Transparent Classification
Censors have been replaced by classifiers, opaque silence by annual reports.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...
6 Juni 202439min
Abject Grace: Bad Lieutenant (1992) feat. Rob Doyle
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 autho...
23 Maj 202449min
Staging violence: The Wild Bunch (1969)
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 ver...
2 Maj 202441min
A Celluloid Nasty: Peeping Tom (1960)
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...
18 Apr 202437min
Anti-natal: Rosemary's Baby (1968)
A horror fan (Lloyd Meadhbh) and not-a-horror fan (Aoife) agree that this unexpectedly feminist film did not deserve to be banned twice in Ireland. Caveat: Roman Polanski directed it.Rosemary’s Baby (...
4 Apr 202438min
The Full Gere: American Gigolo (1980)
Ties, suits and sex - Paul Schrader's exploration of consumerism and Richard Gere's hotness was pruned of bad language and "sex scenes" by the Irish censor.American Gigolo (1980, dir. Paul Schrader) s...
21 Mars 202438min
Video Nasties (Part Two)
What’s the worst celluloid crime committed in The Evil Dead: excessive violence or Bruce Campbell’s fringe? Lloyd Meadhbh (a fan) tries to persuade Aoife (a sceptic) to embrace this video-nasty classi...
7 Mars 202431min
