Director Of Queer Film ‘Passages’ Calls Out NC-17 Rating

After premiering at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, ‘Passages’ receives a rare NC-17 rating from the Motion Picture Association which has left director, Ira Sachs, frustrated ahead of its release.

The film centres around a same-sex couple’s evolving love triangle which was praised at the premiere for its meaningful and realistic depictions of queer and straight relationships.

However, due to the number of sex scenes, the MPA’s rating will prohibit anyone under the age of 17 seeing the film and will likely restrict distribution amongst theatres.

Speaking with the Los Angeles Times, Sachs called out the association for their dated perspective and defended the intimate scenes as being significant for audience’s to view.

Theatrical release to be left uncut

“There’s no way to untangle the film from what it is,” says Sachs, explaining that the film will not be edited to appeal for a lower R-rating ahead of its theatrical release.

“It is a film that is very open about the place of sexual experience in our lives. And to shift that now would be to create a very different movie,” he explains.

Sachs describes his joy in intentionally creating “strong and powerful” intimate scenes, with the NC-17 rating proving to be “depressing and reactionary.”

“It’s really about a form of cultural censorship that is quite dangerous, particularly in a culture which is already battling, in such extreme ways, the possibility of LGBT imagery to exist,” he continued.

Criticising the MPA’s anonymity on how films are rated, Sachs jokingly recalled the association’s review as being written by his great-aunt – “because it’s written by someone who seems to be literally from a different era.”

“We’re talking about a select group of people who have a certain bent, which seems anti-gay, anti-progress, anti-sex – a lot of things which I’m not,” says Sachs.

A spokesperson from MPA told The Los Angeles Times that the rating does not differentiate heterosexual or gay sex scenes.

“The MPA’s Classification and Rating Administration rates movies based on their content — what happens on screen and how it is depicted. The sexual orientation of a character or characters is not considered as part of the rating process,” says the spokesperson.

Support From Distributor And Fans

With the film to be released in its entirety, distributor Mubi supports leaving the film uncut.

“‘Passages’ is an honest and groundbreaking portrait of contemporary relationships, both queer and straight,” Mubi told Los Angeles Times.

“An NC-17 rating suggests the film’s depiction of sex is explicit or gratuitous, which it is not, and that mainstream audiences will be offended by this portrayal, which we believe is also false.”

Many have anticipated the film’s release after receiving rave reviews at Sundance. Fans on social media shared their frustration and disappointment in the film’s rating.

On Twitter, one commenter called out the rating as continuing to suppress the depiction of “queer or female” pleasure on screen.

Why does this always seem to happen to queer or female sexual pleasure heavy films. This happened to But I'm a Cheerleader https://t.co/h0BtWkqaSu

— Hanna Ines Flint (@HannaFlint) July 19, 2023

Many fans also praised that the scenes will remain, with another commenter detesting the NC-17 rating as “death sentence” for the film.

I love that they’re releasing this uncut theatrically but I wish the conversation would move from “NC-17 is a death sentence” to distributors embracing the rating — it’s a legitimate rating that deserves a place in the market, the more we shun it, the more theaters are able to https://t.co/36dgdWxrCz

— Justin LaLiberty (@jlalibs) July 20, 2023

‘Passages’ will be released throughout selected US cinemas in August, whilst an Australian release is yet to be announced.