France: : Under urgent procedure, administrative court suspends classification licence for the film ‘Love’

• Autores: Amélie Blocman
• Localización: IRIS: Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory, ISSN-e 1023-8565, Nº. 8, 2015, págs. 14-15
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In a decision delivered on 31 July 2015, the administrative court in Paris suspended the classification licence allowing the film ‘Love’ to be shown to anyone over 16 years of age which the Minister for Culture had issued in early July. Gaspar Noé’s film, presented at the Cannes Film Festival and released on 15 July 2015, describes ‘a burning passion full of promises, games, excesses and mistakes…’. At the time, it was screened (in 3D) at 33 cinemas throughout France, including seven in Paris. The Minister’s decision was in line with the opinion of the CNC’s classification board, which had tacked a warning onto the licence ‘because of the numerous scenes of non-simulated sex. Nevertheless, the author’s narrative intention in depicting an intense love affair and the strength of the connection created between the two main characters, as well as the humanity of their relationship, leaves the viewer in no doubt’. The association ‘Promouvoir’, whose aim is to promote Judeo-Christian values in every area of social life, applied to the administrative court under the urgent procedure, claiming that the film contained scenes of a pornographic nature and that it should therefore not be allowed to be shown to anyone under 18 years of age. Under the urgent procedure, the association therefore called for the suspension of the disputed licence which allowed the film to be shown to anyone over 16 years of age. In defence, the Minister for Culture held that the provisions at issue should be interpreted by combining objective and subjective criteria, in order to take account of both the intrinsic qualities of the scenes and the work as a whole. Thus the Minister felt that the main purpose of the film was to show an exclusive love affair in a realistic fashion: the narrative treatment and the artistic ambition of the film counterbalanced the sex scenes and, she believed, justified allowing the film to be shown to anyone over 16 years of age