From French classification to global platforms, Italian gore, Luis Buñuel’s blasphemies, and more contemporary controversies, Darkness, censure & cinema offers a collection of eloquent texts on the various forms of censorship. Discover it with LettMotif editions.
This collection allows the reader to accumulate examples of censorship in cinema. A logic quickly emerges: censorship exists everywhere, albeit in different terms, often under the guise of culturally rooted reasons.
The authors revisit institutional oversight here. The classification of films in France, extensively discussed, is carried out through ranking, age restriction, or limited distribution. A structuring regulation that concretely decides who can watch what, and under what conditions.
Today, classification is based on several levels: general audiences, prohibition for under 12, 16 or 18, or even listing as “X” for pornographic or violence-inciting works. The Minister of Culture makes the final decision, based on the opinion of a Classification Commission composed of various profiles (administration, experts, cinema professionals, youth). This diversity does not prevent strong subjectivity, as debates are internal, criteria are fluid, and the assessment largely relies on the perception of potential image effects.
The process itself is structured into several steps: film submission to the CNC, viewing by a committee, then potentially going to a plenary commission in case of disagreement or request for restriction. The distributor can accept, challenge, or request a new examination. As a last resort, the decision can be brought before the administrative court.
When it comes to this French regulatory censorship, the book explores many other forms. In the UK, the Video Nasties caused a wave of moral panic that led to the banning of a series of deemed dangerous productions. Examples abound on sacrilege. A poster of Ave Maria removed for a sexualized crucifixion. The Last Temptation of Christ preceded by a warning to defuse blasphemy accusations. Larry Flynt who turns the crucifixion by placing a pornographic publisher. Every time, the religious image acts as an immediate trigger.
The case of Viridiana sees Buñuel staging beggars reenacting the last supper in a parody that shifts towards moral degradation. The film is banned in Spain, condemned by the Vatican, despite its recognition at Cannes. Here is a work that challenges a certain symbolic order.
Regarding Mad Max, which gets a whole chapter, France long held back from a global success, only offering truncated, dulled, and unsatisfactory versions. Violence, chaos, dystopia: elements that justified cuts and restrictions. This censorship is obviously linked to the representation of social disorder inherent in the film.
With platforms, censorship does not disappear: it becomes more complex. Our Boys triggers direct political reactions, up to Benjamin Netanyahu’s intervention. Netflix, on its side, adapts or abandons projects in Turkey: modification of Love 101, cancellation of If Only, withdrawal of an episode of Designated Survivor. Adjustments are sometimes invisible: a cigarette removed in El Camino, a gesture blurred in Sex Education, a series canceled under religious pressure (Messiah).
Censorship, when not solely through prohibition, operates through modification, adaptation, partial removal. It becomes an integrated practice in the distribution itself. Also, “sensitivity” tends to transform into “susceptibility.” Individual emotion becomes a collective lever. A work can be contested not by an institution, but by groups of viewers, taking advantage of the amplification allowed by networks.
Whether it’s Italian gore, religious blasphemy, pornography, dystopia, or contemporary series, the mechanics remain comparable: a work crosses an implicit boundary and triggers a response, whether institutional, political, or social. The book does not seek to unify these phenomena. They are obviously dissimilar. But the authors juxtapose them article after article. Each example remains concrete, identifiable, anchored in a specific context.
Cinema remains a point of friction. A place where the image, as soon as it overflows, demands a response.
Darkness, censure & cinema, collective
LettMotif, March 22, 2026, 164 pages
