Watching it for the millionth time. I couldn’t believe it- they showed Appolonia’s bare breasts. I was under the impression that that was verboten, what with the actress being (afaik) underage at the time of filming.
No, not necessarily - as long as it was considered artistic it was generally not a huge deal. At least back then. The Godfather has nothing on Pretty Baby which featured a 12-year old Brooke Shields. Now I really have my doubts if the latter could be made today without causing an even bigger furor than it caused in 1978. If it could even be made at all. But compared to that film The Godfather is the very model of propriety.
Olivia Hussey was also briefly topless at 15 or 16 in the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet and that got shown unedited in one of my High School English classes no less. Thora Birch in 1999’s American Beauty is a more recent example.
I don’t know how this happened but this is the first I’ve heard of this. Looking it up it seems she was born in 1954. Not quite 18 when the movie was released.
The Sicilian scenes were filmed in Sicily. Assuming the wedding night was, Italian law could be different and allow a 17 year old to be photographed topless.
I think judges can allow exceptions if they feel it is important for a career and mental maturity, etc. I remember that about Michelle Johnson although “Blame it on Rio” hardly made for a great career (assuming it was that film and not something earlier).
The bare tittie Appolonia scene was featured prominantly in a Playboy Mag spread and was in most theatrical releases. Frankly, I’m shocked that AMC finally released an un-bowderlized version of Godfather. These are the people that won’t allow Schtupp in Blazing Saddles.
Just watched an episode of Mad About You from 1994 last night where Paul dropped the Sch-word.
I think this is one of those “context” things. It’s like dropping the S-bomb on Conan. If you mean it like something being terrible, okay. If you mean actual feces, not okay.
Isn’t censorship so wonderfully rational?
My bolding added. That movie came out when I was in ninth grade and we were reading R&J. We wanted to see the movie as a class and our teacher agreed but some parent heard Hussey was topless and protested at the “immorality”. So we couldn’t go. For goodness sakes, it was only the flash of one side of her breast. And there was, I admit, a flash of Romeo’s butt. But they were MARRIED. Where is the immorality in that. Of course we all went to see the movie on our own. It’s been my favorite version, although I’ve liked others.
AMC and Conan are on cable which is not governed by the FCC, it’s not censorship, but rather TBS and AMC deciding what it will and will not allow on its network.
Sometimes if it’s not English you can get away with more. There was an episode of ST-TNG in which Capt. Picard muttered, low but quite audibly “Merde”.
Did I say that the FCC was censoring those???
You used the term censorship, which is not accurate. Censorship is the suppression of expression by the government. AMC and TBS made decisions about what content they would allow to be broadcast on their networks, that is not censorship.
There are definitions of censorship that have nothing to do with government. So AMC’s dubbing, pixelating, etc. is still a form of censorship.