“Ban it. Cut it. Classify it.” That was the stance the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) took when rating movies in the middle of the last century, according to Professor Christopher Frayling. Frayling is just one of the subjects interviewed in Matt Pelly’s BBC Four documentary, “Dear Censor,” originally released in 2011 as part of the doc series "Timeshift." The hour long film takes a look at regulations and alterations the BBFC imposed upon films distributed to for UK audiences, and how such censorship led filmmakers to buck the system in sometimes surprisingly profitable ways. Overseen by Arthur Watkins, Chief Censor from 1948-1956, the BBFC took an incredibly harsh stance against films now considered iconic, including “Rebel Without A Cause.” While the studio fought for an A rating on that release, which would have dubbed the film suitable for adults, the Board felt James Dean would have been seen...
- 10/22/2014
- by Zach Hollwedel
- The Playlist
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