A ban on Romance - a French film showing explicit sex scenes - was lifted Jan. 28 by the Office of Film and Literature Classification, which banned the film two weeks earlier.
The ban was because the scenes were real and not simulated, Reuters says, with the content in question including scenes of cunnilingus and shots of an erect penis. The OFLC relented, though, on grounds of the film's artistic merit, reclassifying the film the equivalent of the US's R rating.
``We applied what we perceived to be Australian community standards to this film, within the guidelines of the code,'' an OFLC statement says. ``The film is clearly a serious film with a serious intention and is recognized by many as having merit.''
Distributor Mark Spratt was pleased, Reuters says. ``We are naturally very pleased, not only that we can release the film but that a rather terrible mistaken decision has been overturned,'' he told reporters at a news conference. ``I think it is a great thing for the freedom of adults in this country that a serious adult work can be seen without being branded as pornography. It is a serious adult work, by a serious feminist film-maker, about relationships and a woman expressing herself sexually in a situation of stress and dissatisfaction.''
The critically-acclaimed Romance has had public screenings in the U.S., Britain, and Ireland.
