Just announced that the film has not been granted permission to screen at the forthcoming Melbourne Queer Film Festival because of the explicit gay sex scenes in it.
But films with gore and violence are routinely rated MA15+ (Under 15 must be accompanied by an adult - but rarely enforced).
Australia is becoming more and more conservative thanks to the two main political parties who BOTH oppose same sex marriage.
Yes, this country is most definitely becoming very very backward in its views. They seem to think that by pretending that we're not as big a group as we are that we will just somehow disappear.
shareIrrespective of how violent films are classified here, the bigger question is why do films with explicit hetero sex scenes not qualify for the same treatment.
shareMany MPs actually DON'T oppose same-sex marriage. The problem arises when you look at the mechanics of politics and find both parties rejecting same-sex marriage in order to secure the large Catholic voting base. Yes, it sucks, but the parties alone are not the problem, but once again our old friend religious intolerance.
The very real consequences? Retardation of social progressiveness and entire generations of bigots having their homophobic views reinforced.
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The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know it for the first time.
There is a petition which has just been created to overturn the decision:
http://www.change.org/petitions/australian-classification-board-overturn-the-refused-exemption-status-of-the-film-i-want-your-love#
Voted... But now it keeps spamming my email. So now it's in junk
shareI would've thought they'd have been more enlightened than this...
Unless there's a film that forces viewers to have gay sex against their will (unlikely), then adults should be able to make their own minds up about what they want to watch...
James Franco is now on the case... but somehow, I'm not holding my breath that his objection alone will be enough to get this decision overturned!
"Your mother puts license plates in your underwear? How do you sit?!"
Having watched this movie I can see why it was banned in Oz; the sex scenes are more than just explicit .... it's as close as one can get to a porn film with a storyline.
share"the sex scenes are more than just explicit .... it's as close as one can get to a porn film with a storyline." That would make make much more sense for wanting to ban this movie in OZ .Then it being a gay flick,what i want to know is when the hell james franco is going to come out of the closet and quit fooling us.Porn is ok to look at when your looking at porn.When your making a legit film theres no need to put it in there .We dont need to see sex that graphic in any film thats not porn.If people want to see porn they can stay home and watch it ,its just a click away ;no need to waste time at a film festival.
"If you want art, don't mess about with
movies. Buy a Picasso"
Baise moi, a French film with very explicit heterosexual (and heterosexual only) sex scenes, was banned in Australia under the Howard Government in 2002.
I do think we are strange for the way we are more likely to accept extreme forms of violence in film over explicit sex-scenes.
Base Moi was banned because of explicit sex during rape scenes, not just because the sex was real, but because there was brutal violence during unsimulated sex.
9 Songs has several unsimulated sex scenes, oral, vaginal penetration, ejaculation, etc, but it got away with an R rating.
There is definatly a double standard here.
You blow your argument with your own words.
Unless someone's holding a gun at your head and forcing you to watch (which is REALLY unlikely), you do have a choice to, oh I don't know, NOT WATCH.
If YOU don't want to see "sex that graphic," then DON'T. But who the hell are you to decide what is and what isn't acceptable for others? If you don't "want to see porn," then you can keep your priggish little butt out of that theater. And you can always mind your own business if it's not hurting you or causing harm to someone else.
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You seem to think sprinkling your homophobic prudery with curse words makes a legitimate argument. It doesn't.
The value of an idea has nothing whatsoever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it.-Oscar Wilde
James Franco is not one bit gay. He's a provocateur, for sure, but not gay.
At a party with him, I watched him with both men and women. He gave all of his attention to the person he talked to, making him/her feel like the most important person in the world. Then he moved to the next person and did the same thing. He's a narcissist and wants to be loved...but he loves the vajayjay, for sure.
How sure? So sure that he doesn't care about making more-gay themed films than most gay actors combined. He loves the attention. That's all.
And yet I know so many gay men who keep voting for one of the two parties, although they both stand against their basic civil right - to get married. It's like, it's not a big issue here. Like, it doesn't really matter.
Well, there's always the greens for us who actually care.
Just watched it. It's no worse than 9 Songs as far as explicit sex goes, so as has already been mentioned, there is definatly a double standard. But the real problem I have with this movie is that it's just not very good. It's yet another pretentious gay themed movie with unlikeable characters and nothing worth caring about, that is trying to pass itself off as edgey and groundbreaking by throwing in hardcore sex. It's a shame it was banned in Australia, not because it's being judged unfairly, but because of the banning it's getting more attention than it deserves.
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