L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 10 THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021 L'Italo-Americano I n t r o d u c e d w i t h Royal Decree num- ber 532 on the 31 st o f M a y 1 9 1 4 , f i l m c e n s o r s h i p h a s been abolished in Italy at the beginning of this month b y M i n i s t e r f o r C u l t u r a l H e r i t a g e a n d A c t i v i t i e s D a r i o F r a n c e s c h i n i . From now on, a specialized C o m m i s s i o n w i l l b e i n charge of classifying movies b e f o r e t h e y a r e r e l e a s e d . Censorship, Franceschini himself stressed, was a "sys- tem of controls and inter- ventions that still allowed the State to intervene on artists' freedom of expres- sion," and was therefore in profound need of change. While its initial focus was that of controlling the politi- c a l , r e l i g i o u s a n d m o r a l standards of each and every film shown in Italian cine- mas, film censorship even- tually shifted focus to safe- g u a r d i n g m i n o r s f r o m potentially harmful content. T h i s s p e c i f i c f u n c t i o n i s , indeed, still important, but will be exercised differently. A n e w c o m m i s s i o n , t h e C o m m i s s i o n e p e r l a C l a s s i f i c a z i o n e d e l l e O p e r e C i n e m a t o g - rafiche, operating within t h e G e n e r a l C i n e m a Direction of Italy's Ministry of Culture, will assess each a n d e v e r y f i l m t o e n s u r e they are rightly classified. There is, however, an enor- mous difference between the work of the old censorship and that of the Commission, as Nicola Borrelli, direc- tor of the General Cinema D i r e c t i o n , e x p l a i n s : "Producers or distributors can propose a classification f o r t h e i r m o v i e s . T h e Commission has the duty to assess it and make it offi- cial." The Commission, com- p o s e d b y 4 9 s p e c i a l i s t s , including sociologists, peda- gogues, psychologists, cine- ma experts, lawyers, teach- ers and parent groups' rep- resentatives, will classify m o v i e s i n r e l a t i o n t o t h e minimum age of their view- ers (movies for everyone, n o t s u i t a b l e f o r c h i l d r e n under 6, under 14 and under 18). Each classification will b e c l a r i f i e d , s i m i l a r l y t o w h a t h a p p e n s a l r e a d y i n other countries, by naming the content within the movie not considered appropriate for the targeted age group: s e x , v i o l e n c e , u s e o f weapons, profanities. The Commission will exclusively work on movies distributed in theatres and not on those r e a c h i n g t h e p u b l i c v i a streaming services: in that c a s e , i t i s a m a t t e r o f p a r e n t a l c o n t r o l , t h a t i s , families are responsible of what they want their kids to see. While censorship hadn't been what it was in the early y e a r s o f i t s e x i s t e n c e f o r q u i t e a l o n g t i m e , i t s t i l l managed to make a number of "victims" throughout its over 100 years of life: of the a l m o s t 3 5 , 0 0 0 m o v i e s a s s e s s e d s i n c e 1 9 4 4 , 7 2 5 w e r e r e f u s e d – 2 7 4 f r o m Italy, 130 from the US and 3 2 1 f r o m t h e r e s t o f t h e world -- while more than 10,000 were accepted only after cuts and changes were made. O f t e n , c e n s o r s h i p w a s exercised at the writing and production stages already, o r w h i l e m o v i e s w e r e filmed: no wonder artists felt the heavy hand of con- straint holding their creative f r e e d o m a t t h e n e c k . O f course, we're talking about different times, but don't be fooled: Italian censorship m a d e n o t a b l e v i c t i m s , including Luchino Visconti's R o c c o e i s u o i F r a t e l l i (Rocco and his Brothers), Federico Fellini's La Dolce V i t a a n d P i e r P a o l o Pasolini's La Ricotta (an e p i s o d e o f t h e o m n i b u s R o . G o . P a . G . ) . A n d t h e n , A l b e r t o L a t t u a d a ' s L a Spiaggia (The Beach) and even Mario Monicelli's Totò e Carolina, because it made fun of a policeman. The last film fully banned by the Italian censorship was the controversial Totò che Visse due Volte (Totò w h o L i v e d T w i c e ) , b y Daniele Ciprì and Franco M a r e s c o : t h e m o v i e h a d been financed with public funds, as it was considered of national cultural interest but, on the eve of its release, censorship imposed a full ban because, it was declared, the film degraded "the digni- ty of the Sicilian people, of Italy and of humanity;" it was considered an offence to morality, and showed deep "contempt for religion," as demonstrated in the many "blasphemous and sacrile- g i o u s s c e n e s , f i l l e d w i t h m o r a l d e g r a d a t i o n " t h a t characterized it. In spite of it, the movie was eventually allowed to be released. H o w e v e r , t h e m o s t famous case in the history of I t a l i a n f i l m c e n s o r s h i p remains that of Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in P a r i s , s t a r r i n g M a r l o n B r a n d o a n d M a r i a S c h n e i d e r . T h e m o v i e , known for its controversial, violent sex scenes, wasn't only banned by the Italian censorship, but brought to trial in an Italian court in 1976. In spite of Bertolucci's a p p e a l t o t h e a t t h e t i m e President of the Republic Giovanni Leone, all copies of t h e m o v i e i n t h e c o u n t r y were destroyed, with only three of them being saved a n d k e p t a t t h e C i n e t e c a Nazionale in Bologna, as "evidence" of the "crime" against morality the movie represented. The work of Italy's film c e n s o r s h i p i s f i n a l l y f i n - i s h e d . T h e S t a t e w i l l n o l o n g e r h a v e t h e r i g h t t o j u d g e a n d d e c i d e w h a t i s morally or politically accept- able for its people. While it hadn't done that, as we said, for quite some time, it is a great achievement for film- m a k e r s . F i n a l l y , c r e a t i v e freedom is offically accept- ed, in all its forms, also in the Belpaese. It remains to b e s e e n h o w t h e n e w Commission will assess pro- d u c e r s ' c h o i c e s a n d h o w potential contrasts will be dealt with. Finally, the era of film censorship in Italy is over, after more than 100 years (Photo: Mara Cerri) LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE GIULIA FRANCESCHINI Italy says goodbye to film censorship after more than 100 years

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