Uncut Antichrist prompts moment of lucidity from Beyer
Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist has been passed uncut with an 18 certificate by the British Board of Film Classification, despite scenes featuring violent sex, genital mutilation, and erect penises.
This is a welcome sign that the BBFC are continuing along a liberal path, assuming the role of informer rather than censor.
John Beyer, the anti-smut campaigning successor to Mary Whitehouse, sums it up with unusual clarity:
The BBFC no longer ‘cuts bits out of films’ but provides information about films so that members of the public can make up their own minds about what films they want to see or avoid.
And this, he goes on to explain, is exactly what Mediawatch UK is against. We can’t have the public making informed decisions for themselves, can we? That is a job for their moral superiors.
Because they know best.
[…] of providing information so people can make up their own minds. Cue the increasingly sarcastic mediawatchwatch.org.uk: We can’t have the public making informed decisions for themselves, can we? That is a job for […]
“Increasingly sarcastic”? Where on earth do you get THAT idea from?!!
Oh the BBFC let the public make up their own minds what they want to see! How disgraceful! How dare they!
They should be making up the minds of the public and only allowing them to see films that Beyer and his pressure group think are suitable.#
Of course!
What a pity that someone doesn`t censor Mr Beyer`s remarks, so that he does not continue to cause such offence to reasonable and sensible people in the Twenty-first Century!
“‘cuts bits out” So when did Beyer get an advance screening of the film?
“Cutting bits out” reminds me of Cinema Paradiso , where the Priest has to have a private viewing of every film to be shown in the village, so that he can order the cutting of every scene involving two lovers kissing! This film has the funniest ending of any that I have ever seen, but I`m not giving it away, for the benefit of anyone who hasn`t yet seen it!!
When you think about it, Beyer must have spent the best part of four decades in a darkened room watching smutty films.
No wonder he’s so out of touch with the real world.
It also puts me in mind of Mary Whithouse`s comment (I wonder whether other contributors also remember it): “Last Thursday evening we sat as a family to watch a programme that started at 6.35, and it was the dirtiest programme that I have seen for a very long time!” So, they WERE in the habit of watching “smutty” programmes as a family then?!!
PS Have other readers come across the site Beyer Watch, which covers this as well? I don`t see a link to it anywhere, but that means very little, actually!!
The only Beyer Watch I know of is the one done by the Melon Farmers…
http://www.melonfarmers.co.uk/nwb.htm
Is this what you are refering to?
That`s the one – though I have no idea where they get that name from!!