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The MPAA has given an NC-17 rating to the Steve McQueen-directed Shame, which is exactly what Deadline told you would happen back when we broke the story that Fox Searchlight had acquired it at the start of the 2011 Toronto Film Festival. The rating was dealt for “some explicit sexual content,” which basically means that Michael Fassbender goes Full Monty through much of the film. McQueen expected this rating, and the deal stipulated that the winning distributor would not be permitted to change a frame of a film that everybody knew would be NC-17. Fox Searchlight will wear that rating like a badge, despite the limitations that come with trying to market NC-17. Nobody feels this is a gimmick, and Shame is getting great critical response and gives Fassbender a real shot at an Oscar nomination. This might be the closest thing to Last Tango in Paris or Midnight Cowboy that we’ve seen in quite a long time.
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“The rating was dealt for ‘some explicit sexual content’, which basically means that Michael Fassbender goes Full Monty through much of the film.”
No sex?
The MPAA are the obscenity. They’re a relic and should be put out of business.
I’d rather have the MPAA give some bullshit rating than the government start censoring and banning films like in Australia. The MPAA is very flawed, but can you name a better alternative?
Besides, based on what this film is about, it seems like this film actually deserves the NC-17 rating.
I don’t know – is passive, hidden, studio-funded censorship better than overt out-in-the-open censorship?
If only Shame wasn’t such a colossal bore. With an oddly homophobic twist at the end to boot. And a seriously melodramatic turn by Carey Mulligan. And dialect work that is all over the map. James Badge Dale and Nicole Beharie are good though. And MF is of course excellent and stunning to look at.
“Both Mulligan and hearthrob lead actor Michael Fassbender will appear in several scenes full-frontal naked.” – in an article elsewhere
Boy oh boy, I know I’m there. Carey Mulligan is hot hot hot, tsssssss.
Can someone explain how Steve McQueen is back from the dead directing though?
Carey Mulligan is ‘hot’?? Really?? In what universe?
Shame is not a bore, and it had no homophobic twist! If you didn’t like the gay club scene, tough!
The NC17 rating will be used as a smart marketing tool, and Fassbender will most likely receive his first of several Oscar nominations.
Wanna make movies for adults, what’s it matter if the rating is NC17 or X – your purported target audience won’t care. So go make movies for adults and quit trying to lure the kids on like a bunch of perverts.
All those “serious actors” that want to fuck on screen are more than welcome to, just rate it X and be proud of your work.
I agree; there should be more adult features being made. It just makes it harder (pun intended) to market. The plus side is more people will want to watch it now because of the harder (!) rating.
Gonna take a wild guess that Tink is a “nevernude.” Tobias would be so proud of you.
Shame is “a bore”? Well, it depends on who’s watching it! I didn’t think it was a bore and most of the critics agree with me. I found it interesting, gripping, emotionally raw. It’s a movie that doesn’t feed you a ready meal. You have to think, to digest it. We’re not accustomed to listening and thinking anymore, as an audience. Shame is quite simply the best movie I’ve seen in 2 years and yes it’s NC-17! Kids should not be allowed in. In Europe it will be a 18, which is even worse, but no one on Europe thinks 18 is a scarlet letter. There are films for kids and films for grown ups, it’s really silly that people should be fearful of a grown ups rating.
Yes, quite a lot. No one under 17/18 should be allowed in. It’s a movie for grown ups and there is absolutely nothing titillating about it.
The MPAA ratings are a joke. It is absolutely absurd that a film featuring a naked man gets NC-17, but films featuring agressive violence and torture-porn (Hostel, Saw, et al.) only get an R.
I’m not saying the violent movies should be NC-17, I’m just saying it’s an awful sign of the times when something as natural and normal as the human body is considered so wildly inappropriate for youth that not even their parents are allowed to decide if they can see it.
But is the rating really the full nudity? Or the sexual content in addition to the nudity? I mean it’s about a sex addict so what do you expect I guess. But lots of other films have full nudity that didn’t get an NC17 rating.
But that’s always been the American way: Decapitate as many people as you want, but don’t you dare show the human body fully.
And you wonder why there are so many sexual assaults and rapes and hangups about sex and sexually unsatisfied marriages in the US, whereas in Europe and other countries where they are more open to nudity and sex on screen and in general there isn’t.
We are so repressed here, it’s like an Asian country. We let the church control way too much in this country. We are so backwards. And that was not the intentions of our forefathers. They broke away from the King and church specifically to be more sexually inclined.
There is nothing wrong with the human body. Society doesn’t make museums with naked statues NC-17.
I think you’re confusing Steve McQueen, American actor, with Steve McQueen, British artist and filmmaker.
I think Eli Roth actually shot Hostel as an NC-17 movie and was surprised that it got awarded an R. It’s also amazing that films with extreme violence like Saving Private Ryan and Passion of the Christ got R ratings. But a naked man, well, that’s too scary to our homophobic society.
Wasn’t Blue Valentine going to be rated NC-17? What was the reason there? I don’t think it tons of nudity, did it? “Full frontal” from Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams?
So is it basically going to be impossible to see this film now? I tried to get to it at the NYFF but it was sold out all three screenings. Now that it has the NC 17 rating what are the chances movie theaters will even show it in the US???
The little I’ve seen so far looks good; moody, smart and sexy. After Inception and Limitless audiences are hungry for good grown folks movies.
Why isn’t Carey Mulligan above the title with Fassbender? She’s been in a few good movies in her own right.
Because he is the lead and it’s a story about his character.
Carey Mulligan naked? No thanks.
Has anyone else noticed that, for female frontal nudity, the MPAA lists it as “nudity” but, for male frontal nudity, they list it as “graphic nudity”? How is male genitalia more “graphic” than female genitalia?
Female ‘nudity’ vs Male penis ‘graphic nudity’, is commonly referred to as sexism or bullshit.
Maybe because with female frontal nudity you actually don’t see her genitalia? So yes, technically speaking, male frontal nudity is more graphic than female one.
Anyway, I will never understand Americans approach to sex and nudity, graphic or not. Sorry, but there is something wrong with people who are OK with showing extremal violence but are afraid of something as natural like human’s body. I know it’s generalization and not everybody in USA is like that (even comments here prove it), but still if there was a general opposition to those ratings system and to how the NC-17 rated movies are treated (i.e. not played in most of the cinemas) that sick ratings system would not exist for so long. Right? It seems that most people in USA are actually OK with it.
It’s typical for hypocritical conservative sociaties. US is no different than Iran, both uptight about sex yet have no problem showing violence on news channels.
Several years ago there was a study about porn use and it showed that USA,Iran and Pakistan consume porn legally or illegaly, as is the case with Iran and Pakistan, more than other countries in the world. All three countries consider sex as something to be hidden and immoral and their view of women is sexist and misogynistic.