MOVIES - Sept. 30, 1988

If you can’t ban a film, then destroy it. At least that seemed to be the philosophy of French protesters who wanted Martin Scorsese’s “Last Temptation of Christ” banned. They tear-gased and attacked theaters in Paris and other cities Wednesday. One police officer was reported injured in the clash with 600 protesters in front of a Left Bank theater. The protests were organized by followers of excommunicated Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, a traditionalist Roman Catholic. The film depicting Christ as vulnerable to human temptations has been bitterly condemned by some Roman Catholic and other religious leaders in the U.S., Canada and Britain. French police said demonstrators used similar tactics at theaters in Marseilles, Avignon and Rennes. Municipal officials in Aix-en-Provence banned the film outright.