Black Swan vs Blue Valentine MPAA Ratings
http://www.popeater.com/2010/12/07/black-swan-blue-valentine-sex-scenes-ratings/
Found this article and thought it was interesting considering that I have seen Black Swan and know the sex scene in question, but have not yet seen Blue Valentine. I have been reading about it's current NC-17 status and thought this article put a interesting spin on the ratings controversy. They make some valid points, but there are some brief spoilers toward the end of the article, just an FYI!
Surprised
Did you ever see the documentary, "This Film is Not Yet Rated"? If so, I think your assumption is exactly right because from what you see of them in the movie they look like a pretty pathetic group!
Same here.
My theory is that the MPAA favors big studios as opposed to small/independent.
It really is just funny that by the description the scenes are very similar, and in my opinion the scene in Black Swan is pretty graphic even though it is not an act of passion per say, but something that happens while on drugs. I'm not sure if the setting is why they decided to favor Black Swan over Valentine but it seems that they should have both been given an R or NC-17 for depicting the same sex act. Even funnier, like the article mentions is that one would think they would have more problems with a lesbian scene vs a straight scene. All in all, the MPAA doesn't know what it's doing. I have this vision that they pick ratings out of a hat.
I've caught bits of This Film Is Not Yet Rated, but I've been meaning to watch it.
Part of my job involves getting movie info from around the world. It's really interesting to see how different countries rate movies.
For the most part every other country is way more lenient on movies than the US. Instead of ages 17 and 13 they use 16, 15 and 12.
France is probably the funniest example because seemingly every movie is rated "Tout," meaning everyone. Stuff like Machete has a 12 rating and Saw 3D has a 16, but something like Inception, which is PG13 here, has a Tout. Extreme violence kicks up the ratings, but if it has cursing and sexuality they usually don't care.
I've seen This film is Not Yet Rated. They pretty much do favor the larger studios and give them more leeway in the ratings. It's faily obvious to say but they are a little demented in allowing heavy violence to skate fine while any bits sex will be heavily scrutinized. Part of it apparently is that they have an actual Pastor as a consultant for voting members, who have much older children, (like 20-30 year old ones)
I always imagine the MPAA ratings board as a bunch of miserable, sexually repressed people. They probably haven't been laid in years and they take it out on movies.