Passages director Ira Sachs compares the MPA rating board to those trying to ban books
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Ira Sachs would like to know why the MPA still exists.
The director, whose latest film, Passages, hits theaters Aug. 4, is speaking out against the organization responsible for bestowing ratings upon all motion pictures released in the United States.
The Motion Picture Association (formerly known as the Motion Picture Association of America, a.k.a. MPAA) gave Passages an NC-17 rating, meaning that no one under the age of 17, even those accompanied by an adult, will be permitted entry. MUBI, which acquired the film out of Sundance, is releasing the film unrated.
While MUBI called the MPA's move "unexpected," Sachs says it actually is not when you consider the MPA at large. "It was surprising, but it shouldn't have been after the MPAA gave a film like [my] Love Is Strange, which could have been an after-school special, an R rating," he tells EW. "I began to see that the MPAA is in place to give a warning shot to artists that certain images will be punished."
Sachs says he's less interested in the reasons Passages was slapped with the NC-17 rating than he is in the continued existence of what he sees as an outdated organization.
Monika Skolimowska/picture alliance via Getty Ira Sachs at the February 2023 Berlin International Film Festival premiere of 'Passages'
"Why does the MPAA still exist as a nameless board that has the right to censor?" Sachs asks. "What's the difference between the MPAA and the groups in Texas who want to control the library? What's the difference?"
Sachs points to the MPA's evolution from the Production Code that ruled Hollywood filmmaking from 1934 to 1968 and the censorship of Will Hays, president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. "We have to think about where this began with the Hayes Code, and I want to make pre-code movies," he quips.
Furthermore, Sachs says that he was not given a list of bullet points of objectionable content or suggested cuts — not that he would have implemented them. "There wasn't a discussion," he notes. "When [the MPA] rewatched the film, it was clear, they just fast-forwarded to the sex. But they look at intimacy out of context to story, which makes it hard to decide if it's gratuitous or exploitative."
MUBI backs up Sachs' point of view. The distributor previously released a statement saying, "Passages is an honest and groundbreaking portrait of contemporary relationships, both queer and straight. Frank and thoughtful portrayals of sex are essential to cinematic storytelling and in service of representation more broadly. An NC-17 rating suggests the film's depiction of sex is explicit or gratuitous, which it is not, and that mainstream audiences will be offended by this portrayal, which we believe is also false."
A Sundance breakout, Passages depicts a love triangle between filmmaker Tomas (Franz Rogowski), his long-term partner Martin (Ben Whishaw), and grade-school teacher Agathe (Adèle Exarchapoulos). An affair between Tomas and Agathe threatens to tear their lives apart, but Tomas seeks for a way to make both relationships work.
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