Born in 1914 at the dawn of cinema, Italy's censorship law felled some cinematic giants including Last Tango in Paris , but is now set to be awarded a 'rejected' rating, as unsuitable for a modern audience. Film
censorship has been abolished, announced culture minister Dario Franceschini in a statement: The system of controls and interventions that still allow the state to intervene in the freedom of artists has been definitively ended.
As a result, it will now no longer be possible to block the release of a new film or demand edits for moral or religious reasons. Filmmakers will instead classify their own movies with an age rating. Their decisions will be audited by
a new commission made up of 49 members chosen from the film industry, but will be experts in education and animal rights. According to a survey by Cinecensura , an online exhibition promoted by the culture ministry, 274 Italian films, 130 American
movies and 321 from other countries have been banned in Italy since 1944. More than 10,000 were cut in some way, including works by directors such as Federico Fellini. However the last major case of censorship was in 1998 with the blasphemous and
grotesque Toto Who Lived Twice , which was strongly criticised by Catholics.
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