Movies from Italy that were cut or banned in Australia.
The Legend of the Christmas Witch
aka La Befana vien di note (Classification Board title)
Directed by Michele Soavi / 2018 / Italy – Spain / IMDb
In July 2019, a 98-minute print of THE LEGEND OF THE CHRISTMAS WITCH was rated M (Brief nudity).
The extended classification information indicated,
Moderate impact: nudity
Mild impact: themes, violence, language
The following month, a 98-minute resubmission received a PG (Mature themes, violence and coarse language) after the removal of the ‘brief nudity’.
The extended classification now described,
Mild impact: themes, violence, language
Palace Films, the applicant, premiered it nationwide at their Italian Film Festival in October.
Censored breasts
Matt reports
You can understand the censorship, as it was an odd choice for Michele Soavi to include topless nudity in such a movie. The version available, as of 2025, on SBS On Demand and screened on their World Movies channel is from Palace Films. It carries the same PG rating awarded by the Classification Board, so presumably SBS did not make any additional cuts. The English dubbed version, available on streaming services, censors the scene by zooming in on the image.
SBS On Demand / SBS World Movies – PG – Italian language – Censored
Streaming Amazon Prime, Plex, etc – 99:01 – English dubbed – Censored, zoomed breasts
EN – English dubbed
IT – English subtitles on Italian version
Ivan the Peeping Tom – 20:00 approx.
Before – After the woman he is spying on disappears from frame, Ivan (Diego Delpiano) says ‘No’ (IT) / ‘What happened?’ (EN) and sighs.
Censored by 00:22 – He again looks down through his telescope and spies his classmates’ mother as she takes a shower. Her back and a side view of her breast are shown. He says, ‘Sophia, you may be pretty, but your Mom is super-hot’ (EN). He raises his phone and says, ‘The guys won’t believe what I am about to send them’ (EN). Both Italian and English versions are the same.
After – Befana (Paola Cortellesi) comes down the stairs and throws her broom at a man, hitting him on the head.
Censored by 00:11 – Ivan continues spying, but the sound has alerted the woman, who turns around and closes the curtain. In doing so, she exposes her breasts. Ivan exclaims, ‘What a bummer, like daughter like mother’ (EN) and puts his phone down.
The English version zooms the frame to obscure the shot of her breasts.
After – Ivan says ‘Oh God’ (IT) / ‘What the’ (EN) as Befana flies off on her broomstick over his head.