Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mit-eddie!thakur
From: awp92@campus.swarthmore.edu (Andy Perry)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.cinema
Subject: Re: NC-17 controversies
Message-ID: <1990Nov29.062739.10107@eddie.mit.edu>
Date: 29 Nov 90 06:27:39 GMT
References: <1990Nov27.205705.5453@eddie.mit.edu> <1990Nov28.003448.17949@eddie.mit.edu>
Sender: thakur@eddie.mit.edu (Manavendra K. Thakur)
Reply-To: awp92@campus.swarthmore.edu (Andy Perry)
Followup-To: rec.arts.cinema
Organization: Swarthmore College
Lines: 36
Approved: thakur@zerkalo.harvard.edu


In article <1990Nov28.003448.17949@eddie.mit.edu>, meuer@geom.umn.edu (Mark V. 
Meuer) writes...
> 
>Is this even slightly surprising to anybody?  It seemed very obvious
>to me from the outset that the industry just wants to make more money,
>and labeling "X" films "NC-17" is a way to get more people to attend
>movies they wouldn't before.  I'm sorry to be so cynical, but
>believing that the movie industry is sincerely trying to advance art
>with this new rating is incredibly naive.

I don't think it's as simple as all that.  You must remember that the
new rating is in fact *harmful* to studios if (and only if) NC-17
films are advertised and shown in mainstream or art venues.  Why?
Because it takes away the studio's main means of control of big-name
directors.  When an X rating was a commercial liability, directors
could not dispute the clause in their contracts which said "the film
you make MUST get an R rating."  If the film looked like it would get
an X, the studio could force cuts.  Or, if you want to be
conspiracy-minded, if the film was particularly effective at
expressing the things that the industry doesn't seem to like expressed
(rage, for example), the industry could force cuts.  It is very
significant that the push to change the system was begun by
independents like Miramax.  (Although, it is certainly no less
significant that only big studios had the clout to actually get it
done.)

So, here's my question: why would anyone think that an NC-17 is a good
thing for "Blond Emmanuelle" and that genre to get?  People in the
market for porn want porn, not art.  It seems likely to me that XXX is
much more of a draw than NC-17 for the rental market.  The rating will
stay relatively "pure" (vatever dodd minnz), because besmirching it is
a bad business move, both for artsy filmmakers and for pornmakers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andy Perry; Swarthmore College AWP92@campus.swarthmore.edu OR
AWP92@swarthmr