A FRENCH COURT banned Lars von Trier’s ultra-violent film Antichrist today, with the Catholic group who brought the case also threatening to have Quentin Tarantino’s new film pulled from cinemas.

The traditionalist group Promouvoir (Promote) said the US director’s Western The Hateful Eight – which is in the running for three Oscars later this month – had been “granted its certificate illegally”.

It also threatened to take action against the French teen film Bang Gang, one of the hits of this year’s Toronto film festival.

It is the third time that the group has succeeded in persuading French judges to ban Antichrist since it won a major prize at the Cannes film festival in 2009.

The same group also managed to have two other sexually explicit films temporarily withdrawn from French screens in the past year.

Gaspar Noe’s erotic odyssey Love was banned by the courts in July and the permit for Blue is the Warmest Colour, which won the top Palme d’Or prize at Cannes in 2013, was withdrawn in December over its lesbian scenes.

While Love has since been re-released with a revised 18 certificate, Tunisian-French director Abdellatif Kechiche’s much-praised love story is still in legal limbo.

Promouvoir argued that the extreme “unsimulated sex” in Von Trier’s Antichrist – which had a 16 certificate – made it unfit to be seen by minors.

An administrative appeals court in Paris agreed and ruled that the culture ministry had “made a mistake” in its original classification of the film.

Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin was “examining the (court’s) decision”, her ministry said after the ruling.

The notoriously provocative Danish director, who revels in shocking both audiences and censors, admitted when the film was first shown that it was not for the faint-hearted.

Courts have previously withdrawn permits for the film in 2009 and again in 2016 only for the culture ministry to ignore their objections and reissue its certificate.

Antichrist opens with a passionate sex scene between a couple played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, who are so absorbed in their love making they fail notice their toddler falling to his death from a window.

The ban on the film means it cannot be shown in cinemas, on television or on French Internet streaming sites unless it gets a new 18 certificate.

Retailers and video stores are also barred from selling or renting DVDs of the film.

- © AFP, 2016

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