What the Silent Censor Saw

Discuss releases by the BFI and the films on them.

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antnield
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
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What the Silent Censor Saw

#1 Post by antnield » Tue Jul 10, 2012 8:01 am

To mark the centenary of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the BFI and the BBFC have collaborated on this unique project, researching, identifying and sourcing a number of rarely seen films from the silent era - all of which fell foul of the Board's strict censorship guidelines during the earliest days of its existence.

This expertly curated collection offers a fascinating glimpse into the early days of cinema, as well as offering a rare insight into the morality of wider society during the early twentieth century. All of the films presented here are preserved in the BFI National Archive.
November 5th 2012

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MichaelB
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Re: What the Silent Censor Saw

#2 Post by MichaelB » Tue Jul 10, 2012 8:14 am

That's excellent news - I think this was in the early stages of development when I left the BFI early last year, so I'm glad it's come to full fruition.

It's one of those projects that seems such an obvious one for the BFI to take on that it's surprising that it didn't emerge years ago - though of course the BBFC centenary is a perfect marketing hook.

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htshell
Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2011 4:15 pm

Re: What the Silent Censor Saw

#3 Post by htshell » Tue Jul 10, 2012 1:39 pm

Very exciting premise for a release. BFI are really one of the most creative home video labels, as well as a film archive that wishes to present its material to viewers and does so in interesting and engaging ways.

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MichaelB
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Re: What the Silent Censor Saw

#4 Post by MichaelB » Tue Jul 10, 2012 3:40 pm

I suspect the BFI is unique amongst DVD labels (certainly in Britain) in having direct and easy access to a full-time in-house curatorial team made up of at least 20 people. The virtues of this are especially obvious with massive cross-media projects like the Shadows of Progress post-war documentary survey (which spawned a four-disc DVD box, the dual-format John Krish retrospective, a 430-page book, a major big-screen retrospective and loads of other spin-offs), but it also means that smaller projects like this have heavyweight scholarly expertise behind them: they're not just put together because the subject sounds cute and funny.

Case in point: compare the BFI's collections of COI warning and safety films with Network's Charley Says compilations. Aside from an option on the first disc to play the films in random order, Network's discs were completely barebones and marketed as entertainment, while the BFI contextualised every single title (even the ones lasting less than a minute), so - for instance - you could find out why a particular safety film was commissioned at that particular time. It's fascinating social and cultural history, and I have no doubt that this will be too - especially since the history of the BBFC in the pre-war period has been much less comprehensively documented than the postwar equivalent.

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colinr0380
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Re: What the Silent Censor Saw

#5 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Jul 10, 2012 3:41 pm

I'm trying to think of the controversial films that could be included: maybe Fatima's Dance (the censored version has what looks like a musical stave across the bust and crotch region of a lady in a voluminous dress twirling in front of the camera), or even The Seashell and the Clergyman (a French film about a priest being driven mad by lust which was described as being totally incomprehensible by the censors!) or even that microscope film of cheese mites (which was apparently banned after cheesemakers complained that it would cause people to boycott cheese in disgust!)

Looking at the BBFC site there is a post here which reveals one film that will be on the set called Maisie's Marriage. Then following that link to the page for the Silent Film Festival held in April suggests another film title called, Cocaine. I guess it must be this one? (Given that it was directed by one of the co-founders of Gainsborough studios, which fits in with the major screening at the festival of a restored version of The First Born).

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MichaelB
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Re: What the Silent Censor Saw

#6 Post by MichaelB » Tue Jul 10, 2012 4:13 pm

I suspect the films will all be British, and all released in the decade and a half following 1912 (when the BBFC was founded). I'd be surprised if the Dulac was one of the titles - although its peremptory dismissal has passed into dictionaries of quotations, it doesn't actually shed that much light on social and cultural issues of the time, which I imagine would be this set's primary aim. Also, it's a pretty well known film (at least to people familiar with the 1920s avant-garde), and I suspect the purpose of this set is to give a platform to obscure rarities.

But I haven't seen a title list yet.

McCrutchy
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Re: What the Silent Censor Saw

#7 Post by McCrutchy » Thu Jul 26, 2012 6:32 pm

I like how they appropriated John Trveleyan's book title for this; I hope that will come back in print as well. I have a copy that I bought second-hand, and I was bemused to find that someone had included the newspaper clipping of Trevelyan's obituary in it.

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kidc85
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Re: What the Silent Censor Saw

#8 Post by kidc85 » Fri Jun 21, 2013 10:20 am

Does anyone know whatever happened to this? I know a compendium of clips was screened but was there not going to be a fuller DVD release?

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MichaelB
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Re: What the Silent Censor Saw

#9 Post by MichaelB » Fri Jun 21, 2013 10:29 am

Scrapped, as far as I'm aware. They've certainly missed the BBFC centenary deadline by months!

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colinr0380
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Re: What the Silent Censor Saw

#10 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Jun 21, 2013 11:58 am

Scrapped or...censored for imagery still considered far too shocking for general audiences? :wink:

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MichaelB
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Re: What the Silent Censor Saw

#11 Post by MichaelB » Fri Jun 21, 2013 12:07 pm

colinr0380 wrote:Scrapped or...censored for imagery still considered far too shocking for general audiences? :wink:
Scrapped.

JGA
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Re: What the Silent Censor Saw

#12 Post by JGA » Sat Jul 27, 2013 6:23 am

Has publication of the DVD been scrapped because the Department for Culture, Media and Sport recently announced a ten per cent cut in funding to the BFI? The DVD promised to be very interesting and would have supported a BFI monograph on the BBFC. It also seemed likely to be at least as commercially successful as some other BFI DVDs published this year, for example, Fairy Tales: Early Colour Stencil films from Pathé

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MichaelB
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Re: What the Silent Censor Saw

#13 Post by MichaelB » Sat Jul 27, 2013 9:23 am

JGA wrote:Has publication of the DVD been scrapped because the Department for Culture, Media and Sport recently announced a ten per cent cut in funding to the BFI?
No - I was told by the press office that it wasn't happening well before that.

It may well have fallen through the cracks created by the sudden need to rush the last Jacques Tati films out on Blu-ray last year - the entire release schedule was shaken up as a by-product, although I think virtually everything else that was announced for then has since come out.

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