Ewan McGregor sex scenes will push censors to their limits

Published on 23/02/2003 00:00

SADO-MASOCHISTIC sex scenes in Ewan McGregor’s new film, Young Adam, are set to test the new liberal approach of Britain’s censors to the limit.

The film, which is based on a book by Scots beatnik Alexander Trocchi, contains an incendiary mix of sex and violence unprecedented in British cinema history.

In one scene, McGregor beats co-star Emily Mortimer on the bottom and then has sex.

The British Board of Film Classification - which draws the line at the erotic combination of sex and violence - said it would be looking "very carefully indeed" at the film, which is being promoted by industry giant Warner Brothers.

Writer-director David Mackenzie, who has described the film as the "Last Tango in Glasgow", admitted: "There is sex and violence in there, and the two are kind of linked."

Mackenzie said McGregor did actually spank Mortimer, daughter of writer John Mortimer. "They all went into the whole sexual side very much with their eyes open and as fine actors, and we’ve got some good stuff," he said. "They weren’t spanking very hard."

Advance footage of the erotic thriller - the book was first published by a French porn specialist in 1954 - has just been screened to critics and others in the industry.

The UK traditionally has the tightest film censorship in Western Europe, and while the BBFC has recently taken a more liberal view of adult films, it remains extremely sensitive about any link between sex and violence that could be construed as titillating.

Sue Clark, the BBFC’s head of communications, confirmed that the board had banned similar scenes in the past.

"Our attitude to sexual violence is that the combination of sex and violence - particularly if there are explicit images - can arouse certain people, and we look at it very carefully indeed," she said.

Peter Woods, an expert on British censorship, said Young Adam would be "pushing the boundaries" of film censorship.

"If the film follows the book, it will certainly give the BBFC something to think about."

Woods said officials at the BBFC had told him privately that they want to further relax restrictions on adult films. "They are waiting for the proper sort of material from the proper sort of distributors," he said.

An unshaven McGregor looks older and sleazier than ever before in the film, and appears in a number of steamy scenes with co-stars Mortimer and Tilda Swinton.