Impact (Mar 1972)

..aS far as sex is concerned, the Board hasn’t really loosened up all that much...The scenes that were cut out of | Am Curious, Yellow in 1969 would still be cut today... trying to avoid a Restricted rating, though even bere (e.g. Woodstock) there is no hard and fast rule. This Classitieation factor looms lave mm the question of screen nudity as well. For as long as a film falls into the Restricted category, the Board will now generally allow even full frontal nudity as long as its context is not too overtly sexual and as long as it is not unduly exploited by extreme close-ups, zoom shots, or other kinds of camera emphasis. Such pictures as The Devils and A Clockwork Orange, uncut in Ontario, demonstrate this fact very clearly. Only if a film applies for a lower rating will otherwise inoffensive nude scenes be trimmed as they were in Ryan’s Daughter or in the Australian film Walkabout where the long shots of a naked Jenny were left intact but a couple of medium shots were eliminated. When the element of explicit sexual activity is added to the nudity however, the whole issue takes on different proportions. For as far as sex is concerned, the Board hasn’t really loosened up all that much of late. The scenes that were cut out of 1 Am Curious Yellow in 1969 would still be cut today, scenes involving full length. copulation (or at least simulated copulation) and genital contact that are still very much verboten in Ontario, except perhaps at Cinema 2000. For this is the area where the Board treads very lightly and with great trepidation, the grim spectre of the Morality Squad hovering before its collective mind’s eye. This is the area where it believes trouble would come and this is the one category of censorship in which the Board has remained firm. “T don’t think we can go much farther than we have done already”’ says Mr. Silverthorn though comparatively speaking they haven’t really gone very far at all. There’s been a whole sexual revolution taking place in films in the States and elsewhere in recent years that has bypassed this province completely. The folks in Buffalo for example can see things in the local Bijou that Make your views known now! Fill out the questionnaire and send it to us—we’ll forward them all to the Censorship Board and publish’ the results in Impact. Should censorship be abolished entirely in Ontario? Yes [ | No [| Tf you checked ‘no’, continue the questionnaire (see over)... Tell us about yourself: Occupation or smacarn IR ISSnINEERSTSRORSIEENSS SED CEERI Age Sex Married or single City (and borough) How many times per month do you go to a movie? Return the questionnaire to us Censorship Impact Magazine 31 Mercer Street Toronto 135, Ontario