A row has erupted over “Vatican interference” after the Italian Synod of Bishops appealed to actors to exercise their consciences and refuse to take part in “vulgar and destructive” erotic scenes in films.
The appeal follows public condemnation by the bishops of an explicit sex scene in Caos Calmo, starring the Italian actor and director Nanni Moretti, which has just been released. In the film, directed by Antonello Grimaldi, Moretti plays a television executive who experiences a mid-life crisis after the death of his wife in the course of which he has a torrid affair with a woman he saves from drowning.
Father Nicolò Anselmi, head of the youth section of the Italian Bishops Conference, said that Moretti was normally noted for his “idealistic and sensitive” films. But the “gratuitous” sex scene with Isabella Ferrari, his co-star, would have an undesirable effect on the “impressionable young” since it was shown without any context involving love or tenderness.
Franco Zeffirelli, the film and opera director, said: “The Church is full of pedants who have lost all sense of proportion.” It was a “fourth-rate” film that did not merit the publicity generated by the bishops’ intervention.
These Italian clerics need to wise up…if you’re going to get these actors and directors to take notice, beheadings and torchings are the way to go.
If it indeed was a “fourth-rate film,” somewhat more media-consciousness would be in order, considering the spectacle of media attention such a proclamation would generate. A more media-conscious, personal, and less official discussion would be in order in such a case – trying to contact Catholic actors involved or near the scene personally, instead of issuing such a public condemnation. Again (thinking after the latest Rowan sharia case), good media consultants can be of great use for clergy in high positions.
At my church in small groups we often talk about how many try to avoid movies that have an R rating. Of course the rule is not “religiously” followed but I think there is something to be said for the concept, and I commend it to the Vatican.
I applaud the Italian Bishops. We need to start taking stands for public decency and morality. And we should expect actors and politicians who call themselves Christian to act like it.
It’s interesting to me that it’s construed as “interference” when people make a simple request of other individuals.
In my book that is a proper mature open independence — making a request.
I make requests of people all the time. People make requests of me all the time. As independent autonomous human beings we are free to determine if we will accede to the request or simply ignore it.
Good Lord, can the Church do *nothing* right?? What’s wrong with asking actors to consider the fallout from their choices?
I thought one of the roles of the church was to try to influence society (as opposed to the other way around)? If so, then this is right in line with that role. Preaching repentance. Yep, solid!
Sometimes I have days where I think Europe might have turned the corner from its hedonistic decline, and then something like this occurs. Of course, being an American, I suppose that’s the pot calling the kettle black.
It’s been obvious to me that more and more movies are throwing in a gratuitous sex scene in order to get the “R” rating. A good example was “We Own the Night.” I wouldn’t even put it in the “B” movie category, in terms of actual content and plot, but they were careful to have the obligatory sex scene at the beginning which had absolutely nothing to do with anything, and the requisite amount of foul language in order to get the “R” and thus attract more 20-something males (or more accurately, under 18s sneaking into the theater while the manager looks the other way). Fairly sad since Joaquin Phoenix and Robert Duvall are both fairly good actors and I’m not sure why whey agreed to be in this movie, although sometimes you need real actors to try uphold bad films.
The sad thing is some otherwise good family movies have been ruined by unnecessary foul language, crude references to body function, and sexual innuendos. Those are usually the ones bucking to get moved up from “PG” to “PG-13,” again to be more attractive to the tween and young teen crowd.
I would be embarrassed to be the director that makes these movies, but I’m sure the money guys tell them it’s a requirement in order to make money.