Porn, boring, says censor

Press, 22 October 1984, Page 4

Porn, boring, says censor

PA Wellington The Chief Film Censor, Mr Arthur Everard, says watching pornographic films is boring and that he never gets aroused by what he sees. Mr Everard was answering questions on the Sunday morning television talk-back Kamme, “On Line” yesy. ■> He said he found pornography boring because “it is so patently simulated.” “Soft core, skin flicks are really pathetic,” he said. Nude actors with no make-up gave the films a “clinical” look, he said. They were “rather sad” films and he felt sorry for those who wanted to watch them. Most of the questions put to Mr Everard concerned sex and violence in films. He said the connection be-

tween violence in films and in real life was. difficult to demonstrate causally. While an unstable person with a predisposition towards violence might be affected by watching violence on screen, the normal person would not be affected, he said.

Asked about the possibility of combining all the different censors — of films, television, and written material — in one office, he said it was a “lovely idea” but probably unworkable. The power that such an office would hold was “awesome” and different criteria were needed in different contexts.

He did not think an across-the-board ■ definition of what was indecent was possible. “All you would do is transfer disagreements into a closed shop,” he said.