[UK] "Blasphemous" short unbanned after 23 years

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The 1989 UK erotic short Visions of Ecstasy has finally been passed '18' without cuts after being banned for 23 years due to blasphemy laws. It remains the only video ever banned by the BBFC on account of its blasphemous content.

It was originally banned by the BBFC for a 1989 Axel VHS. There are two major scenes in the 19 minute film and one of them was considered illegal at the time. The Board would have granted a certificate with this scene removed, but as that scene comprises half of the total running time of the work the BBFC decided to simply reject the video altogether as a release would have been unviable. It was the only film banned in the UK solely on grounds of blasphemy.

The BBFC decision was subsequently appealed to the Video Appeals Committee, who upheld the ban. Director Nigel Wingrove then took his case to the European Court of Human Rights but lost his case there too.

In 2008, section 79 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act abolished the common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel, leading the BBFC to invite the director/the distributors to submit the work afresh. Now the film has been passed 18 uncut for a 2012 4Digital home video release.

The BBFC's press release on the matter is here (http://www.bbfc.co.uk/newsreleases/2012/01/the-british-board-of-film-classification-bbfc-has-passed-visons-of-ecstasy-at-18-without-cuts/).

Comments?

i know it is off topic but i am surprised there are blasphemy laws. I was all worried that the government is a threat to christianity with mark of the beast that is about to come. Well, now that I know of blasphemy laws, I have an idea: how about we use these laws in order to make a case against microchip implant (that is, make a case that implanting microchip amounts to blasphemy and, therefore, unlawful). It would possibly postpone the whole endtime thing by several years.

A brand new blasphemy law was passed in Ireland in 2009, which has proved to be extremely controversial there with Atheist Ireland and many others campaigning against it. It was widely seen by many in the Republic as a return to the dark ages.

blasphemy's kinda dead. just because something was considered ban-worthy in 1989 doesn't mean it should be eternally judged my those stardards, so the unbanning makes sense. loads of 'blasphemous' stuff has been chucked outta court since then (did you see the springer opera?) so it'd be kinda weird upholding a ban on that particular film

have you watched the short in question?

It would have been illegal to pass uncut - effectively illegal to pass at all, given the runtime - until 2008, when that particular law was removed.



This is very true. Lots of films that would have been cut heavily or banned outright in 1989 are now available uncut - most of the films on the old video nasties list, for example. But not all - films like Love Camp 7 and House on the Edge of the Park still get cut even today as do films like Cannibal Holocaust and [i}Deep River Savages[/i]. Cuts are considered better than an outright "no" though.



I haven't but it's a bit difficult to since it wasn't available on the web anywhere during the time it was banned. From what I've heard, it all sounds a bit silly and the director himself is really quite embarrassed by it now.

Laws about blasphemy. It was a much sadder world back then. now the world is sadder for different reasons.