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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume. 34, Number 1. 1971

Screw Censorship

Screw Censorship

Performance, never to be seen.

Performance, never to be seen.

Among the many manacles on our minds is the fact of censorship. Censorship exposes the sham of democracy for what is is. There is no participation in the decisions of the censors, which are yet supposedly in the interests of the public good'. Censorship is a pernicious form of thought control, operating through the pre-selection of material available for public consumption.

The censors are afraid. They fear the social consequences of daring revolutionary films and books. In fact they fear these works themselves, for they embody a new world view, which threatens the values and attitudes which prop up a dying social order. When we examine the particular films subjected to censorship in this country we find them to be usually the most exciting and significant works of our age.

This trend of censorship will become more and more marked as time passes. Popular art mirrors and exposes the society which produces it, and artists are those who are able to perceive the reality of their own and our common condition. The most important and adventurous directors now working in films are also the most subversive of the established order: Godard, Glauber Rocha, Pasolini and Bertolucci. Naturally the censors are not happy about the exhibition of films like Weekend, Theorem or Antonio das Mortes. Theorem is banned in Australia, and films by Godard and Bunucl have been banned in New Zealand.

Some film makers approach the problem of censorship by forseeing it, and tackling their material in an oblique or covert way. This is the approach of Antonioni in Zabriskie Point. This film is 'coded' so that only those alert to the meaning of the visual symbols will pick up the total meaning of the film - possibly the most subversive film to be financed by a major American film company. This coding is comparable with the verbal coding of Blake's poetry - produced during a rigidly totalitarian era.

The American director, Roger Corman, stated in a recent interview, "All of my films have been concerned with man as a social animal. I have the choice of approaching the subject directly, in which case I seem to run into censorship difficulties, or indirectly through horror films, science-fiction and so forth, where the issues seem more acceptable in their disguised form." His new film. Bloody Mama is likely to run into censorship trouble in New Zealand, and will no doubt be described as pornographic by the censors and their apologists, who will talk about violence and indecency and the corruption of youth. This should not delude us: censorship of Bloody Mama is political censorship, as were the bannings of Kagi, Diary of a Chambermaid, Une Femme Mariee and Performance.

Performance began to run into trouble even while it was being made. It was only due to the takeover of Warner Brothers by Seven Arts, and the consequent change of top-level executive personnel, that the film was completed. The head of Warner Brothers wanted to stop shooting and junk it. When the film was at last completed, Warner Brothers delayed its release for over two years. Now that it is being shown in England, the company have given it minimal publicity, and are embarrassed by its popular success. In New Zealand and Australia the film was banned.

It is clear from overseas reviews that Performance is one of the finest British films for some years. It was co-directed by Nicholas Roeg, noted cinematographer on Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451. The film deals in a frank realistic way with modern life in Britain. Mick Jagger plays a rock and roll singer, and James Fox plays a hoodlum hired to terrorise him. The Film Censor regards it as 'contrary to the public interest'. For what reason? He is not required to state any reason.

Our system of film censorship allows the censor to operate in secrecy. The only way to find out what films are banned or cut is to go to the Film Censor's office and look in his register (for a fee). The register has only a very few details: it shows the title of each film submitted, the certificate it received, the footage (sometimes) and whether it was cut (sometimes). In Australia a monthly bulletin is issued giving details of censorship, including the footage cut from each film and the reasons for cuts, also the reasons for rejections. It is not possible to learn anything about the reasons for rejections in New Zealand, and possible only in an indirect way to know how much is cut from a given film.

In 1970, of 75 feature films submitted for the first time and carrying an 'R' certificate, 45 were cut, many of these extensively. We are dealing here only with film censorship for adults. Because of our system of restrictive certificates, many films are censored merely by the imposition of a certificate barring children from the theatre. While this is reprehensible enough in itself, it is appalling to find that films restricted to an adult audience are also cut.

Among the cut films of 1970 and the early part of this year we find Mash, Medium Cool, Zabriskie Point, Woodstock, Getting Straight, Satyricon and Catch 22. Some of these cuts are minor, but others are severe: there are five minutes cut from Catch 22 and a minute from Satyricon. Remembering that film passes through the projector at the rate of 24 frames per second, one realises that five minutes represents an awful lot of footage lost.

The censor has no respect for the integrity of a film, despite his claims to the contrary. He has cut nearly every Bergman film screened in New Zealand, including Persona, one of the key works of art of our time, and films by Fellini and Antonioni. The only exceptions to this mutilation are works which co-incidentally happen to be literary adaptations. (Ulysses - a film of minor importance, and Women in Love are two examples of films passed uncut.) Of course he has not extended any leniency to the last literary adaptation to come his way - Myra Breckinridge.

For too long film-goers have had to suffer the indignities of censorship in silence. No longer! If you care about film censorship, you can join CAAC (Campaign for action against censorship) or simply turn up at one of their demonstrations against censorship at Wellington cinemas. Patricia Bartlett is dead! Yippie!