A film examiner with the British Board of Film Classification in the mid-Eighties, Enid Baines (Niamh Algar) embodies the censorious conservatism of her times. Both literally and metaphorically buttoned-up, with her severely tied-back hair and her Mary Whitehouse-style winged spectacles, she is known (behind her back) to colleagues as “Little Miss Perfect” for her painstaking…
Piece originally published in Little White Lies On the 18th of August, 2009, the British Board of Film Classification (or BBFC) refused to grant a certificate to Koji Shiraishi’s Grotesque (aka Gorotesku), which had been due for DVD release through 4Digital Asia. It is one of only four films to have been rejected for certification…
Piece originally published in 2011 by EmpireOnline (but since taken down – banned perhaps?) Patience, they say, is a virtue. On 6th June, 2011, the BBFC published its decision to deny a certificate to Tom Six’s The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence), effectively banning the film for allegedly posing “a real, as opposed to a fanciful, risk…
Piece, first published by Little White Lies, on the BBFC’s decision to refuse certification to Tom Six’s The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence). Note that after the initial ban (and after this piece was written), the BBFC reversed its decision upon appeal, granting the film an 18 certificate on condition of 2 minutes and 37 seconds…
Video Nasties: Draconian Days first published by Film Divider “How little historical memory we have! The next time there’s a panic, we won’t remember how stupid the last one was, and how people got away with things. Critical voices have to care about history.” The speaker is Martin Barker, an academic who, in the midst of…