Cinema Paradiso
Some would consider this rather obscene,
(Due to the obvious display of luscious boobs...
I mean the female mammary glands or breast)
While compared to this
(A passionate lovely kiss)
Not as much huh?
Obscenity and censorship, now this brings up a rather interesting string of ideas. To begin, in the very early stages of the movie Cinema Paradiso, at the cinema we see our little Toto, the village priest and our dear Alfredo doing something rather peculiar.
Our dear priest and his mighty bell
Signaling Alfredo to remove pieces in which he deems inappropriate while little Toto stares on.
Now who is it, who are these individuals that can consider themselves morally superior to their fellow man that they can set the standards to which they deem morally correct and appreciate for viewing?
The answer is,
NO ONE
Even in our modern day society, it takes the collective effort of a board of directives to censor appropriately according to our current movie rating system. As such, we are but human with ever growing and changing societies. We but grow with time. Earlier on our priest was signaling Alfredo about particular snippets to be removed from the film, this we can safely assume it is because the Father considered it immoral or sinful to be viewed at all. As later seen in the movie in the newly rebuilt cinema after the fire, the priest got up in an outrage stating that he will not watch pornography. Although the images shown in the cinema were that of passionate kissing and to some degree soft core porn, which he has previously been censoring, is it really as morally wrong as our dear Father believes?
Given the era in which this was set, during a time when movie censorship and regulation were not as tightly lip as now. My main question is, should a priest, a man with religious affiliations be allowed to decide what can be publicly displayed for viewing according to his own sense of morality? Assuming that the father does not have the vision and imaginary powers of director, will his act of censorship ruin a these pieces of work or the message that is being attempted to portray by the directors. In my opinion, pretty sure it did as we show too how the the audience were in a cheer when they finally saw their first kissing scene on the big screen.
