‘Last Tango in Paris’ no go in N.Z.

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33342, 28 September 1973, Page 1

‘Last Tango in Paris’ no go in N.Z.

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, September 27. The film “Last Tango in Paris” will not be shown in New Zealand. The Cinematograph Films Censorship Board of Appeal has rejected the appeal by United Artists (Australasia) Pty, Ltd, against the decision of the film censor to ban the film.

The board’s decision was released tonight. The 22-page decision was not unanimous and was made by 7 the majority judgment of the appeal board’s chairman, Mr W. H. Carson, and a board member. Miss M. J. Clark

The third board member, Mr W. N. Sheat, argued in a dissenting opinion that the film should be shown provided three conditions were met: The certificate should be

R2O. The so-called “sodomy scene” should be reduced or cut entirely. Posters and advertisements should carry the words: “Warning — some people will find the scenes and language in this film offensive.”

Mr Carson’s decision said that the censor banned the film in April on the grounds that it was contrary to the public decency and that its exhibition would be undesirable in the public interest. United Artists appealed in May. During the appeal its counsel, Mr L. W. Brown, Q.C., said an R2O certificate would be acceptable to the appellant. NO CUTTING

In his decision, Mr Carson said that the film did not lend itself to cutting.

“My view is that, even if, as one reviewer said, the explicit scenes which might be called into question occupy no more than 15 minutes in a total of 132 minutes, the film does not lend itself to cutting.

“I reject, therefore, any suggestion (which I did not understand seriously to be advanced) that this appeal should be disposed of in that way.”

Mr Carson also said he was satisfied that the appeal should not be disposed of by the issuing of a warning, or by imposing an R2O restriction — which Mr Brown would have accepted. ‘PRESSURE’ Mr Sheat, the dissenting member of the board, said the delay in the hearing of the case had allowed opportunity “for a great deal ofj attention to be given to this film in the media and has created the situation in which to deal with the matter in the objective way necessary has become a formidable! task indeed. “. . . The worst aspect of the matter,” he said, “has been a campaign to bring pressure on this board mounted by an organisation which calls itself the Society for the Protection of Community Standards.” Mr Sheat said that today’s audiences, while they might be shocked or disgusted, were capable of accepting that initial reaction and looking more objectively at what lay behind words and actions.

He said that seeing the film proved to be something of an anti-climax. PLOT SUMMARY

I The film stars Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider.

A summary of the plot by Clive Barnes, of the "New York Times,” printed in the board’s decision, reads: —

“The story is of a middleaged man, shocked into the reassessment of his life by

the suicide of his wife, who has a sudden, whimsical, savage affair with a young girl. [Eventually he decides he | wants to marry her. She shoots him.” Under the Cinematograph Films Act, 1961, he could not pass films such as "Last Tango in Paris,” even if such films were claimed to have artistic merit or serious intent,. the New Zealand film censor, Mr Douglas Mclntosh, said tonight on the television programme "Gallery.”

Mr Mclntosh said film censorship decisions were made as objectively as possible.

“Overt sexual acts are not permitted in public and the cinema is a public place. Certain words are not allowed in public and I don’t intend to make them public.” Mr Mclntosh said the release of “Last Tango in Paris” in Australia was a political decision. The film was not passed by the film censor. “A head of State has the right to decide, and he did.”