A group of British researchers are conducting a questionnaire devoted to five films with a high degree of sexual violence; Fat Girl, Baise-Moi, Irreversible, Ichi The Killer and House on the Edge of the Park. Though partially funded by the British Board of Film Classification this research is being done independent of their influence, despite what my source claims. It seems that these five particular films were chosen because they may contain positive virtues that the Board can’t quite put their finger on.

The five films in question are all ones over which they had long debates. In each case there were scenes involving sexual violence on which they had to make difficult decisions: whether to cut, what to cut? In making these decisions, they are partly governed by legal requirements. But also they have to make judgements about the films, and make interpretations about the place of the sexual violence within them. To do this, they take what help they can get from available research.

The research that is available doesn’t begin to answer all of the BBFC’s questions. For example, how does the context in which sexual violence is shown affect people’s understanding of it, and response to it? What impact do their own cuts have on the ways people see these films? They are funding this project because we showed them that there were ways to find out.

I think it’s interesting that a censor is looking for outside help in determining whether this (mostly) new wave of ultra-violent films are in fact justified in showing disturbing material. Usually it takes decades before they even consider that a film with shocking and brutal violence has any artistic merit.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 4th, 2006 at 12:56 pm and is filed under Misc.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.