/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-CHILE: The Eternal Temptation of Christ

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo González

SANTIAGO, Feb 4 2003 (IPS) - "The Last Temptation of Christ", the film by Martin Scorsese that is part of film libraries around the world, is only now making its debut in Chile, after a long legal battle against censorship that went as far as the Inter-American Court on Human Rights.

Cine Arte Alameda, in the capital, was the theatre chosen for the commercial premiere in Chile last week. "Last Temptation" is rated here for viewers 18 and older, though a new law allows adolescents 14 or older to see the film if accompanied by an adult.

On Jan 9, the Cinematic Qualification Council was finally able to overcome the ban that was in place since 1989 on "Last Temptation", filmed in 1988 by Scorsese, the noted U.S. director who this year won the coveted Golden Globe for his latest work "Gangs of New York".

The dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) banned "The Last Temptation of Christ" when the oversight board of the era, the Cinematic Censorship Council, was made up of delegates from the armed forces and included no members of the press or art critics.

The ban stirred debate in Chile back in 1989 because of the commotion it caused in other countries, topped off by the Roman Catholic Church’s statement that it was blasphemous because of its interpretation of the events of the life of Jesus Christ and of the crucifixion.

But Scorsese’s film was not the only one banned by the Pinochet dictatorship, which prohibited the showing of nearly 100 movies, including Woody Allen’s "Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex but Were Afraid to Ask" and "The Life of Brian" by the British comedy team Monty Python.

In 1996, with democracy re-established in Chile and some changes in the Cinematic Council, the 1989 decision on "Last Temptation" was reviewed, and the film was given the green light to be shown, for audiences 18 and older.

But the debut was halted by a legal recourse presented by a Catholic fundamentalist group, "Porvenir de Chile", which won a reinstatement of the ban decreed in 1989 while the court ruled on the merits of the new claim.

In 1997, the Supreme Court, which still had several judges who were designated during the dictatorship, ruled in favour of Porvenir de Chile, saying the film was offensive to the Catholic majority of the country’s population.

Scorsese, in a telephone interview with the Chilean daily El Mercurio, said that when the film premiered in 1988 he had been disappointed and concerned by the comments of fundamentalist Christian groups that considered the movie "dangerous and obscene" without having seen it.

The director said he did not make the film to change people’s ideas, but had made it for "outsiders", the dispossessed. "Jesus ate with prostitutes, tax collectors, all types of people," he noted.

"I made a film about a Jesus who is totally human but also totally divine. Something that in terms of Catholic teachings is absolutely correct," said Scorsese.

The Chilean Supreme Court ruling prompted lawyers specialising in freedom of expression cases to file a complaint with the Inter-American Court on Human Rights (IACHR), based in San José, Costa Rica. The petition accused the Chilean state of engaging in censorship through one of its branches, in this case, the judiciary.

The IACHR issued its verdict in March 2001, ruling in favour of freedom of expression, and instructed the Chilean state to modify its legal order within a reasonable period to remove prior censorship from artistic creations.

As a result of the IACHR decision, the government of Ricardo Lagos was able to speed through parliament a bill to abolish censorship, legislation originally presented by his predecessor, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (1994-2000).

The expedited law late last year replaced film censorship with a ratings board, to determine which films are appropriate for which age groups.

"The only films that can legally be banned today are pornographic films in which children appear," filmmaker Francisco Gedda, professor at the University of Chile, explained to IPS.

Attorney Sergio García, of Porvenir de Chile, and the others who in 1997 obtained the Supreme Court ruling in their favour in 1997, had considered further legal actions to block both the IACHR resolution and the premiere of the film, but they ultimately gave up.

Alex Muñoz and Ciro Colombara, two of the lawyers who brought the case before the IACHR, did not hide their satisfaction with the decision by the Cinematic Qualification Council, which they said put an end to an arbitrary ban.

Audiences at the Cine Arte Alameda can see "The Last Temptation of Christ" in its original format, on the big screen. Because of the ban, until now it was perhaps the most copied and most viewed film in video format, and more recently on DVD (digital video disc).