Discuss the representation of the terrorists and the couple in the extract from spooks.
Spooks is a BAFTA award winning crime/political/espionage drama series set primarily in London detailing and following a group of MI5 agents as they work, often with interesting story lines and extravagant action. In the following paragraphs I will analyse different techniques employed by the director to represent binary oppositions, in the form of two different couples; a married couple, (who also happen to be MI5 agents) and two terrorists conspiring against the government.
Interestingly the way the extract is shot can influence the way in which the audience perceives characters, making cameras one of the most important factors contributing to the authenticity of the opening, dependent on the angle and coordination with the mise en scene of the shot feelings and emotions are provoked from the viewers creating a sense of attachment towards the main protagonists and contempt for the scenes antagonists, as illustrated at the very beginning when the camera approaches the terrorists car, at a low angle, intentionally showing the terrorists possession of power by making the car seem bigger and more menacing, immediately establishing that the person who owns and is seated within the car has fallacious intents and as the camera sweeps past a non diegetic zooming sound is heard, which adds tension and hints to the audience that something is not right. Alternatively and contrastingly, the two who we as the audience presume to be the protagonists, leave their house and are filmed in slow motion, walking relatively confidently from yet again, a low angle, however, this functions differently to our ‘heros’ as it presents them with an aura of power and benevolence which differentiates to the evil exuding from the terrorists. Whilst the terrorists are positioned within the car the camera cuts to a shot of the male antagonist inspecting something, it is then cut to an eye line match shot in which we discover that he is watching the couple leave their house, by exploiting the right wing mirror, this acquaints the terrorists with the idea of hunting, showing the terrorist as a predator, stalking and silently observing.
Similarly sound is also a key determinant in producing an efficacious drama, by manipulating feelings a director can almost control the audience’s senses and lead them to answer their own questions simply by managing sounds correctly. We are immediately plunged into the sequence by incredibly suspenseful somewhat eery music, building audience tension levels, gaining their interest becoming fixated on the screen. During this piece there is a shot of a young girl skipping which is completely different to the music and does in no way fit the soundtrack, completely contrasting and opposing ordinary dramatic structure. Songs are also used to demonstrate the mood of the scene, this is established in the kitchen when we as the audience are both shown the protagonist couple, and their relationship when an RnB love song is played over the radio which personifies the characters to become relatable, presenting them in a normal environment that is familiar to all of us experiencing a feeling of love, that is familiar to all of us. However this is also somewhat discomforting for the audience as what is supposed to be a private moment for the couple is actually being intruded upon by terrorists, overhearing via a bug in the couples home.
Definitively, I would personally place Mise en Scene as the singular most important device used to create a successful dramatic piece it involves perfecting lighting and props to authenticate and make a simple set ‘real’ to the viewer. For instance, the antagonists car is huge, black and frightening which is in keeping with the terrorists ill intentions forged against the government and MI5 whereas opposed to this the protagonist couple are shown getting in to a bright silver vehicle which the audience immediately associates a bright colour with ‘good’ and purity, deriving further that these two are the heros of the scene. Reverting to a previously made point, the skipping girl that we are shown in the opening seconds is positioned adjacent to the antagonists car, cleverly contrasting the innocence of the young girl playing with the maliciousness and murderousness of the terrorists positioned just feet away, shocks the audience and creates an uneasy discomfort that potential terrorists could be that close to any of us, raising the familiar issue of modern terrorism that has become a part of audiences everyday lives through media coverage. Correspondently, whilst the terrorists are sat in the car the director half lights them disfiguring their faces, acting as a disguise by creating a sense of mystery surrounding them by making their visage increasingly menacing. As the lighting within the car is very dark, when the shot cuts to the kitchen the vibrance and change in colour is shocking, as it is relatively bright, perhaps reflecting our protagonist character’s good intentions. Both couples act as binary opposites throughout the scene, this can be seen through interaction, as seen whilst in the black car, the antagonists relationship is incredibly professional and reasonably uncomfortable, whereas the heroes interaction is natural and spontanious relaxing the audience’s tension. A further example of binary opposition is introduced through the characters apparel, The terrorists are dressed in dark colours once again reflecting their cruel, ruthless attitude, whereas on the other hand, in the kitchen both protagonists are dressed smartly and most importantly brightly emphasising the fact that these are indeed the ‘good’ guys.
Editing is one of the final stages of production and will often make or break a piece although this is a short extract, it will still have been scrutinized by editors to perfect. Subtitles are used when the obvious middle eastern terrorists begin to speak in arabic, these subtitles are bright white, to contrast against the dark interior of the car and to maximize audience clarity as to not confuse or repel potential viewers. Negative is used very briefly at the end of the scene while focused on the male terrorist to perhaps shock the viewer. I believe it also emphasises that it is a modern drama and negative suggests hi-tech.
Intriguingly, the extract is not completely bias towards the protagonists, the terrorists interestingly manipulate the feelings of the audience by saying “They’ve destroyed our world” perhaps even producing guilt within the audience, contemplating that they may have misjudged the antagonists after all.
To concatenate my thoughts and findings I believe this extract is successful in grabbing the attention of an audience and retaining it throughout. It presents key modern issues such as terrorism and its ruthless desire for vengeance no matter what the cost, and presents stereotypes associated with terrorism such as the middle east, and an arabic speaking couple dressed darkly as to maximize suspicion, it emphasises cultural differences between the urbanised west and the undeveloped nightmare that is ongoing in the middle east. However it leads audiences to question what is ‘acceptable’ and ‘necessary’ to keep our own country safe, and whether what we’re doing is not dissimilar to what the antagonists portreyed are doing.
Tuesday 15 February 2011
Thriller Analysis
With reference to Hitchcocks ‘Psycho’ (1960) and a least 2 other thrillers you have studied, as well as your wider research, discuss the thriller and its forms and conventions.
Conventionally, the thriller genre is seen to be a more mature adaptation of cinematic production, many, including me, would agree with this conclusion, and believe it to be incomparable to other genres, in the way it recognises, interacts and excites the audience more than anything else. Overall, the techniques used to successfully hold an audience and to entertain viewers are collectively and selectively used at opportune periods for maximum effectivity, archetypes include using suspense, which builds the audience’s tension and discomforts them, and creates a feeling of uncertainty and anxiousness which leads to a climax, which must be relieved indefinately and can be used before a shock or unsuspected twist, which will alleviate the tension. Excitement is a crucial part of a thriller, studied in ethology (the study of animals) is shown through all forms of life, when is entertained and hereby arouses the strong feeling, which coincides with a feeling of enjoyment, meaning that if the film will become successful, creating excitement is a vital factor to be considered by the director. Using these main elements correctly, and efficiently should help create a worthwhile, successful film. Thrillers are often written and categorised into multiple sub-genres, that aids in evaluating and designating each movie, for example a ‘Mystery‘ thriller includes that of ‘Seven’ (David Fincher, 1995) and ‘Vertigo’ (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) which coincidently both include detectives, and aspects of crime. Another sub-genre, being ‘Psychological thrillers’ examples being; Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly 2001), and Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock 1960) incidently, both of which I will be studying throughout this assignment. One final sub-genre is ‘Crime’ thrillers, however interestingly, many thrillers have aspects of each sub-genre, therefore overlapping and becoming a highbred of film. Others include ‘Paranoid’ and ‘Political’ thrillers. Aspects that are most delightful, whilst watching a thriller, is the feeling of confusion, and mystery, that is often prolonged through out, meaning that the audience must conceive the information they have been given, and conclude and determine the outcome at the same time the characters do, herby not conforming with mainstream conventional ‘Action’ movies, in which the audience are almost ‘spoon fed’ the plot constantly and must know what is happening all of the time, or else impatient viewers can become restless and dislike the production, in thrillers this is not the case, audiences are encouraged to contemplate and use intellect, and must be vigilant to discover what they may not have noticed. Within the following essay, i will explore the features of many different thrillers, and analyse their different affectations and individual idiosyncrasy, that makes them unique and extremely successful, and will discuss the main issues and points affiliated with the ‘Thriller’ genre.
Ordinarily the main characters portreyed in thrillers are normal citizens and in no way special, as despondant as it is, so the audience are able to empathise with the character and perhaps even the situation, increasing admiration for our lead character, or in some cases our contempt. Differing entirely from say, Action and Adventure genre, being as usually the main character, is shown as a hero, and is often big, muscular and extremely cliché. For example, in Fincher’s ‘Seven’ both main characters, David Mills (Pitt) and William Somerset (Freeman) are both normal detectives in an unidentified city, this gives the audience a familiar situation, and allows for empathy to occur, when they are seen in their own methodical environment, we see in the first 4 minutes, which is used to introduce the main and central protagonist, Somerset, he owns, or possibly rents an average apartment, with the diegetic sounds of the city surrounding him, we get the sense that he lives in a small apartment in a block of tightly packed homes in which many hundreds of people may dwell, and can deduce that he may feel somewhat dissapointed about what he has become, and where he has ended up just days from retirement, creating a sense of sympathy, as well as empathy, due to the feeling of disconcertion and disillusionment appears frequently throughout anyones life. As well as this, we see he is painstakingly organised, in such a way that, the establishing shot is of him washing his dishes, following this, we see that he has his clothes for the day, laid out neatly along with his police badge and his gun resting parallel upon his desk, which finally gives us as the audience some clue of who the man is, and what he does, many of the audience will be able to relate to this almost obsessive compulsive behaviour that Somerset is presenting meticulously. Another example of a frequential normal character is seen in the Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ in which within the opening scene, we are introduced to two of the main characters, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) and Sam Loomis (John Gavin) who are situated in a relatively cheap looking hotel room (despite black and white), that are portreyed rather shiftily, caught in a seedy secretive love affair, which raises questions from the audience, as to their marital status and current situations. Although audiences may not be able to empathise, they will be able to relate because the emotion of love and the betrayal of adultery is always present in the media and within many people known to the audience, what with celebrity culture and our hunger to pry in to the lives of complete strangers. Alternatively and perhaps most common of all, is the character of Donald Darko, from Richard Kelly’s ‘Donnie Darko’ within the opening scene we are presented with what would seem like an average teenage boy, although waking up in the hills with no recollection of how he came to be there can be neglected for the time being, who then proceeds to cycle through his standardised, customary surburban town of Middlesex, as he enters his home and walks passed the refridgerator, there is a message scrawled on a piece of paper attached, reading ‘where’s Donnie?’ this shows that perhaps his dissapearences, happen regularly as instead of calling the police, a general enquiry was made to the rest of the household, showing that perhaps his family are not particularly interested about his exploits which can to a certain extent be recognised by some audience members, with a history of tough parenting. Instead of the character being comprehendable by the audience, it is the setting we are able to familiarise ourselves with, being as the majority of the audience will be accustomed to a suburban environment. Theorists such as Propp, whom scrutinized and studied narrative structure and analysed Russian fairy tales and began to break them down in to separate narrative units, and was able to discover a typology of narrative structure, for example he concluded that each tale could take any number of 31 functions, furthermore, Propp was able to catergorise characters in to 8 fairly broad character types, such as the villain, and the hero, etcetera. However Propp’s theory was concluded many years ago and was concluded from fairy tales, therefore may not be as applicable to each narrative now, as it did at the time, none more so than in thrillers in which characters are even more personified and three dimensional, bringing more than meets the eye upon first inspection. One example of how Propp’s theory is disproven, comes mostly from modern narratives such as Kelly’s ‘Donnie Darko’ in which the main protagonist or hero dies at the end.
Possibly one of the most important factors of thrillers is their intelligent story lines, this determinant is what distinguishes thrillers from other films and is perhaps the most genre defining of all the components. The most successful thrillers are those that in my opinion, do not underestimate the intelligence of an audience and allow some leeway between asking questions, and answering them perhaps even much later in the film, allowing viewers to deliberate, and create their own conclusions. I believe audience participation and interaction to be a crucial element in producing a memorable, wonderful film as well as accumulating and preserving interest through mental stimulation, rather than dispensing statistical facts quickly that will eventually be crucial to the narrative however abstaining from delivering of the corresponding information to hastily. Todarov was another film theorist that proposed a basic structure for all narratives, he stated that films began with an equilibrium, which is a calm period, then certain characters of disruption cause disequilibrium, which is a period of unsettlement and discontent, this is then followed by a renewed sense of harmony for the protagonists and brings all the anarchy to an end, it is a simple narrative, often known as hollywood narrative. This theory can be present within some thrillers however can or cannot be applied to different characters within those films. An example that does not run in accordance with the theory is the character of Robert Thorn in Richard Donner’s ‘The Omen’ 1976, he is experiencing equilibrium at the beginning of the film where he seems to have it all, wealth, a home, a loving family and a newly adopted child, Damien (Harvey Stephens, child actor). However on the child's fifth birthday comes the turning point on which Damien’s nanny hangs herself proclaiming that it “is all for you, Damien” this is the point at which disequilibrium is introduced and continues indefinately until Robert Thorn’s death, meaning the theory is not always applicable. What also makes a good thriller is deliberating on the subjunctive, or in other words, what could have happened, for example, if Robert’s wife, Katherine (Lee Remick) did not have a still born child, then the couple would not have considered adoption and the entire film and narrative would have changed, it is these clever twists that allow the audience really to consider the infinite possibilities allowing us access to the freedom outside the actual plot. Kelly’s ‘Donnie Darko’ is a paramount example of intelligent storyline, as I believe the whole film is an intelligent and complex journey as we follow the films protagonist Donald Darko, who we are led to believe suffers from some kind of mental disorder, who is plagued by visions of his ‘guardian’ in the shape of a giant bunny rabbit named Frank who foretells the end of the world, in this kind of thriller, the audience are often left at the end of the film asking questions about the plot, needing to go back for second or even third viewings to interpret the film for themselves. Donnie Darko is shown to be a popular, high rated film on IMDB (Internet Movie DataBase) proving that open ended, self interpretive thrillers are widely enjoyed indeed.
Plot twists are singularly the most important aspect of a good thriller, it is a change in the expected direction and outcome of the plot of a film. They are used most effectively to boost interest from the audience by astounding or bewildering them with a revelation that quite often alters the perceived view of the film audience. Differently in thrillers, many of the twists are not often foreshadowed by clues placed deliberately so that the audience may predict the eventual conclusion, instead ‘twists’ are often a complete and utter surprise, so as to shock the viewer tenfold. One primary example of this is the exposure of the killer in Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ in which we find out that the suspected killer, who is thought to be the mother of Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) the owner of a highway motel, is in fact Norman himself, whom suffers from severe psychosis, and has a split personality, that of his mother and himself, and is in fact committing the murders in his mothers psyche, hereby dressing, talking and acting the way his mother would before her death, and having no recollection of the murders, that is explained at the end by psychiatrist Dr. Fred Richmond “Now after the murder, Norman returned as if from a deep sleep. And like a dutiful son, covered up all traces of the crime he was convinced his mother had committed!”. Another device used in ‘Psycho’ is a false protagonist, which helps make the plot more memorable and discomforting by fooling the audiences preconceptions, by introducing a main character which the audience is led to believe is the hero, or protagonist that is later revealed not to be, by disposing of them for shock value, in this case through a grizzly iconic murder scene that is widely known over the world in which the thought to be main protagonist Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is stabbed repetatively whilst in the shower which agitates and shocks viewers, as they are discomforted by the fact that the plot has no recognisable structure and is quite worrying to have no immediate idea as to what will happen next, after the protagonist is deceased. A further example of a false protagonist is acquainted at the beginning of D.J Caruso’s ‘Taking Lives’ in which we see a young ‘Asher’ (portreyed by Paul Dano)
in the 1980’s taking a bus to Canada, and forming a friendship with another young traveller Matt Soulsby (Justin Chatworth), Asher instinctively leads the audience to believe that this is the films main protagonist, as he acts completely polite and leads us to believe he has genuine intentions, shaping up to become the ‘hero’ of the film. However, as the first ten minutes of the film progress, the bus they were on has broken down, and they are prompted to rent a car. Unsurprisingly something goes wrong with the car and Matt has to fix it, at this point, tension is increasing as a car is heading towards them on the opposite side of the road, intuitively the audience knows that something is going to happen, due to the climactic behaviour of the character Asher, tension is constructed by music chosen to do exactly that. The audience is eventually rewarded with a tension release as Asher pushes Matt in the way of the car, killing Matt and everyone in the car. This early twist is completely unexpected, especially being caused by our thought to be protagonist, and disturbs and discomforts the viewer, who immediately become nervous that the plot is no longer predictable as they now realise that Asher is in fact the antagonist of the film. In addition, a further precedented example of a major twist in the plot is shown in within the ending to Fincher’s ‘Seven’ where the finale is one twist detrimental to the understanding the film, and the antagonist ‘John Doe’ (portreyed by Kevin Spacey) who is committing murders justified only by the fact the victims commit one of the seven deadly sins; Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Envy, Wrath, Pride and Lust. We’re thrust in to a final confrontation between Detective Mills (Brad Pitt) and John Doe, and Doe presents Mills with the head of his wife Tracy Mills (Gwyneth Paltrow) which drives Mills to shoot Doe repetitively, the twist being that Mills commits the final sin yet to be involved, Wrath, bestowing the dead Doe with victory, as what he set out to do was realised.
Suspense and Tension, if used effectively is suitably beneficial to the outcome, and overall audience impression of the feature film. The director must build tension and release it in accordance to the audiences mood, and will have supreme control over viewers feelings and emotions throughout. Directors must be attuned and mentally connected with the audience, to have an insight in to when and where to use any of the devices explored above, especially suspense and tension. Audiences experience suspense when they suspect something bad is about to happen and have what they feel to be an experiences prospective, however they are powerless to change such events, so are left with a sense of anxiety as they wait for the sequence to unfold. As suspense and tensions deals with a lack of knowledge, which obscures the near future for the viewer as they try to speculate what will genuinely happen. ‘Seven’ shows this multiple times throughout its running time, one of the examples being when Mills is caught unawares by John Doe and is struck to the ground at which he is left to the mercy of John Doe. Fincher is intelligent in the way he deals with this scene, as we see one of our main protagonists of the film portreyed pathetically on the ground looking up at his assailant using pathetic fallacy to personify the rain and thunder which relates to the scenes situation, and discomforts the audience as they are questioning Doe’s intent and his following actions. The music playing during the sequence helps to maximize tension as an awkward exchange in glances and an aweful silence takes place, and Doe just leaves Mills, although we are left relieved that one of our main protagonists has not been eradicated, Fincher encourages us to ask the question, “Why has he been allowed to live”, hinting that Doe might even have plans for Mills. Furthermore suspense is created in another film that i have studied ‘Taking Lives’ where the main hero, Illiana is investigating the domicile of the killer. She begins looking around the room for any insight in to the killers mind, where abouts and just to gain what little knowledge she can. as she lies down on the old dirty bed of what we expect to be the killers, tension is built, mostly from the silence of the small room and the lack of any action prior to this scene, leading the viewer to expect something to happen, which is indeed what happens, when hands reach from under the bed through the old mattress and grab her. This kind of shock usually invokes the audience to ‘jump’ which is an involuntary jolt of the body caused by something unexpected and frightening. False suspense is a technique that builds tension, leading the audience to believe something will happen, when in fact, what is expected doesn’t actually occur, so the audience are not rewarded with a tension release but in fact disillusionment. One example of this is shown in ‘Psycho’ where our main protagonist Marion Crane, has stolen forty thousand dollars and has been woken up by a police man, after sleeping in her car on the side of the freeway. Tension is created as the audience are aware of her possession of the money and the implications that it will have on her if she is caught. Hitchcock creates suspense with musical undertones, and Marion’s nerves are obvious and the viewers are able to empathise with her discomfort as it is a feeling known only to often in every day life, we begin to worry for her as the policemen becomes overbearing and mysterious, and lack of eye contact due to the police mans sun glasses portrays him menacingly and gives the audience mixed emotions, as officers of the law are supposed to be trusted, but the audience are left supporting the criminal in this instance, which is a very clever devise employed by Hitchcock for Marion to gain the audiences affections as become more sensitised towards her, and want her to succeed.
To concatenate my previous thoughts I genuinely believe thrillers to be the most effective form of cinematography, simply because of the many variants that is integrated within a piece. Each one of the devices explored above are a crucial variant that must be used effectively by the director, to maximize the effectiveness of the film and it is essential that these conventions are not overused, or be at risk from desecrating the piece in the view of the audience, as it will be seen as asinine and frivolous. For example Quentin Tarrantino’s ‘Reservoir Dogs’ is set in an incredibly small amount of sets, proving the effectiveness of his directing ability as he is able to produce such a highly loved and sought after film, after being so confined and restrained should usually be detrimental to a films success but with such an intelligent thriller in my opinion it only enhances the end product. Relating to an earlier point; Tarantino once was heard to say “I don’t believe in elitism. I don’t think the audience is this dumb person lower than me. I am the audience” showing that he does not underestimate the understanding of his viewer, hereby not conforming with other directors that must throw fact after fact at the viewer, to assure that the audience does not mentally ‘check out’. These techniques that Tarantino employs make him one of my all time favourite directors of all. A genuine stand alone thriller must keep audiences at the edge of their seats as the plot builds towards a climax. Helpfully thrillers need to remain believable, by plotting them in realistic situations and authenticated characters in which empathy is possible, which increases the shock factor when something bad happens. I believe all of the films i have mentioned are perfect examples of a thriller, and never fail to entertain, no matter how much the feature is watched.
“There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.” - Alfred Hitchcock.
Friday 11 February 2011
Influential Directors and Their Most Notable Contributions
Their have been many influential directors in the history of cinematography, that have made a huge contribution to that of the thriller genre, examples include;
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
- The Shining - $44,017,374
- Eyes Wide Shut - $160,637,680
- A Clockwork Orange - $26,589,355
David Fincher
- Se7en - $327,311,859
- Fight Club - $100,853,753
- Panic Room - $196,397,415
- Zodiac - $84,785,914
Alfred Hitchcock
- Psycho - Grossed $32 million
- The Birds - $11,403,529
- Vertigo - - $7,311,013
Christopher Nolan
- Batman Begins - $372,710,015
- The Dark Knight - $1,001,921,825
- Inception - $825,531,030
- Insomnia - $113,714,830
- The Prestige - $109,676,311
Quentin Tarantino
- Reservoir Dogs - $2,832,029
- Pulp Fiction - estimated $212.9 million
- Kill Bil (Vol.1 & 2) - $180,949,045 & $152,159,461
- Death Proof - $50,187,789 (Duel feature with Planet Terror, as Grindhouse)
- Inglorious Basterds - $320,351,773
Martin Scorsese
- Goodfellas - $46,836,394
- Cape Fear - $182,291,969
- The Aviator - $213,741,459
- The Departed - $289,847,354
- Shutter Island - $293,803,014
Tuesday 8 February 2011
Film Classifications
The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) is responsible for setting age ratings and limitations on all films released in the UK. It regulates for the wellbeing of consumers and gives trustworthy ratings, so that everyone can be comfortable with what they view. Most thrillers are certificate 15 or above, due to imminent threat, use of drugs and sexual situations that are simply not appropriate for pre-adolescent viewers
.
'U' film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over. ‘U’ films should be set within a positive setting and have good humanistic morals for children to learn from and should offer reassuring counterbalances to any violence, threat or horror.
Parental Guidance - This certificate denotes viewing for the general public and should not disturb any children over 8 years old. Parents are advised to review the film and take it upon themselves to decide if their children are ready for the implications 'PG' brings.
Certificates 12 and 12A, are given to films that are only suitable for people that are 12 years old and over. It is not advised for anyone under 12 to view a film in this category as they may be upset/disturbed. 12A is for cinema use only, in which someone under 12 may watch if accompanied by a consenting adult, giving the responsibility to judge whether the child is suited enough for the film. Coherently, no one under 12 may purchase a certificate '12' film.
No one younger than 15, may view a certificate '15' film, accordingly, no one under the age of 15 may purchase a certificate '15' film.
Discrimination
The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.
Drugs
Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.
Horror
Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.
Imitable Behaviour
Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.
Language
There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.
Nudity
Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.
Sex
Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.
Theme
No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.Violenc
e
No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.
Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.
No one under the age of 18 may watch a certificate '18' in the cinema. No one under the age of 18 may purchase a certificate '18' film.
The law states adults should be free to choose their own entertainment, however exceptions may apply in situations such as;
No one under the age of 18 may watch a certificate '18' in the cinema. No one under the age of 18 may purchase a certificate '18' film.
The law states adults should be free to choose their own entertainment, however exceptions may apply in situations such as;
- where the material is in breach of the criminal law, or has been created through the commission of a criminal offence
The ‘R18’ category is a special and legally restricted classification primarily for explicit works of pornography. May only be shown to adults in specially licensed cinemas.
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