France is a country that people either love or hate, get ready to hear some more news that will either have you cheering or booing for the place where women tan topless and age gracefully. The people over at yahoo.com give us this:
The French culture minister sat through a screening of horror flick “Saw III” — and wasn’t happy with what he saw. Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres announced in a statement Tuesday that he would prohibit minors under 18 from seeing the film, which opens this week in France. The minister said the movie exhibited “violence and intolerable, incessant sadism.” The scenes explicitly showing “physical and moral torture” justified the decision, he said.
Such decisions are rare in France. The under-18 ban was ressurected in 2000 for Virginie Despentes’ sexually explicit film “Rape Me,” and it has been applied to only a handful of releases.
This is a rare thing for France, they are, after all considered too liberal, excusing everything in the name of art. To ban this movie for minors is quite…intelligent.
Yep, I am in total agreement of this decision. The amount of violence that minors are exposed to on a regular basis is obscene. Seeing a naked woman freezing to death will not do anything for the next generation of people growing up in the world. Sure the creativeness of the torture is interesting, but there is nothing helpful in this movie for kids. Unless you count desensitizing the masses toward gruesome acts a good idea.
I know that kids see violence all the time, but do we have to give up and buy them a book on masochism for dummies? Wouldn’t it be better to take a stand? I think it would.
I have long wondered why nudity is bad but violence is tolerable. If our children saw half as much nakedness as they do violence on a daily basis they would probably have fewer body issues, and be a lot less inclined to act out aggressively.
I think France is in the right for doing this and I’m not afraid to say it. Ok, well I’m a little afraid, but just because my family is English.
Actually, there really easy on violence as well in France.
Someone getting decapitated might pass with an all ages rating in france. A “12” rated movie can have even worse – zombies ripping peoples intestines out and eating them(land of the dead), torture and forced cannibalism(hannibal), and so on. And there just as lenient on sex scenes.
I guess it goes to show how sick of a movie SAW 3 is – to get an 18 rating in France, where almost everything is rated for all ages.
On the other hand, when the french say no one under 12 can see it, they mean it – no one under 12, not even with a parent, by law. The “R” in america on the other hand doesn’t keep 4 year olds out. Mabye we’d be better off with the french ratings board.
Do kids really need to be protected from “kingdom of heaven” or “gladiator”? I don’t think they do. The french don’t try to – those are all ages in france.
But saw 3 is different. And over there, almost no kids will see it.
So the French culture minister wastes his time watching Saw III and then he even issues a statement about banning it; doesn’t he have better things to do? I mean I’m totally OK with his decision, but IMO it should’ve been somebody else’s job to do this, not the minister’s.
Worst as in plot, yes. There were a couple of cringy moments but on the whole I didn’t think it was too bad. I have a high gore threashold though.
Personally I found Cabin Fever quite bad in that respect and it’s body related horror but not in an intentional violent way. Also – Switchblady Romance (High Tension) is a good example of pointless death and violence. Both great films and way better than the Saw sequels.
Hello from France !
Well all that story doesnt change a lot. “Saw 3” was before in France banned under-16… now it’s under-18. There is not so much difference after all. I dont get the thing everybody here is telling about “not good for kids”. Guys of 16 years old and 17 years old are not intelligent enough to understand the movie ?
Anyway, i’m 24, and i will see that movie ^^ I need to see by myself if it’s really the worse episode of the trilogy as most of the people said.
Total agreement with you Sharon. Too many lines get crossed in the name of “ART” and it’s about time adult start protecting the kids (in regards to movies and such).
I couldn’t agree more with your comments about ‘Saw III’. I don’t understand the current fascination with this new sub-genre of horror – the torture pic.
The popularity of this type of film, especially given our military leaders recent penchant for advocating real torture (as long as it’s overseas-out of sight, out of mind), is a pretty disturbing indictment on our society.
Wherever this ‘hunger’ for watching people slowly suffer and die comes from- children, with their young, impressionable minds, should not be exposed to it.
Eric Werner
RIP Robert Altman