Whilst it should come as no surprise that a film, based on a pornographic book, would contain a few fairly raunchy scenes, it is fairly surprising to learn Fifty Shades Of Grey (the upcoming softcore romance/drama/thriller based on E.L. James’ seminal book) has not only earned an 18 certificate in the UK, but has passed the BBFC ratings board wholly uncut.
While pornographic websites are also far from an ideal source of information, The Guardian and The Sunday Times quote Mr Skin as stating Fifty Shades will contain a full 20 minutes of sex; making it the most sex-filled film released in a decade, as running at 125 minutes, roughly a sixth of the film’s runtime will be made up of sex scenes; meaning there’s more sex in Fifty Shades Of Grey than every one of the 100 mainstream movies rated 18 (or R-rated in the US) released in 2014 put together.
However, the infamous “tampon scene” from the book has been removed, and it’s been suggested the Fifty Shades film has watered down the BDSM elements of the book in order to appeal to a wider audience, though the BBFC do highlight the fact it contains “strong sex and nudity, along with the portrayal of erotic role play based on domination, submission and sado-masochistic practices”, as well as “strong verbal references to such practices and the instruments used.”
Director Sam Taylor-Johnson (Nowhere Boy) recently told The Guardian “the film is hardcore in places, there’s domination in places – but at no point did I feel like it had crossed a boundary”, stating although she “knows it’s going to be disappointing to some people” she “didn’t want it to be graphically explicit” and “don’t think it goes into the realm of porn.”
Due to be released just in time for Valentine’s Day (in both the UK and US) Fifty Shades Of Grey stars Jamie Dornan (Shadows In The Sun) as the confident and domineering billionaire Christian Grey, and Dakota Johnson (Need For Speed) as the initially timid Anastasia Steel, in the first of potentially three Fifty Shades films (given E.L. James wrote a trilogy of novels).
Matt Wheeldon – @TheMattWheeldon.
Source: BBFC, The Guardian.
