An NC-17 rating for a film may as well be a scarlet letter branded on it before release, limiting its audiences and causing certain theaters not to carry it at all. But that branding won’t stop MUBI and Ira Sachs from debuting “Passages,” Sachs’ latest, in theaters next month. Deadline reports the director and distributor will move ahead with their release schedule as planned despite the MPA giving the film an NC-17. Good thing, too: critics loved “Passages” when it had its world premiere at Sundance earlier this year, and it’s an eagerly anticipated movie from Sachs, his first since 2019’s “Frankie.”
Speaking to the LA Times, Sachs called the Motion Picture Association’s rating of his latest film “quite dangerous, particularly in a culture which is already battling, in such extreme ways, the possibility of LGBT imagery to exist.” For the director, an NC-17 rating is a “form of cultural censorship,” and one he can’t abide by; hence, he and MUBI will move forward with their release plans despite it. “We hunger for movies that are in any proximity to our own experience,” continued Sachs. “To find a movie like this, which is then shut out, is, to me, depressing and reactionary.”
“Passages” hits select theaters in New York and Los Angeles on August 4 before a wider rollout. MUBI acquired the film’s US, UK and Latin American distribution rights shortly after its Sundance premiere. The streaming platform and distribution had a press statement about their decision to move forward with their planned release schedule. “MUBI submitted director Ira Sachs’ “Passages” to the MPA in anticipation of the theatrical release in the United States,” read the statement. “We unexpectedly received an NC-17 rating, which may limit the film’s ability to play in some cinemas nationwide. We are deeply disappointed by the MPA’s decision and MUBI has officially rejected this NC-17 rating. MUBI remains committed to releasing “Passages” nationwide in its original version as the filmmaker intended, with our full backing, unrated and uncut.”
Is an NC-17 rating outmoded? Sachs certainly thinks so. “it’s so 1950s that this still exists,” the director continued to the LA Times. “We’re talking about a board that is not visible, that doesn’t make its rules known, that exists in silence. We’re talking about a select group of people who have a certain bent, which seems anti-gay, anti-progress, anti-sex — a lot of things which I’m not.” But Sachs also thinks the message of “Passages” will be able to reach audiences despite its raiting. “There’s no untangling the film from what it is,” he went on. “It is a film that is very open about the place of sexual experience in our lives. And to shift that now would be to create a very different movie.”
“Passages” stars Franz Rogowski as Tomas, a filmmaker in Paris who starts a steamy love affair with Adèle Exarchopoulos‘ Agate. But Tomas’ impulsive romance complicates his relationship with Ben Whisaw‘s Martin, his husband. But when Martin begins his own extramarital affair, a jealous Tomas finds himself caught between desires. Will the marriage between the two men survive?
As noted earlier, “Passages” hits theaters in NYC and LA on August 4, with a rollout to more theaters later this year. Watch a trailer for Ira Sachs’ latest below.
