Year book of motion pictures (1925)

Branding men and animals. Women fighting with knives. Exaltation of doubtful characters as heroes. Making the sacrifice of a woman's virtue laudable. Infidelity on part of a husband justifying adultery of a wife. Confinement and puerperal pains. Views of dead bodies. Subjects in which sympathy is enlisted for criminals. Animals gnawing men, women and children. Realistic scenes of epilepsy. Insistence upon the inferiority of colored races Advocacy of the doctrine of free love. Salacious wit. The perpetration of criminal assaults on women. Scenes depicting the effect of venereal diseases, inherited or acquired. Incidents suggestive of incestuous relations. Themes and referencese to "race suicide." Scenes laid in disorderly houses. Materialization of the conventional figure of Christ. French and Italian Standards In "The Morals of the Movie" Dr. Oberholtzer, formerly secretary of the Penna. State Board of Censors says (p. 107) : "Since 1916 France has had a commission of five members to examine and control the exhibition of film. Unless it be accompanied by a certificate which they have issued no picture may be shown in any theater of the country. So long ago as in 1913 the prefects of the departments were authorized to prohibit "les representations, par les cinematographes, des crimes, executions capitales et d'une facon generale de toutes scenes a caractere immoral et scandaleux." In Italy all pictures must be licensed before they are shown. They are inspected and censored prior to certification with a view to preventing the exhibition — "(a) Of pictures offending against morals, good manners, public decency and private persons. "(b) Of spectacles injurious to the national fame and self-respect, or against the public order, or likely to disturb our good relations with foreign powers. "(c) Of such as would lessen the name and fame of public institutions and authorities, or of the officers and agents of the law. "(d) Of scenes of violence, horror and cruelty, even where animals rather than human beings are concerned, or of crimes and suicides realistically reproduced; and in general of scenes representingperverse actions or facts which would be incentive to crime, or be calculated to unsettle the mind and provoke to evil." The whole subject is under the control of the Minister of the Interior in Rome. In Spain likewise the screen is subject to legal regulation. Suggestions for India Censors Censorship suggestions to American trade for India, made by Consul General A. W. Weddell, Calcutta : There are three boards of censorship in India — at Bombay, Calcutta, and Rangoon — which represent the educational, religious, political, and commercial organizations of those cities. The charge for censoring a picture is 5 rupees per 100 feet, and the picture is usually viewed by one paid official before its public exhibition. From interviews with the various operators in Calcutta, the following suggestions are made a: to producing and exporting American films to India: (1) A reduction in price by the manufacturers for exhibition rights in India, (2) more caution as to the nature of the film sent to India, (3) more attention to detail in films depicting Indian life, (4) establishment of an American agency in India for the distribution of films and general management of the trade. FOREIGN CENSORSHIP REGULATIONS Belgium Films shown in Belgium must pass a censorship board before passing before the public. Children under 16 years of age cannot be admitted to see films that have not received the approval of the board of censorship. This censorship has for purpose to prevent films showing crimes or incidents that might suggest crime from being shown to children. Immorality is considered of less importance than crime, and counts for only 50 per cent in the board's decision. Bulgaria While it is believed that sensational films are the most popular in Bulgaria, several recent prohibitions of the Ministry of Education make the future of such films in Bulgaria somewhat doubtful. It is claimed by the authorities that they exert a bad influence upon certain classes of the population who are inclined to emulate the feats which they witness on the screen. The censorship in such cases appears to be carried much too far, especially in the case of American films, and an effort is now being made to have several films re-instated which have already been prohibited. Brazil (Sao Paulo) There is a rigid censorship of motion pictures by the police authorities of Sao Paulo and no film can be exhibited without the approval of the police authorities. Irish Free State Under the provisions of the Censorship of Films Bill, 1923, passed by Dail Eireann on May 28, 1923, to become operative six months after that date, all motion pictures and other "efforts produced by means of cinematograph or other similar apparatus" must be officiallly censored and passed before being exhibited in the Irish Free State, reports Vice Consul Harold M. Collins, Dublin. Palestine All films ,due to the religious character of the country and especially those likely to foment possible trouble amongst the populace, are censored by a representative of the Moslem, Jewish and Christian communities and by the police. Poland Censorship of all films is compulsory. The National Board of Censorship is located at the Press Bureau of the Ministry of the Interior, Nowy Swiat 69, Warsaw. It is central in and holds jurisdiction over all Poland. The time required for censorship varies from 8 to 30 days. It is compulsory that titles appear in the Polish language. In case of bi-lingual titles, the Polish title must precede. The conversion of a foreign language to Polish titles can readily be accomplished in Warsaw at a nominal cost. Moving picture films tending to provoke emigration agitation fall under general restrictions prohibiting such agitation. The showing of scenes in the United States incidental to current events or to plot development would not normally fall under this restriction although such scenes are eagerly viewed. Roumania All films shown in this country are required to be censored bx a national board of censors. The customary procedure to be followed for the purpose of securing authorization for the exhibit of films is to deposit the films to be exhibited at the Prefecture of Police in Bucharest, with a full description thereof and a formal application for permission to exhibit them, which should contain a declaration replying to the following questions : Does the film contain nudes? Is the good or bad victorious? Are the bad punished for their sins? Is the film directly or indirectly, prejudicial to the existing social order? After having been examined and censored, if necessary, by one of the five members of the board of censors, the films are returned to the Prefecture of Police, which cuts out all objectionable parts and then delivers the neoessary authorization for the presentation of the films. The board of censors, in conjunction with the police authorities, does not permit the exhibition of criminal or immoral films or of films which are prejudicial to the interest of Roumania. All titles must be in the Roumanian language. 361