FILM & The BBFC

Historical: The Devils (1971 Ken Russell)

18 with cuts

Year: 1971

"At around the same time, this 'rough cut' was also shown to senior executives from Warner Brothers, the film's distributor. In a rare example of a film being censored not only by the BBFC but also by its own distributor"

"On 18 May 1971 the BBFC awarded an X certificate to the cut version of the film."

"Warners were therefore obliged to cut the film by another six minutes (on top of the cuts already made in the UK) in order to produce a version of the film that was acceptable for an R rating."

"released on video in the UK in the early 1980s and it was this bowdlerised version that was formally submitted to the BBFC for video classification after the introduction of the Video Recordings Act in 1984. It was classified 18 without further cuts but was a very different film to the one released in UK cinemas in 1971."

"The original UK cinema version remained unavailable on video in the UK until 1997 when it was resubmitted to the BBFC following a successful airing on BBC2 in 1995"

Contemporary: Antichrist (2009 Lars Von Trier)

18 uncut

2009

"contained several strong images which required consideration when it arrived at the BBFC in 2009"

"The distributors made no category request for the work"

"Though the images are strong it was clear throughout that Antichrist was not a 'sex work' but rather a serious drama exploring issues such as grief, loss, guilt and fear."

"The Board was aware of no evidence to suggest that the viewing of a scene such as this is likely to be harmful to adults. It is not presented in an eroticised or attractive manner and is not likely to encourage emulation or arousal"