Ingmar Bergman’s movies, cut and banned before the November 1971 liberalisation of the Australian censorship system.
The Virgin Spring
Directed by Ingmar Bergman / 1960 / Sweden / IMDb
The original theatrical release was censored for a ‘Suitable only for Adults’ rating.
Censored footage
Shane Harrison reports from ‘Chipp’s reel’ viewing.
See database entry for THE BABYSITTER (1969) for background.
Censored footage – All detail of the gang rape of Karin (Birgitta Pettersson).
Post-November 1971 rating
In April 1975, a 2589-meter (94:22) print was passed with an M-rating. MGM/BEF Film Distributors was the applicant.
The Silence
Directed by Ingmar Bergman / 1963 / Sweden / IMDb
The original theatrical release was censored for a ‘Suitable only for Adults’ rating.
Censored footage No. 1
Shane Harrison reports.
The adult content in THE SILENCE was groundbreaking. This heavy slice of despair contained nudity, soft-core sex, female masturbation, lesbianism, incestuous desire, voyeurism and a graphic scene of public sex in a cinema. Bergman told PLAYBOY that nearly two minutes were removed for the American release. This print reportedly lost a further 00:35 before being passed in the UK.
I do not know what print was submitted to our censor, but the version released in Australia was missing all the visuals that made the film such a trailblazer. There were also numerous cuts to the subtitles to remove spoken sexual detail. Despite the trims, it still contained all the plot lines and the overwhelming suicidal atmosphere of the uncut version.
I saw the ‘Suitable only for Adults’ print at a revival screening in 1973 and the uncut R-rated version a few weeks later. Having viewed the complete Australian DVD from Hopscotch, I would judge that four to five minutes were removed from the original theatrical release.
Censored footage No. 2
2015
– David Stratton
The film created something of a scandal at the time for its so-called erotic scenes which, while staged in a deliberately unglamorous and unerotic way, were still savagely attacked by the Australian censors.
Post-November 1971 rating
Filmways had a 2607.00-meter (95:02) print passed with an R-rating in March 1973.
In 2007, Hopscotch Entertainment released THE ESSENTIAL BERGMAN: THE FAITH TRILOGY on DVD. It contained THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY (1961) PG (Mild themes) and WINTER LIGHT (1963) M (Moderate themes). THE SILENCE was the third film and it does not appear to have been reclassified. This may be why they played it safe and added an R18+ (Moderate themes) rating to the box-set cover.
Persona
Directed by Ingmar Bergman / 1966 / Sweden / IMDb
Censored for an unknown rating.
Censored footage No. 1
Shane Harrison reports from ‘Chipp’s reel’ viewing.
See database entry for THE BABYSITTER (1969) for background.
Censored footage – A 00:45 discussion about sex.
Censored footage No. 2
2015
– David Stratton
…the Australian censor interfered, removing much of Alma’s [Bibi Andersson] soliloquy about her sexual adventure on a beach.
Censored footage No. 3
Information from Mike Richards’s April 1970 viewing of ‘Chipp’s reel’.
April 1974
At another point the aptly named Department of Customs and Excise jibbed at showing certain pieces of dialogue and placed it instead in the program. Hence, the following extract from the English subtitles of Ingmar Bergman’s PERSONA.“She helped him off with his jeans and shirt and then he was on top of her. She showed him how and held him (sic) by his (sic) fanny.” (Typographical errors or was the Department really in a bad way?)
“I turned over and said: ‘Won’t you come to me now?’ I felt it as I’d never felt it before. He gripped me by the shoulders and bent backwards and thrust again and again. Katerina lay on her side watching and holding from behind and when he was through she took him in her arms and finished herself off with his hand and gave a shrill cry.”
– Dirty Pix
– Mike Richards
– Cinema Papers No. 2
Post-November 1971 rating
Resubmitted by Accent Film Entertainment and passed with an M (Sexual references, Adult themes) rating in November 2004. This 79-minute version was submitted on VHS but released on DVD. The running time indicates it was a PAL copy.
The Touch
Directed by Ingmar Bergman / 1971 / Sweden – USA / IMDb
October 1971 / Rated: SOA / Length: 10427 feet / Time: 115:51 / Censored by 00:01 / Reason: indecent language
