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Italian TV (RAI) shows 'Brokeback Mountain' without gay scenes

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Aloysius J. Gleek:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/heaths-gay-kiss-cut/censorship/

Heath's Gay Kiss Cut

No gay sex please, we’re Italian. The Italian national broadcaster RAI TV has run into a storm of protests after it aired Brokeback Mountain sans a key plotline kiss between Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, The Telegraph reports. RAI said it aired the cut version by mistake, but gay activists and newspaper editorial writers were outraged nonetheless. In an editorial slapped across the front page of La Stampa, Massimo Gramellini said, “I would like to understand why a kiss between two gays…should offend our sensibilities more than scenes of heterosexual sex or bloodthirsty violence.” It’s a question worth asking, especially as Italian TV routinely broadcasts shows featuring stripping housewives and violent and saucy movies are screened uncut.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/3704470/Italian-TV-shows-Brokeback-Mountain-without-gay-scenes.html

Italian TV shows 'Brokeback Mountain' without gay scenes
Italy's state television censored Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain when it aired the Oscar-winning movie by cutting scenes of gay sex.

Last Updated: 11:04PM GMT 10 Dec 2008


Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, right, in a scene from the film Photo: AP

Gay rights activists protested that RAI TV would never have dropped similar scenes had they involved a heterosexual couple, and politicians called for the incident to be discussed in parliament.

RAI said it had aired the cut version by mistake.

Brokeback Mountain is a cowboy romance about two ranch-hand buddies who start an affair when they meet on the fictional mountain in the 1960s. The 2005 movie won three Oscars, including the best director award for Lee, as well as the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

RAI's second channel aired the film late Monday cutting out a sex scene and a sequence showing a kiss between the lead characters, played by the late Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.

"I don't believe it was an oversight, I believe it was preventive censorship," said gay rights advocate and former lawmaker Vladimir Luxuria. In an interview with La Repubblica,  Mr Luxuria said cutting the key scenes was "like showing the Mona Lisa without its head".

RAI said in a statement the film had arrived from the distributor already cut so that it could be shown in prime time. When it was decided to air it late at night, no one checked for the uncut version, it said. RAI pledged to show the complete movie soon.

Some commentators and politicians were not satisfied, saying the cuts would not have been justified even if the film had been aired earlier.

"It is grotesque that RAI censored scenes that have the same content as those seen in most prime-time movies," Benedetto Della Vedova, a conservative politcian, was quoted as saying by the Corriere della Sera newspaper. Luigi Vimercati, a center-left lawmaker, told Corriere  he would take up the issue in parliament.

In overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Italy, skimpily dressed women are a fixture on many TV programs, while scenes of sex and violence in movies are generally left untouched.

Massimo Gramellini, a top commentator for La Stampa daily, wrote in a front-page editorial: "I would like to understand why a kiss between two gays ... should offend our sensibilities more than scenes of heterosexual sex or bloodthirsty violence."

belbbmfan:
This was in my newspaper today. Apparently RAI has already stated that it will broadcast the correct version of the movie soon. To be continued...

David In Indy:

--- Quote from: belbbmfan on December 11, 2008, 02:05:51 pm ---This was in my newspaper today. Apparently RAI has already stated that it will broadcast the correct version of the movie soon. To be continued...

--- End quote ---

This is eerily similar to the hack job by Bravo we witnessed earlier this year. >:(

belbbmfan:

--- Quote from: DavidinIndy on December 11, 2008, 02:34:32 pm ---This is eerily similar to the hack job by Bravo we witnessed earlier this year. >:(



--- End quote ---

I was thinking the same thing. Which would make it more plausible that RAI was sent two copies of the movies and they didn't broadcast the correct version. Although it is disturbing to think that there are two versions out there. >:(

sel:
I didn't want to watch it as Ennis and Jack speaking in Italian have never appealed to me, however I decided to watch some of it. It was aired at 22.45 hrs. When I realised TSN1 had been cancelled I was in total shock, appalled! TSN2 and the reunion kiss were cut too! You bet Lureen's and Alma's breasts were there though, in full view!  Besides, how could those who had never seen BbM before understand what was going on in the story!?!?
I was absolutely furious. I didn't wait for the film to finish I just left.  The day after I wrote an email of protest to RAI.

The uproar of protest was huge. I was so pleased when RAI general manager and RAI DUE (the channel which aired it) were forced to apologise. Are they in touch with what viewers want? I doubt!There will be another screening, this time  of the uncut version. In Italy if you own a TV you have to pay a TV licence to RAI, even if you don't watch it.  After paying a licence the least one would expect is a good product not this absurdity.

On Mediaset, the commercial TV channels belonging to the 'Berlusconi Empire', I have seen gay and lesbian movies, screened at approx. 23.00 hrs, with very explicit sex scenes, TSN1 being very innocent in comparison.

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