MovieChat Forums > Le scaphandre et le papillon (2008) Discussion > PG-13 or R?

PG-13 or R?

posted 14 years ago by satan-stole-the-muffins
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OK, I've heard quite a few people talk about how lenient the MPAA and BBFC were with their ratings for this film. When I finally watched it, I was really shocked that this got away with a PG-13 in the US and a 12 in the UK. Three scenes of topless women (2 sexual) and full frontal male nudity. Now, I know that the male nudity was fully non-sexual, but one of the topless scenes is sexual and lingers on the naked woman for about a minute (perhaps more). Now, I'm for nudity in movies, and I don't actually think that this movie should be and R, but is anyone else surprised? The MPAA rated "LOST IN TRANSLATION" R because of a single brief scene of a topless dancer. Now, this scene may have been sexual, but overall, the on-screen nudity lasted all of 3 seconds. In the UK it received a 15 for its nudity. BUT this film can show full frontal male nudity and sexualised female nudity and is only rated PG-13.

Does this make sense to anyone? To be honest, I don't see why nudity is such a big issue with the MPAA; if its non-sexual, PG-13 it! I'm just really really surprised at how inconsistent they are and how strong the nudity was in this film compared to others that got an R.

I like pigs. Dogs look up to you, cats down on you. Pigs treat you as equals.

[–] i_am_something 14 years ago

There is no sex in this film. The only remotely sexual image is of Jean-Do and the girl he goes to Lourdes with in bed naked. All they do is talk in that scene. I'm glad the MPAA didn't bite on this one, because the nudity was not by any means vulgar or tasteless, merely just another part of the story.

As for Lost in Translation, that scene took place in a strip club, was longer than 3 seconds, was meant to be comedic (and in turn, a bit vulgar), and had the song lyrics of Peaches' *beep* the Pain Away' blasting over the speakers ("Suckin' on my titties like you wanted me, calling me..."); though brief, it's still far from PG-13 material.

I believe both films ratings were justified.
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[–] Kabumpo 14 years ago

The MPAA is notoriously inconsistent. It has been known to allow full-frontal male nudity in films of all ratings depending upon the context, but has never approved of full-frontal female nudity in a film not rated R. In fact, fightthempaa.com has found that only 56 MPAA-rated films (all R) show female genitalia (meaning actually the genitalia, not just hair), while nearly 1,000 MPAA-rated films, including 3 rated G, show male genitalia. There are many more films released on the independent circuit (and I am not referring to hardcore pornography) that the MPAA never rated that show these, but we're only dealing with films that received a rating. This also doesn't include films that received ratings only from the Film Advisory Board, which are mostly indie releases of Australian and Canadian films.