Film classification and older movies

[Frank Cox]

I learned something the hard way today.

I have nothing new to play for the week of Feb 5 so I figured I'll play the 1991 version of Cape Fear. (There are so few people coming to the shows these days that I might as well play some movies that I like myself.)

Got the movie booked and then I went to put it on my website and looked up the classification. No record found on the Saskatchewan film classification website.

Unlike in the USA where it's kind of a voluntary thing, in Saskatchewan all movies shown in theatres must be classified under provincial law. It's odd that there's no record of Cape Fear since I remember playing it when it was a new thing. Oh well. I phoned the film classification people to ask what's up. They advised me that there's no record for it so if I want to play it I'll have to submit documentation, pay $50 and wait two weeks for them to do the paperwork.

So I cancelled Cape Fear and I'll find something else to play that week.

Sheesh. This no record thing can't be age related because I played Jaws a while back and it's sixteen years older than Cape Fear.

Lesson learned: Check the film classification website before trying to book an older movie.

[David Bird]

The Ontario Film Authority was disbanded in 2019 and now Ontario simply recognizes BC ratings from their "Consumer Protection" agency. My dumb luck, they had finally tracked me down after 12 years to require an Exhibition License. Had no idea we needed one. They were gone by the time the check cleared, but at least I now have permission from nobody to continue doing what we were doing (in case nobody asks!)....

[Martin McCaffery]

Too late to help right now, but here's an ad from the Star-Phoenix, November 20, 1991 showing it as "Restricted"
Star-Phoenix_11_20_1991.png

[Frank Cox]

I passed that image on to the lady at the film classification board (and thank you for that!) and she replied that they have found many movies that were apparently never classified in Saskatchewan but were being played anyway way back when. That's absolutely news to me, but maybe it was harder for the powers-that-be to hunt offenders down before the days of advertising on the Internet. I've never heard of anyone being "got" for playing an unclassified movie, but I've never heard of anyone playing an unclassified movie either. Before now, at least.

The Saskatchewan film classification authority doesn't actually classify movies any more. They used to but there was a bit of a scandal when Exit to Eden was released. Due to the scene where a woman is spanking a guy with a hairbrush, the Saskatchewan film classification board banned the movie in Saskatchewan for "sexual violence - not allowed".

Since the movie was approved to play pretty much everywhere else, there was a big uproar about that (articles in the paper and so on) so the board re-classified it as Restricted and allowed it to be played about two weeks later.

Saskatchewan is probably the only place in the world where Exit to Eden made a ton of money. I remember lines out the door for this one; one tiny old lady came in on her walker and said, "Is this the movie that they banned?" I said that it is, and she said, "Oh good", and put her money on the counter.

Shortly after that the Saskatchewan government contracted the BC film classification board to do the actual classifications for Saskatchewan and since then the Saskatchewan film classification board exists on paper but it doesn't (as far as I know) actually classify any movies any more.

Movie theatres in Saskatchewan still need an annual Exhibition License issued by the film classification board, but for reasons that I've never asked about (obviously), they've never charged any fee for it. I fill out the form and send it in each year and they send back my license. They just set it up so you do it all through a website, so for the first time I didn't get a piece of paper to hang on the wall this year.

Projectionists used to need an annual license from the provincial Fire Commissioner's Office, but that hasn't been a requirement for a good many years. They did charge for that one.

[Leo Enticknap]

Presumably the projectionist license was a hangover from the nitrate days, when having projectionists formally trained and tested in fire prevention and fighting was specifically important.

This strikes me as a specifically Canadian problem, arising from the fact that a censor board's rating is a direct legal requirement for being allowed to play a movie to the public in a theater. This must be a big problem for theaters that specialize in archival and older re-release titles, especially if the censor board's record-keeping is not very efficient, as seems to be the case here.

Here, it isn't in most states and counties - you are welcome to play an "unrated" movie, as long as you make this clear in advertising and promotion. A minority of local governments impose local restrictions (e.g. no under 21s in the building if an unrated movie is being played), but from what I gather, not many.

The UK operates a halfway house system. The actual legal licensing of theaters is done by local authorities, but almost all (if not actually all) put a clause in the license that states that a theater must apply British Board of Film Classification age restrictions, unless granted a specific exemption. Every now and again, there was a controversial movie passed by the BBFC but banned by one or two local councils, or vice-versa. I gather that Monty Python's Life of Brian remained banned in one or two towns for decades! Other examples include Salo, Straw Dogs, Reservoir Dogs, David Cronenberg's Crash, and Romance (a pretentious French feminist arthouse movie containing explicit rape scenes, that would have attracted an audience of about three if reactionaries hadn't made a fuss about it, thereby ensuring that it made the top ten list on the week of its release). They were all passed by the BBFC (though some of them with cuts) but then banned locally by a few cities.

[Ron Lacheur]

The rating system did change in those years, with the provinces adopting the Home Video classification system. BC did in 1997. Since Cape Fear played a few years prior, it would have to be re-classified under the new system, as " Restricted " in 1991 could mean 14A, 18A, or R today.

[Randy Stankey]

Yes but, right there in the ad, it says, “No One Under 18 Admitted.”

Invent whatever combination of letter, numbers or symbols you want. That phrase says it all.

[Frank Cox]

I guess the bottom line is that if I really want to play Cape Fear I can do it, but I have to fill out their form, send them $50 and give them two weeks notice. None of which seems worthwhile to do since I can just play something else that week instead and avoid the whole issue.

It's the first time I've ever encountered a situation like this, but then I've not been playing "old movies" to the extent that I've been doing it over the past year.

In the future I'm going to check their classification website first and hunt the movie down after the movie after that.

[David Bird]

We still have a strip of wood with small nails sticking out of it in our "rewind room/office" where you were apparently required to display the ratings bands from the film reels while you were playing them in case the mythical inspectors should ever come to call. I actually did put them there, good a place as any to store them before sending them back and there's still a couple on there. Unfortunately, it's a small room and that thing is painful if you trip over the office chair and back into it! I recall some of the early DCP drives coming with these bands stuffed in the box the first year or so of digital, but they're long gone now.

[Scott John]

I learned something the hard way today.

I have nothing new to play for the week of Feb 5 so I figured I'll play the 1991 version of Cape Fear. (There are so few people coming to the shows these days that I might as well play some movies that I like myself.)

Got the movie booked and then I went to put it on my website and looked up the classification. No record found on the Saskatchewan film classification website.

Unlike in the USA where it's kind of a voluntary thing, in Saskatchewan all movies shown in theatres must be classified under provincial law. It's odd that there's no record of Cape Fear since I remember playing it when it was a new thing. Oh well. I phoned the film classification people to ask what's up. They advised me that there's no record for it so if I want to play it I'll have to submit documentation, pay $50 and wait two weeks for them to do the paperwork.

So I cancelled Cape Fear and I'll find something else to play that week.

Sheesh. This no record thing can't be age related because I played Jaws a while back and it's sixteen years older than Cape Fear.

Lesson learned: Check the film classification website before trying to book an older movie.

The classifications must expire or not be loaded in for all older movies. I am in BC and have looked up a few older titles with nothing coming up. That includes an indie film I helped produce in 2010 that I am 100% sure was classified because I did it myself.

We are wanting to have theme nights on Thursdays to show older titles and attract specific demographics. It is proving to be a challenge with ridiculous minimums and ratings issues. We are a non-profit, so we are allowed to show unclassified movies as long as we age restrict, but I am not sure yet what sort of paperwork we have to fill out for that and any associated fees.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I guess the bottom line is that if I really want to play Cape Fear I can do it, but I have to fill out their form, send them $50 and give them two weeks notice. None of which seems worthwhile to do since I can just play something else that week instead and avoid the whole issue.

It's the first time I've ever encountered a situation like this, but then I've not been playing "old movies" to the extent that I've been doing it over the past year.

In the future I'm going to check their classification website first and hunt the movie down after the movie after that.

You can't get around the whole classification thing by simply stating: This movie is unrated, no-one under age 18/19 admitted?

[Frank Cox]

To the best of my knowledge, no. The only things that can play unclassified movies are public libraries and churches. Movies available for rent or sale (i.e. videos) are ok as long as they have the MPAA rating on the box, but somehow that's not good enough for movies exhibited in theatres.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Interesting. You should convert to either a library or a church. I guess we already had a discussion about the latter option.

Around here, you're also required to "protect children from the stuff they're not supposed to see". Not committing to this can incur quite some penalties, but there is nothing that blocks me from "over-classifying" a movie myself. Since the highest classification around here is 18+ (while most of the "hard" stuff is rated at 16+, so for 18+ you really need to go over-the-edge...), which amounts to the legal age of maturity around here and since there are anti-censorship laws in place, I can show whatever I want (within the fine constrains of copyright...), as long as I guarantee that every soul in there is at least 18 years old.

[Gordon McLeod]

Film Classifications and Censorship are provincial jurisdictions in Canada. Most provinces had original Censor boards that would cut and rate films. For years a print approved in one province could not be sent to another if it had cuts made. Over the years they ceased actually cutting films and just rating them. Now most rely on Alberta or BC review board to do the work and have closed their own ones. Of interest that a court couldn't rule on a censor decision so as such a theatre owner if playing a film approved the censor board aka "The Crown" was immune from any court action from police or civil litigation.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Sounds like movie material itself... a clan of censors on provincial level that are essentially above the law.