Censored films to be shown uncensored

LONDON, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- Films that would make a censor blush or cringe -- so audiences wouldn't -- will be included on the bill at a new film festival in London.

The 19 films that were banned or cut by the British Board of Film Classification over the past 100 years will be shown in their complete, original -- read uncut -- version during the "Seduced: Sex and Censorship in the Cinema" at the Barbican Oct. 18-24, the Times of London reported Thursday.

For example, audiences can watch Gerard Depardieu mutilate his body with an electric knife in 1975's "The Last Woman," which was never officially released in Britain. Or, they can catch Hollywood siren Jean Harlow in "Red-Headed Woman," whose on-screen seduction of three men was deemed too steamy by Britain's official censor in 1933.

As with many films that raised eyebrows in their day, the material now seems innocent, said Robert Rider, head of cinema at the Barbican.

“They’ve got to be seen in terms of the moral climate of the period,” Rider said.