Censorship

BRITISH FILM CENSORSHIP

Film censorship in the United Kingdom began initially with the aim of controlling flammable nitrate film stock. In 1909 the first Cinematograph Act was passed, giving local authorities the right to license buildings for the screening of film only if they met the required fire-prevention standards. However, the terms of the act were wide open and were very soon interpreted for other purposes. In 1910 the London County Council successfully

applied the act to restrict the showing of films on Sundays. It was recognized that the act had also enabled local authorities to have legal powers of film censorship. Sensing the difficulties of allowing regional bodies to make their own regulation decisions, fearful of government intervention but also keen to polish its own image as a respectable form of entertainment, the film industry approached the Home Secretary in 1912 with a request to establish an independent and centralized board of censorship. In late 1912 the film industry established the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC, later the British Board of Film Classification) with approval from the Home Office.

The BBFC began viewing films on 1 January 1913 with the declared aim of being "a purely independent and impartial body, whose duty it will be to induce confidence in the minds of licensing authorities and of those who have in their charge the moral welfare of the community generally." The Board had a significant effect on the censorship of films, but it did not change its essential nature. The local authority remained the final court on whether a film should be screened, censored, or banned, even if it had been passed uncut by the BBFC. The local councils largely supported the BBFC's decisions, but there have been notable exceptions such as Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), a film accused of blasphemy by pressure groups but which was classified "AA" (admission prohibited to anyone under 14). It was banned by eleven local authorities, with sixty-two enforcing the classification and twenty-eight reclassifying it "X" (admission prohibited to anyone under 18). In a rare instance, the film Dawn (1928), the World War I story of nurse Edith Cavell, was banned by the BBFC at the insistence of the Foreign Office, which did not wish to upset Germany. But, in opposition, it was passed by many local authorities.

From 1913 to 1932 the BBFC published in its annual reports a list of prohibited film content. Not a code, these lists became known after 1916 as O'Connor's rules (after the new BBFC president T. P. O'Connor, who presented a forty-three-point list). Subject to ridicule, the lists were discontinued in 1932, with films later judged on individual merits. In 1929, for instance, the list included the prohibition of "stories tinctured with salacious wit," "sensual exposition of Eugenic doctrines," "women fighting with knives," "libels on the British nursing profession," "provocative and sensuous exposure of girls' legs," and "abdominal contortions in dancing." From its beginning, the BBFC had an advisory two-point certification system—the "U" certificate, which indicated films especially suitable for children, and the "A" certificate, which indicated films generally suitable for public exhibition—and in 1921 these were formally adopted for the first time.

There had been repeated debates concerning an adults-only category, with proposals for an appropriate certificate being made as early as 1921. In response to the increasing number of American horror films, a new category of film classification was created in January 1933. The new "H" (for "Horrific") classification was purely advisory and did not alter the admission procedures that were already in place, still allowing children into the films if accompanied by a parent or bona fide guardian. This "horrific" category mixed horror films with non-horror films, such as Abel Gance's 1938 antiwar movie J'accuse! and a 1945 United Nations war crime film. The "H" became a film certificate only in June 1937, when it was made the first adults-only certificate in the United Kingdom (admission prohibited to anyone under 16). In January 1951 the "H" was subsumed into the newly created "X" certificate (admission prohibited to anyone under 16; increased to the age of 18 in 1970; in 1982 replaced by a new "18" certificate). Arthur Watkins, the secretary of the BBFC in 1951, described "X" films as not "merely sordid films dealing with unpleasant subjects but films which, while not being suitable for children, are good adult entertainment." The BBFC currently operates eight film and video classifications—from "Uc" (Universal, but especially suitable for very young children), to "R18" (for screenings in licensed sex cinemas, for sex videos that are available only in licensed sex shops, and to persons aged 18 and over).