Sundance sensation ‘Passages’ gets an NC-17 rating. Its director calls that ‘censorship’

The upcoming film “Passages,” directed and co-written by Ira Sachs, has received a rare NC-17 rating from the Motion Picture Assn., the Los Angeles Times has exclusively learned. 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.” Franz Rogowski and Adèle Exarchapoulos in the movie “Passages.” The NC-17 rating — no one under 17 admitted, even with a parent or guardian — was created in 1990 with the hopes it would differentiate between movies made for adult sensibilities and outright pornography. “I’m just so happy that that scene was as strong and powerful as it seems to be, because that was my intention,” said Sachs, “which was to have a moment in the film in which we don’t hide from the impact of sex on our lives and what it means to us as individuals.” In preparing to make “Passages,” Sachs said he watched films by celebrated directors Pier Paolo Pasolini and Chantal Akerman, as well as contemporary French cinema, because, as he put it, “I needed to be reminded that the body was not off-limits to cinema.” “To make an interesting sex scene is not easy,” said Sachs. “What I tried to track here was to not look at sex, but to look at intimacy,” Sachs added, “not constructed through editing and avoidance.” Franz Rogowski and Adèle Exarchopoulos in the movie “Passages.” As Mubi prepares the film for release in its uncut form, Sachs is still hopeful it can be seen by the broadest possible audience, despite his dissatisfaction with the MPA’s decision.