Audience split
Men couldn’t sit with women at 1972 movie screening.
SWEARING and sex on screen were considered so racy in 1967 that men and women were segregated while watching a controversial new film, Ulysses.
The movie was an adaptation of Irish writer James Joyce’s 1922 novel of the same name, which was banned in Britain for nearly a decade. The 1967 film was heavily censored in Britain, and not released at all in Ireland until 2000. Of particular concern to censors was a single instance of the f-word, and a description of oral sex by one character.
New Zealand chief censor Douglas McIntosh provoked international headlines and mirth by choosing to release the film uncut, but with a requirement that audiences be segregated by sex.
‘‘One session was men only, the next women only and so on. The world thought we were mad,’’ a journalist recalled in 1999.
In Wellington, men could see the film at the St James cinema, while women’s sessions were held at the Regent. In smaller towns, the sexes might be separated into upstairs and downstairs seating, or divided by a rope. Wellington audiences were underwhelmed when the film was released on June 2.
‘‘Those who just want sheer pornography won’t find very much to feast on in this film,’’ The Evening Post said after the first screening. ‘‘The St James was halffull for the 11am performance. The audience was mostly young men, although there were a sprinkling of elderly types and at least one clergyman.’’
Dirty sniggers in the cinema soon died out, The Dominion said.
‘‘The four-letter words are there, but by the time you get to them – in the mouth of a woman – Joyce’s compassion has overcome you and they have little power to shock.’’
Both newspapers agreed with the decision to segregate. The Dominion preferred that to censorship, while the Post believed the movie would shock women.
‘‘The film lasts 2 1⁄4 hours and undoubtedly has some sizzling language which, if expressed in a public bar, would result in the perpetrators being hastily ejected. The film has lots of ‘men’s talk’ and towards the end is especially frank in the soliloquy.’’
Victoria University students were still being separated by ropes while watching Ulysses in 1972, but segregation was dropped later that year. In the 1990s, its R18 classification was downgraded to M, for mature audiences over 16.