I laugh because it's true
Oct. 5th, 2011 04:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coyotegothIn which ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bookelfe makes me cackle immoderately:
". . . and the list goes on. I think my favorite anecdote was about award-winning Italian movie The Bicycle Thief, a tragic look at social issues and the futility of life which might well have been destined for a short life on the arthouse circuit except that then this happened:
"JOE BREEN, PERSON IN CHARGE OF HAYS CODE STUFF: Hey, are all those middle-aged ladies wearing all their clothes in that one scene prostitutes?
FELLINI: Yep! Totally unsexy prostitutes sitting around drinking tea and doing household chores because this is a film about LIFE.
JOE BREEN: Well, better take it out for the US release!
FELLINI: I refuse to bow to censorship! This is a film about LIFE.
JOE BREEN: Well fine, you don't get a Production Code seal then and major cinema houses won't accept you!
MARKETING TEAM: Oh hey awesome. HEY EVERYBODY COME SEE THE FILM THAT WAS TOO SCANDALOUS FOR THE HAYS CODE!
AUDIENCES, LATER: Well, I guess that was a cinema classic, all right, but we would just like to point out that, contrary to what we were led to believe, this film about a guy losing a bicycle was not very sexy."
bookelfe makes me cackle immoderately: ". . . and the list goes on. I think my favorite anecdote was about award-winning Italian movie The Bicycle Thief, a tragic look at social issues and the futility of life which might well have been destined for a short life on the arthouse circuit except that then this happened:
"JOE BREEN, PERSON IN CHARGE OF HAYS CODE STUFF: Hey, are all those middle-aged ladies wearing all their clothes in that one scene prostitutes?
FELLINI: Yep! Totally unsexy prostitutes sitting around drinking tea and doing household chores because this is a film about LIFE.
JOE BREEN: Well, better take it out for the US release!
FELLINI: I refuse to bow to censorship! This is a film about LIFE.
JOE BREEN: Well fine, you don't get a Production Code seal then and major cinema houses won't accept you!
MARKETING TEAM: Oh hey awesome. HEY EVERYBODY COME SEE THE FILM THAT WAS TOO SCANDALOUS FOR THE HAYS CODE!
AUDIENCES, LATER: Well, I guess that was a cinema classic, all right, but we would just like to point out that, contrary to what we were led to believe, this film about a guy losing a bicycle was not very sexy."
