Movies from Canada that have been cut or banned in Australia.
Pre-November 1971 decisions are here.
My Secret Life
Directed by John Hofsess – Leland R. Thomas / 1969 / Canada / IMDb
In July 1978, a 2329.20-meter (84:54) print of MY SECRET LIFE was banned because of ‘indecent language’.
14th Mandolin was the applicant.
Initiation
aka The Initiation (Classification Board title)
Directed by Denis Héroux / 1970 / Canada / IMDb
In May 1972, an 8653-feet (96:08) print of INITIATION was censored by 230-feet (02:33) for an R-rating. The cuts were made to remove ‘indecency’.
Filmways Australasia was the applicant.
Video release
In August 1987, Roadshow Home Video had a 90-minute tape passed with an R-rating.
It was awarded for sex, which was described as being:
Frequency: Infrequent
Explicitness/Intensity: Medium
Purpose: Gratuitous
Further information
For more Denis Héroux, see THE AWAKENING on this page.
The Awakening
aka Gli Spogliati
Directed by Denis Héroux / 1970 / Canada / IMDb
In January 1973, a 2693.00-meter (98:10) print of THE AWAKENING was censored by 4.87-meters (00:10) for an R-rating. The cuts were made to remove ‘indecency’.
Filmways Distributors was the applicant.
Re-rated for Italian circuit
In September 1975, a 2307.33-meter (84:06) print of was passed with an R-rating. This was 14-minutes shorter than the January 1973 R-rated version.
It was submitted by Cinema Italia under its Italian title, GLI SPOGLIATI.
Loving and Laughing
Directed by John Sone / 1971 / Canada / IMDb
In October 1972, a 2645.00-meter (96:25) print of LOVING AND LAUGHING was banned because of ‘indecency’.
A 2562.76-meter (93:25) ‘reconstructed version’ lost a further 10.36-meter (00:23) before being awarded an R-rating in June 1973.
Filmways Australasia was the applicant.
Sex films in early 70s Australia
In 2009, Paul Harris from Melbourne’s Triple R radio interviewed producer Antony I. Ginnane. The discussion touched on the Australian box-office success of Canuxploitation films such as LOVING AND LAUGHING.
February 14, 2009
AIG – Once the R-certificate came out, it gave a great stimulus to a certain sort of Australian genre production, whether it was ALVIN PURPLE or whether it was FANTASM. We were riffing on things like LOVING AND LAUGHING and BEDROOM MAZURKA.PH – The Danish churned out sex comedies, I think it was a French-Canadian film LOVING AND LAUGHING, companies like Cinepix churned them out as well. When the producers looked at these films because they sold around the world and were very successful, they must have looked at the Australian returns and said to themselves, this is funny. This film has sold around the world and has done very well, played for a month here and there, but in Australia, these films played for over a year each.
AIG – Indeed, but of course the theory there, and probably what upset Cinepix or some of the other people, was that they sold them flat to Australia. Filmways bought LOVING AND LAUGHING and a number of those pictures of the time for probably $10,000 a pop, which they were very pleased to get at the time because there were not a lot of Quebec. French-Canadian pictures into Australia.
– Not Quite Hollywood (2008) DVD launch
– Film Buffs Forecast, RRR radio
Video release
A 95-minute tape of LOVING AND LAUGHING was again passed with an R-rating in July 1988.
It was awarded for ‘drug abuse’, and for sex, which was identified as being:
Frequency: Infrequent
Explicitness/Intensity: Medium
Purpose: Gratuitous
Roadshow Home Video was the applicant.
Sex and the Lonely Woman Part 2
Directed by Ted Leversuch / 1971 / Canada / IMDb
In February 1977, a 2278.70-meter (83:04) print of SEX AND THE LONELY WOMAN PART 2 was banned because of ‘indecency’.
Regent Trading Enterprises was the applicant.
Diary of a Sinner
Directed by Ed Hunt / 1974 / Canada / IMDb
In March 1975, a 2645.20-meter (96:25) print of DIARY OF A SINNER was censored by 61.20-meters (02:13) for an R-rating. The cuts were made to remove ‘indecency’.
Warner Brothers were the applicant.
William reports.
I have been trying to track down an uncut of this Canuxploitation film, but so far, the only version I found runs 74:21. The UK pre-cert release from Champion Video label is this length, so I presume that was the source. There is a second UK pre-cert tape on the Olympus label, which has a similar running time.
