, where man confronts danger with everything that helps him to overcorno his fear. Ho casts aside his pettiness, his egoism, to savo others, thus presenting a picture of simple fellowship in tho service of men of goodwill who long for peace1,.

Hot all patriotic-typo films, unfortunately, open up such pacificatory prospects. One Soviet film, for instance, is impregnated with "anti-German propaganda that is somewhat un­ yielding in its portent"; in another, the censor lias reservations about the "hatred, doubtless understandable in such a. case,' displayed by the young hero".

Tho pacifist brand of film is positive when it".,. bears witness to the stupidity of hatred and of war and shows that deop-soated rancour can bo transmuted and sublimated"; when it "condemns the cruelty of men in- the grip of fanaticism and exalts the victim of the holocaust". But often it -takes the form of a desperate and ineffectual diatribe against human folly. The Catholic censorship then rebukes its pessimism and bitterness. "Under its apparent and somewhat heavy-handed de ta clime nt, this film contains a rather bitter satire on war and mankind"; "... The author defines his purpose thus: my theme is war and the misery of war. Tris film is thus a condemnation of war and the woes it brings to those who experience it and are gradually degraded by its senselessness. Bitter, painful, distressing and tragic... etc. " iatriotic or.pacifist, war films give rise to reservations on account of their inherent violence and horror; ”... this film is one long scream of protest against the horror, the injustice and the stupidity of war. Yet the accumulation of cruelty and violence it exhibits .”... this film to the glory of the heroism of the Yugoslav resistance includes extremely violent scenes of battle and massacre. A rape sequence calls for reser­ vations"; "doubtless a film like this stresses the social and moral disasters to which war gives rise, but the heaping up of scenes of brutality, the rage to kill and sensual violence*compel us firmly to advise against seeing this work."

Detective, gangster and spy films In this.class of film the dynamics of the theme are usallj' positive, at least in appearance; the criminals are put out of action, their victims are saved, rehabilitated or avenged But this moral ending, often belated and frequently artificial, is often out of proportion to the perniciousness of the elements it is supposed to counterbalance: "the nervous tension to which the spectator Is subjected throughout the film and the unwholesome and.appalling pictures he witnesses call for moral reservations"; "this detective story is positive, crime is punished in the end." Yet the prolonged scenes fraught with anguish and a_ distress­ ing atmosphere "This very well—worked out detective film respects the law of suspense but not sensitive people’s nerves."

Do less unwholesome than the drawn-out suspense is the environment of the world of gangsters, traffickers, pimps, prosti- tutes, "hostesses" and so on; Tthe atmosphere and items usual in this kind ox film - the viciou.. songsters,, the violence and. sensuous dance routines";mîmes, "this"nus talewue of kidnapping takes place-hr-, I against a sordid bjackground of nightclubs, in an atmosphère tnat compels us to make moral_____ reservations"; "this_ muddled film, . twisting and turning in the underworld of nightspots and tarts"; 'the crime and spy-story plot *f this film nevertheless takes m a lewd dance in a tavern ...". The Quantity, the intensity and the violence of the criminal acts are likewise castigated: "... the subject itself and me direction oC this vile tale of crime upon crime created a disore^s ing climate of stark pessimism which compels us to advise against ss murder if" ; "bx‘■by reason of the atmosphere of police action nn„ m along with certain violent scenes this film has to be com ine d to adults"; "this spy thriller, with its painful atmosphere deliber- ately maintained by the cruelty o: ‘ its imagei and the unpleasant pitch of the sound track, must be condemned", "brutality, sadism and sensuality are all combined to create an atoosüiere that^puts ones nerves on edge". And by way of contrast: "... this traditional- detective film, in which the makers have managed_to avoid that shock and undue violence, wiU appeal to a wide public adults and adolescents." When criminal acts cease to strike horror into the spectator a danger is apparently perceived of their arousing emulation and serving as a blueprint: "notwithstanding the moral ending (crime doesn't pay) and the remorse (belated) of a novice gangster under the good influence of his fiancée, this film, because of the taste - for a meticulously prepared hold-up it might arouse is not,at all appropriate for adolescents, who are more susceptible to that kind of thing than other audiences.

The Catholic censorship is grateful that some of these,films show the administrators of justice - whether it is theif* normal job or, otherwise - as people of integrity and humanity; ", . . the disinterestedness with which the representatives, of law and order prosecute their struggle against the gangsters constitutes a positive aspect of the film"; "their, devotion to their'job is doubtless the one positive element'in this detective story". But that is not always so. . Even in the last-mentioned film, the police are taxed with "easy morals". In others: , this tale of rottenness has nothing very'positive in it, for even the attitude of the representatives of the law is dictated by self-interest". Though the ends may be blameless, the means are not. Police and counter-espionage agents often rival their opponents in their cynicism and brutality. Thus . . we can but deplore the attitude of a father who advises his son to secure the complicity of a girl by inadmissible conduct". , '•

Conversely, the gangsters are sometimes shown in a flattering light. The Catholic censor decries this "romanticism" in depicting outlaws and on the other hand esteems films that "debank" the underworld. Melodie en sous sol "at least has the merit of debunking burglary'"as ’a living", the effect of Maching-gun Kelly is to "show up the gangster, a ready killer but cringing in face of his.own death".

Horrific, psychopathological and science fiction films

The horror film (a term which embraces the majority of science fiction films and psychopathological dramas, since in each case the nucleus of the theme is obsession with demons, with maniac power) is a genre particularly disliked by the censor The positive element in such films may be the final triumph of reason over madness and of light over the powers of darkness. But even that triumph is meaningless, since the evil it dissipates is a patchwork of nonsense. The Catholic censor stresses the absence of positive antithesis in these feasts of hcrror and insanity: "... this terror film, with nothing positive to counter-balance the morbid atmosphere it gratuitously maintains . . ". . .based on terror and a certain eroticism, without even any true psychological value to balance it, this film cannot but be rejected". In addition to the suspense factor, these films we judged to play on the morbidity created by manifestations of derangement itself, polarised by erotic and sadistic perversion: ». . . the whole film depicts a world of madmen living in a climate of terror and sadism"; "we must advise against this film because of the morbid atmosphere of violence and the many scenes of hysterical madness"; ». . . based on grave sexual perversion and constantly playing upon horror . . "the brutality, the voluptuousness of the dancing girls and the plasma-like spectre that feeds on human blood - nothing is omitted".

Moreover, the horrific and science fiction film and, to a lesser degree, the psychopathological drama is often seen as disseminating absurd pseudoscientific notions and unhealthy superstitions: "the atmosphere 'of constant tension, of hideous suspense, and a jumble of false, pretentious and equivocal theories on the hereafter and the supernatural, make it a film not to be recommended"; "these adventures, where magic and sorcery run riot, comprise all the elements of terror and surprise inherent in the genre"; "this production retains the more or lese morbid atmosphere of grand-guignol and sets out to be horrific . . . its simplistic religio-philosophic theorising will make it laughable to the enlightened"; "the ridiculous theme of this film, which presents the myth of metapsychosis as fact, its unwholesome, erotic climate,may be harmful to very many spectators". ; The passionate love drama

This classification covers love stories in which carnal passion .that is stronger than duty, reason, restraint or their own interests brings à pair of lovers to their downfall (degradation, suicide or murder) and misery to those close to them. This sort of theme cannot be other than negative if their passion is portrayed as something decreed by fate, which the characters are powerless to resist; it can be positive if the film shows them to be responsible for surrendering to the passion that sweeps them along.' That is a condition seldom fulfilled. At the best, morality is vindicated, but the film offends by "acquiescing" and fails to avoid "an "unhealthy atmosphere"; "... this film underlines the tragic consequences of unbridled passion. The dubious situations it portrays ..." are in themselves obnoxious; "the somewhat complaisant description of a’devastating passion motivated by the conventionality of the parents is not redeemed just by the moralising conclusion"; "this film shows how overmastering passion can destroy a person. Yet in spite of this positive aspect ... a pessimistic, fatalistic conception of life and love, an atmosphere of despair, a suicide ..." etc. "Certain scenes showingthe abandon of the two lovers would demand a'far. mone severe verdict if in the end that passion were not demonstrated as being the cause of a veritable catastrophe." More often than not, however, even that positive aspect is lacking; "... the climate of hatred and sensuality of this drama of passion obliges us to advise against., it"; in spite of deriving'from Mérimée, Carmen di Trastevere, "this transposition of a famous work into a sordid setting of jealousy, passion and crime, calls for the strictest censure."

The social drama

One may hesitate to classify social drama as a stereotyped genre in the same way as the western, the horror film or the passionate love drama. Social drama indeed splits up into--a ^ number of possible subjects (youth led astray, working-class poverty, careerist opportunism, prostitution, etc.). But this diversity of content does not prevent monotony of form. These ■films all purport to be truthful and courageous ("realistic") reporting on the problems and sufferings of one or other class of our near contemporaries, but censorship boards are generally unconvinced by this realism, which they interpret not as striving for authenticity but as the dubious exploitation of sordid aspects of life. Each sub-species of social drama tends to become stereotyped along its own lines, developing its own tangle of stock themes and clichés, some ’’elevating" and others "spectacular" in character. A lengthy study would be needed to set them out in detail. To quote just one example, films about medical students (Le grand patron, Les hommes en blanc , The interns, etc.) often contain a highly moral lesson (extolling tenacity, love of study, understanding of others* suffering, self-denial, conscientious scruples); but they also make a ritual of depicting episodes less to be recommended - orgiastic scenes ("pep-sessions", in medico slang) and short-lived affairs between young doctors and nurses. These are the two faces, contrasting but inseparable, of this "realist" coinage.

Comedy A humerous tone, as we .have seen, is regarded as neutralising the subjects handled. Hence the general leniency of censors towards comedy, provided that the fun is confined to harmless everyday problems (trouble in the home, at work, in social relationships) or the portrayal of out-of-the-way types (eccentrics, small-time crooks, etc.) and remote from the way things really happen. Comment trouvez-vous ma soeur? is a "wholesome good- humoured comedy in which love's little problems find the best of moral solutions". C'est pas moi c'est l'autre is an "unpreten­ tious, rather nice little comedy for the whole family". MacLintock, "this very good-humoured comedy, full of healthy, kindly sentiment, will provide a pleasant evenings amusement for a very wide audience of adults and adolescents"; in Who.'s minding the store?, "underlying the hairbrained adventures of the famous American comedian, lessons of optimism and confidence in life are touched in with satirical humour"; in The Thrill of it all, "these conjugal mishaps are handled wholesomely, nimbly and gaily"; in It happened at the World's Fair, "the -hero’s liking for pretty girls is inconsequential and leads in fact to marriage ",

The ±eniency vanishes when the fun goes beyond wnâu tne censor considers the proper limits. This can happen in two ways - either by default, when the comic tono veers towards aggressive satire and becomes corrosive in its approach to institutions and values; or by excess, when the comic turns to buffoonery and has the bad taste to ridicule sacrosanct things that are no laughing matter (e.g.: "this farce gets its laughs too easily from poking fun at the monks and bishop of Saint Eloi".) Moreover it is fairly rare for the tone of a comedy to remain funny throughout. Generally, the humorous tone is dominant, but not to the exclusion of some mixing of genres within the film. Dramatic comedy and heroic comedy (both very well represented in the cinema) only partially enjoy the benefit of comic "non-realism”. A French censor reporting ®n Viva Maria feels that "while the story is related at times in a tone of tragi-comedy, and indeed, burlesque, which substantially attenuates the scabrous or cruel aspects of 'certain incidents, the volcanic temperament of the two heroines none the less leads to quite a number of erotic passages and the war episodes are the occasion of particularly bloody scenes of violence".

Other types of film

Still other types of films could be catalogued. Some can be reduced to one or other of the genres already considered (operetta, musical comedy amount to much the same as comedy). The others present no serious problems for the censor. This applies, for instance, to animal films (Walt Disney type), fairy tales, travel or hunting, under-water exploration films and so on. It also applies, in the exactly «pposite sense, to films of music hall or cabaret entertainment based ®n strip-tease and erotic dancing. (Sexy: "this shameless spectacle should be categorically rejected." Sexy interdit: "the title alone is enough to indicate the contents of this film, which must hence be rejected." Sexy super interdit: "a spectacle of such dreadful mediocrity and blatant immorality, does the cinema an ill service and should be rejected in the name simply of moral decency and dignity.")

/The case of the nudist film is more complex. The censor generally takes the view that the ideological commentary is nothing more than a sham gloss: "... One cannot but condemn this film which, under a cloak of back-to-nature propaganda, presents an indecent, absolutely inadmissible spectacle." On occasion, the pure intentions of the film's makers are recognised> but the censor is still suspicion- of the motives of some of the audience. At be"t, "despite the restraint sh.,wn by -he authors of this nudist propaganda film, any audience not prepared to grasp its spirit should be advised against seeing it" . CONSIDERATIONS OTHER THAN MORAL ®NE,S

The verdict on a film may embody, besides moral considerations proper, evaluations of its aesthetic, psychological or documentary worth'. -Criticism of this kind, supposedly outside the censor's purview, in reality may play a decisive part. When, faced(with a bad. film, his reaction _is censure, why should he, and indeed, how could he distinguish between what is due to bad morals, btd taste, disregard for psychological probability or historical veracity? In fact all these complaints are often combined; the censor may feel all the more justified in condemning a film that is dangerous to public morality if he also considers it worthless in other rfespects. Thus in reviewing the work of one of the best known and most1, discussed directors of the "nouvelle vague", a French censor writes: "... the latest of the ineffable X's films ... was i resubmitted to the board after undergoing a number of modifications which the author calls mangling of his work ... Unfortunately there subsists a large enough part of this new masterpiece for one to appreciate, in all its magnificence, the intellectual - vacuity combined with puerile pretentiousness that are characteristic of this director. There also remain enough salacious sequences,' in .conjunction with the theme and its.' development, for a ban on exhibition to persons under eighteen to have been.substituted, with à vote, for the total prohibition previously proposed.” • . :

The trouble starts when a film's aesthetic, philosophical, documentary or other merit is as evident as its non-conformity with accepted moral standards. It hardly, needs pointing out that this is the case with many major productions that are bound to cause a stir and carry weight. It is as though the interest and worth- of the film could be assessed on two levels, first,' according to the customary criteria of morality, and then according bo the criteria of a humanism interpreted in a very liberal sense indeed; once again, this salvaging of the work / amounts to glossing over the inherently scandalous contents in favour of the form- of the message and thereby giving it a purified meaning. . But this, impact of form is naturally not perceptible to everyone. Such a film will be confined to audiences with experience enough to discriminate in their . enjoyment, of it. .* .The morality ratings of the Centrale CathoLfgue. afford numerous examples of films thus "rescued" for limited consumption: for instance, L'immortelle : "This film should be seen, but only by audiences who are properly informed and will make the necessary mental reservations"; ”the unpleasant side of this film is tempered by the transposing ox Hamlet, on account of which it will be regarded as an exercise in style51 ;

Les amants do_ Torrue1: ”thc eternal theme of passionato lovers parted is illusi: rate cl in hxghly expressive photography and choreography, but the very sincere aesthetic intent diminishes the equivocal effect of the film as a whole”;

Le feu follet; ’’this film, ox undoubted technical and dramatic merit/ nevertheless calls for a warning on moral grounds owing to the pernicious and depressing effect it may have on a number of spectators”.

Subtler perhaps than aesthetic sublimation, documentary realism can similarly be the saving grace. We give in _ the report of a French censor explaining his hesitation 'in t/rpïoving or censuring a sociological investigation films 11 ! jumb o jumbo is a document of unquestionable intei’ost, depicting the situation in the Oameroons on the morrow of independence and exposing several of the major scourges of this as yet under-developed young country: namely, juvenile delinquency, ’unemployment, prostitution, alcoholism and so on, She directors rang^ through town and countryside with their camera, composing a bittur-swoct picture, very colourful but made up of elements which, in the final analysis, are depressing, for smiles and mocking grins are there in close proximity, hoedless- ness jostles with sorrow, bluster with resignation, tho ridiculous with the tragic, the comic with the cruel.

To illustrate their sociological exploration, the authors question many representatives of this piteous humanity and in highly picturesque language of childlike candour tho latter explain the motives of their behaviour. Pathetically exposing a crude psychology, in which poverty is most often the catalysing agent, these exhibitions reach their peak when a ’’first-class” prostitute unashamedly enpasises her physical attractions, boasts of her knowludgeability in love-making, reveals her chief aphrodisiac recipe and ends by declaring how delighted she is with her very lu c ra t ivo bu s i no s s.

For all these reasons, in conjunction with the fact that this film is supposed to bo intended for televising, the undersigned asked for certain cuts, and above all of the above-mentioned scene, underlining the threat to young people’s morals contained in such a profession of faith. The board nevertheless considered that the scone.was embedded in a complex of undeniable merits and that the positive aspects of the work outweighed the risks referred to. Accordingly, it proposed no restriction in the certificato of fitness for exhibition, ” One can never stress too strongly the extent to which considerations of aesthetic or cultural value in the broad sense weigh with the censors in coming to their decision. The censor cannot look with the same impartial eye at the dangers of a film he appreciates as one of quality as at those of a run-of-the-mill film. Paradoxically, he displays greater leniency towards the good film although he might consider that its very distinction of form renders the content more insidiously pernicious. But in fact the censor remains true to his rôle as representative, guardian and advocate of the standards of the average public. These include set opinions about morality but also about taste, psychological probability, historical or geographical truth, what is r,worth while" showing in a film, in short, the whole tissue of at times contradictory desiderata and the reverse, which at any given time and place makes up the body social and its culture. Transgression of accepted standards in one sector is justified by the need to abide by dictates which are imperative in another. Furthermore, judging films in the name of a humanism which accepts, among other things, the idea of constant, irreversible and in the end bénéficient mutation of those very standards. European censorship does not in general seek to stem the current 'of emancipation. It does not want to wage a Roomed, rearguard battle, bur to control and regulate the speed of change. Its function is to obviate shocks and evil examples which a too . sudden change in the general system of values would ihevitably provoke. It acknowledges that works of art in general and the cinema, in particular have the complementary function of pioneering in the cultural assimilation of new patterns of behaviour; the. cultural dignity of the artistic message has long been respected in the West as presaging a morality superior to that accepted by custom., APPENDIX

Propcsed inventory of scenes censored by European censor's-nip bodies

Without wishing to express actual "recommendations” to censors - who alone are the judges as to the correct adjustment of their criteria to the national character and the state of morality in their own countries - we ifeel that it would be in keeping with the mission of the Council of Europe to draw the attention of member countries to the value of a permanent exchange of information among their censorship bodies.

The instrument of such an exchange could be an inventory* s circulated periodically, cataloguing and giving abstracts of scenes that have given rise either to cuts or to the banning of a film for particular age-groups. Were such an inventory to be undertaken and built up systematically, the benefit would be twofold, namely

- practical: it would enable censors to inform themselves speedily on the policy followed by their opposit numbers • elsewhere in regard to specific films or types of problem;

- theoretical : it would furnish the social sciences and jurisprudence with valuable material for a comparative study of the moral and cultural norms of our several countries.

How might such an inventory be envisaged?

One system of classification would consist in card-indexing films in alphabetical order (according to the original title, of course) and indicating the measures taken in respect of each in such-and-such country. This would have the advantage of simplicity. Moreover, it would have the immediate practical value of showing, for each film, what scenes may afford grounds for reservations.

A second system of classification, more difficult to work out but also richer in theoretical data, would consist in designing a card-index by theme. Under such headings as, for example, "Scaldings", or "Desecration of corpses", or "Anti-religious sentiments" and so on would be found all the examples of such scenes, with their description and a note of the measures taken against them. Censors called upon to judge a scene of the same type in a new film could refer to the index for precedents in their own or other countries. DPC/CORC (66) 5 final - 39 - Appendix

The two systems are not, of course, mutually exclusive. It would be advantageous to design a two-part inventory consisting of an index of film titles with cross references to an index of themes .

In the initial stag?! we would suggest to each censorship body that it record the data relating to each scene censured by it on cards designed as under:

Title of film:

Nationality of censuring body:

Film cut or banned for (relevant age-group) :

Description of scene censured:

Grounds for decision: