Festival films too hot for R18 says watchdog group

By PETER CALDER

A morals group is seeking to stop the screening of two films programmed for the opening night on Friday of the Auckland International Film Festival and is contemplating action against at least two other films in the festival programme.

The Society for the Promotion of Community Standards is seeking a review of the R18 classification granted to the Mexican feature Y Tu Mama Tambien (And Your Mother Too), which has shown at festivals in New York, Toronto, Rotterdam and Sydney.

The film, a road movie in which two sex-obsessed teenage boys head off to the beach with an attractive married woman, is described in the programme as one of the year's best films. Rated R18 for drug use, sex scenes and offensive language, it is programmed as the festival's opening night attraction on Friday.

But reviews of classifications typically take several weeks and the society has applied for an interim restraining order, which would prevent the film being shown until the review is heard - effectively closing the Friday screening for which more than 1100 tickets have been sold.

The president of the review board, Claudia Elliott, has set a deadline of 4pm today for submissions on the society's application.

Society secretary David Lane says his group has also lodged an application for a review and restraining order in respect of the Austrian film The Piano Teacher, which is scheduled to screen later on Friday evening. That film, which won the Grand Jury Prize, the best actress and best actor awards at Cannes last year, is a portrait of a controlling and sadistic music teacher and described by New Yorker critic David Denby as genuinely shocking.

It has been classified R18 with a censor's warning of violence, sexual violence and explicit sex.

Mr Lane declined to comment on whether he had seen either of the films. He said it was not necessary to do so to have grounds for appeal against the classification.

"We have put a case, a legal case, and the decision rests with the president of the board. The buck stops with her," Mr Lane said.

The society was considering what to do about "another two or three" films but there were many films in the festival "which the society thinks are outstanding and which the media should highlight", he said.

Film festival director Bill Gosden said that an interim injunction would render the review process automatically contrary to the interests of film festivals and freedom of speech and damage the credibility of the classification office.

"These outcomes contravene the public interest," he said.

"An interim injunction would privilege the opinion of zealots who have not seen the film, but hate the sound of it, over the opinions of the censorship professionals of several nations, including ours.

"It would, in practice, hand to David Lane the ultimate authority over what can be seen in a New Zealand film festival."