Italy TV row over gay cowboys, full Brokeback Mountain will now be aired
AN Italian TV station is under fire after it cut kissing and sex scenes from a screening of Brokeback Mountain.
The film, which won three Oscars in 2006, tells the gay love story of two cowboys and stars Jake Gyllenhaal and the late Heath Ledger.
Gay rights groups say RAI TV censored the Ang Lee film and would never have done so if it had involved a heterosexual couple.
According to RAI, the cut version was aired on Monday by mistake after the film arrived from the distributor already censored, ready for prime time.
But when it was decided to show the film late at night, no one checked for the uncut version.
RAI have now promised to show the full-length film.
Some commentators and politicians were not satisfied, saying the cuts would not have been justified even if the film had been aired earlier.
See Italy TV row over gay cowboys
The Sun
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2008/12/italy-tv-row-…
Italian TV Transforms Brokeback Mountain into a straight tale of friendship
Italians tuning in to their state TV network this week had a rare chance to see Brokeback Mountain, the tale of true friendship between two straight cowboys.
At least that was the version of Ang Lee’s gay cowboy Oscar-winner that was broadcast by channel Rai Due: two love scenes between the male protagonists had been excised, cuts which provoked furious accusations from gay-rights groups of censorship driven by creeping homophobia in Italy.
“The need to change a film about homosexual love into a film about simple male friendship says a lot about the current cultural climate,” said Franco Grillini, president of Gaynet.
La Repubblica noted that the cuts – involving a kiss between actors Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal and a love scene in a tent – came days after the Vatican attacked a European Union proposal that the United Nations formally condemn discrimination against gays.
But Rai yesterday claimed the cuts were an honest mistake and promised to broadcast the full version of the 2005 film. “Since it went out after the watershed we could have shown the full version but did not have the copy,” said Rai director general Claudio Cappon. The copy broadcast, Rai said, had been supplied by a distributor for use before the watershed.
Opposition senator Luigi Vimercati called the explanation “embarrassing” and said he would demand a parliamentary inquiry.
Critics noted that while the gay love scenes were removed, censors left a heterosexual sex scene in Monday night’s version. “Evidently it is not sex which creates fear and pain, but the feelings between two men,” said Grillini.
See Italian TV Transforms Brokeback Mountain into a straight tale of friendship
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Uproar after Italian TV edits ‘Brokeback Mountain’
(Rome) Gay rights groups charged Wednesday that Italy’s state television censored Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain” when it aired the Oscar-winning movie by cutting scenes of gay sex.
Activists protested that RAI TV would never have dropped similar scenes had they involved a heterosexual couple, and politicians called for the incident to …
