SHORT TAKES : Censors Uphold Ban on Video

British censors Thursday upheld a ban on a video film depicting the erotic visions of a 16th century nun, the first time in more than 70 years a film has been banned in Britain on grounds of blasphemy.

The producers of the 20-minute film “Visions of Ecstasy” said they failed in an appeal to persuade the British Board of Film Classification to reverse a decision refusing them a film certificate.

The film is about the visions of Spain’s patron saint, St. Teresa of Avila. One sequence shows her in a nun’s habit kneeling astride Jesus Christ, who is wearing a loincloth.

The decision to ban the video was condemned by producer John Stephenson as a “disgraceful act of censorship.” It was also criticized by Article 19, the international campaign against censorship.

“The blasphemy law is anachronistic and its influence in cases such as this leads to unacceptable censorship,” Article 19 director Frances D’Souza said.

Film Board director James Ferman said the film contained offensive scenes, including one in which the figure of Christ is intercut with a lesbian sequence involving two nuns.

Last year, British censors passed without cuts Martin Scorcese’s film “The Last Temptation of Christ,” which inflamed religious passions in the United States and other countries.