Article
09.08.04
Irreversible remains unavailable on video and DVD
The distributor of the French film Irreversible recently asked the Classification Office to consider allowing the film to be released for adult viewing in cinemas. In 2003, the Office had limited its exhibition to film festivals and tertiary institutions. After failing to get an interim restriction order stopping its exhibition at Beck’s Incredible Film Festival in 2003, the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards withdrew its application to have the film’s classification reviewed.
In June 2004, the Australian Classification Review Board confirmed Irreversible’s classification at R18+. As in New Zealand, the film was first exhibited at a film festival before going on to general theatrical release. This pattern of release has been repeated in Germany, Spain, Japan, Sweden, USA and Argentina.
The film has been released theatrically in France (598,812 admissions), Italy (161 screens), Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain (29,044 admissions), Turkey, Portugal, Poland, United Kingdom, Japan, USA (35 screens), Hungary, Argentina (10 screens, 41,263 admissions), Peru, Norway, Israel, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Mexico City, and Australia.
The Office decided that this pattern of release, of general theatrical exhibition following an initially limited exposure in film festivals, was a cautious and gradual approach to balancing the freedom of expression with the need to minimise the risk of injury to the public good that the film’s unlimited availability might have caused. It is also consistent with the classification of Baise-Moi, which was originally limited to film festivals but subsequently granted a general cinematic release by the Film and Literature Board of Review.
Irreversible remains off limits to retail video and DVD outlets, and its exhibition in cinemas is restricted to persons 18 years of age and over. It retains its original descriptive note warning of “brutal sexual violence, graphic violence, and sex scenes”. The Office has strongly recommended that exhibitors post the telephone numbers of local Rape Crisis centres in cinemas screening the film, and that viewers are warned of the film’s sound and strobe lighting effects in advance.