Down with this sort of thing!
I'm reading a new book at the moment - The New Spaniards by John Hooper.
One of the chapters describes the influence of the Catholic Church under General Franco - and its role as 'official censor' on matters of sexual propriety.
The following extract sounds like something out of Cinema Paradiso or Father Ted:
"Sometimes, after one of those 'gravely dangerous' films had slipped through the net, parish priests would take it on themselves to put up a notice in the foyer of the local cinema which said: 'Those who watch today's programme are committing mortal sin'. One bishop, outraged by the authorisation of a film to which he objected, went so far as to arrange for groups of pious ladies from Accion Catolica to wait at the entrance of the cinema. Whenever someone approached the box office, the leader would cry out: 'Say an Our Father for the soul of this sinner!' and the others would fall to their knees in prayer. It cut down the audiences no end."
I bet it did.
And in their very different ways - the storytellers from Cinema Paradiso and Father Ted have helped put the gas of the censors at a peep.
Tyrants can cope with most things - but ridicule and laughter is their Achilles heel.
One of the chapters describes the influence of the Catholic Church under General Franco - and its role as 'official censor' on matters of sexual propriety.
The following extract sounds like something out of Cinema Paradiso or Father Ted:
"Sometimes, after one of those 'gravely dangerous' films had slipped through the net, parish priests would take it on themselves to put up a notice in the foyer of the local cinema which said: 'Those who watch today's programme are committing mortal sin'. One bishop, outraged by the authorisation of a film to which he objected, went so far as to arrange for groups of pious ladies from Accion Catolica to wait at the entrance of the cinema. Whenever someone approached the box office, the leader would cry out: 'Say an Our Father for the soul of this sinner!' and the others would fall to their knees in prayer. It cut down the audiences no end."
I bet it did.
And in their very different ways - the storytellers from Cinema Paradiso and Father Ted have helped put the gas of the censors at a peep.
Tyrants can cope with most things - but ridicule and laughter is their Achilles heel.
