Gay Film ‘Passages’ Gets Slapped With An NC-17 Rating
In a move that harkens back to the 1950s while simultaneously echoing the ongoing censorship of depictions of LGBTQ identity nationwide, the Motion Picture Association has given the upcoming queer film Passages an NC-17 rating.“We hunger for movies that are in any proximity to our own experience,” director Ira Sachs told Los Angeles Times, “and to find a movie like this, which is then shut out, is, to me, depressing and reactionary.”To be sure, the Sundance drama is quite sensual — it centers on a Parisian love triangle between a movie director (Franz Rogowski), his artist husband (Ben Whishaw), and a teacher (Adèle Exarchopoulos).And yes, it has its fair share of sex and nudity — including a two-minute scene of the two husbands shot in a single take.
But none of the scenes are particularly indelicate or over-the-top, the film’s distributor MUBI said in a statement.For Sachs, the rating is “a form of cultural censorship that is quite dangerous, particularly in a culture which is already battling, in such extreme ways, the possibility of LGBT imagery to exist.”“MUBI has officially rejected this NC-17 rating,” the film’s distributor said, per Variety. “MUBI remains committed to releasing Passages nationwide in its original version as the filmmaker intended, with our full backing, unrated and uncut.”Passages will be released unrated in select theaters, with a wider rollout to follow, Deadline reported.Directors sometimes make cuts to get the NC-17 rating down to an R to allow younger teens to see the film in theaters.
But for Sachs, “there’s no untangling the film from what it is,” he said. “It is a film that is very open about the place of sexual experience in our lives.
