Censored

In our last (for now) episode, we chat to John Kelleher who was appointed Irish film censor in 2003. When he left in 2009, the Irish Film Censor's Office had been renamed the Irish Film Classification Office, a reform that reflected how it had become, as John says 'more guide dog than guard dog'.

Until the pod returns, thanks to everyone for listening!
A & LM xx
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Censors have been replaced by classifiers, opaque silence by annual reports. We read recent annual reports from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and the Irish Film Classification Office (IFCO) to see how those offices work in a digital media age, and to see what the (complaining) public thinks of their role.

Films mentioned
Minions: the Rise of Gru
Ghostbusters
Watership Down
Bambi
Star Trek the Motion Picture
Nutcracker (by Matthew Bourne)
The Batman
Batman Returns
A Man Called Otto
The Banshees of Inisherin
Saltburn
Cocaine Bear
Benedetta

BBFC 2022 Annual Report
IFCO published reports
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This remarkable neo-noir, directed by Abel Ferrara, has never been certified by the Irish Film Classification Office (the new name for the censor’s office). Aoife and Lloyd Meadhbh are joined by author Rob Doyle to discuss how Abel Ferrara and Zoe Lund, with backgrounds in porno sleaze, made a sincere film about redemption, and forgiveness.

Bad Lieutenant dir. Abel Ferrara, starring Harvey Keitel

Rob Doyle
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In Sam Peckinpah’s film, standard Western tropes – outlaws, heroes, beautiful landscape – are used to interrogate an exhausted genre. He knows spectacular gunfights are problematic but did the cut version shown in Ireland convey Peckinpah’s intent?

The Wild Bunch, dir Sam Peckinpah, starring William Holden, Ernest Borgnine

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One of Martin Scorsese’s favourite films and guess what? We agree, it’s brilliant. Contemporary audiences detested it, preferring to ignore why they derived pleasure from realistic, filmed torture and terror. This film has everything from Freudianism to a Hitchcock doppelganger. Cuts made by censors might be lost forever but it still shocks and gives us a perfect amount of ick.

Peeping Tom (1960) dir. Michael Powell, starring Karlheinz Boehm, Anna Massey, Moira Shearer

Psycho (1960) dir. Alfred Hitchcock, starring Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh.

The Red Shoes (1948) dir. Powell and Pressburger, starring Anton Walbrook, Moira Shearer.

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And, Merch
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