“Ucho” (The Ear) was “released” in 1970, but not officially until 1990 (end of the USSR).
It’s a fine movie, and very well executed. I’ll paste the IMDB description, since I don’t want to spoil it, but if there are some who have seen it, we can always use the Spoiler tool on here to get more in-depth.
“After coming home from a Party gathering one night, a Czechoslovakian official becomes convinced that he is about to be the subject of a political purge and tries to do damage control, while also dealing with his turbulent marriage.”
A good way I’d describe it is “The Lives of Others” meets “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
I’m going to look into this movie more, but very eager to throw this out there “before its too late!”
So you are asking about banned movies, not bowdlerized ones? Man, are you going to get lots of unwanted replies from people who read only the thread title.
I can’t offhand think of a movie that was once banned that didn’t turn out to be so tame that I wondered what the fuss was about. I suppose there might be some snuff films out there that qualify as deservedly restricted, but whatever.
My favourite censorship-made-it-better movie moment is the “Ballad of Rock Ridge” song from Blazing Saddles, where the last word of the song ("… shit.") gets drowned out by a loud MOO! Since I’m not even slightly scandalized by a cinematic use of the word “shit” (I cheerfully assume movie audiences in 1974 felt differently, of course), the modified version just sounds funnier to me.
Comments courtesy: List of banned films - Wikipedia Häxan (1922) – “Banned until 1929 due to the use of torture and nudity. Its themes of witchcraft and Satanism may also have had an effect.”
The Skeleton Dance (1930) – Classic Disney short was banned in Denmark as “too macabre.”
L’Age d’Or (1930) - Banned in Paris “in the name of public order.”
Duck Soup (1933) – Banned in Italy for poking fun at dictators, and in Nazi Germany (along with all other Marx bros movies) because the bros were Jewish.
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1934) – Banned in Nazi Germany.
Paths of Glory (1957) – Banned in France and elsewhere in Europe.
Peeping Tom (1959) – Banned in Finland until 1981.
Viridiana (1961) – Banned in Spain until 1977.
The Battle of Algiers (1965) – Banned in France for 5 years.
Goldfinger (1965) – Briefly banned in Israel following reports that Gert Fröbe had a Nazi past.
Horrors of Malformed Men (1969) – Not clear why Japan banned this, but it probably had something to do with the depictions of malformed men hitting too close to a-bomb survivors.
