Bertolucci’s badge of honor: NC-17

NC-17 may represent a scarlet letter to most movie marketers, but for Bernardo Bertolucci, it’s a badge of honor and artistic integrity.

“This is a victory,” Bertolucci said Tuesday. “And not just for me -- it’s a victory for freedom of expression.”

The Italian director was exulting in the decision of Fox Searchlight Pictures to release his controversial, erotic new film “The Dreamers” uncut with an NC-17 rating (no one younger than 17 admitted).

The company’s apparent U-turn, announced Monday, came after last year’s attack by Bertolucci on Fox Searchlight’s parent company 20th Century Fox, when it suggested “The Dreamers” should be cut to gain an R rating.

The film, set in the summer of 1968 in Paris, when students and workers clashed with riot police, is about three movie-buff teenagers -- a French twin brother and sister, and a young American. Left to their own devices in the twins’ apartment while their parents are away on vacation, the trio play film trivia quizzes and psychological games involving sexual forfeits. “The Dreamers” includes candid scenes of masturbation, graphic sex and full-frontal nudity.

“I’m happy with the fact the film is coming out [in America] in its entirety,” said Bertolucci, speaking by phone from his office in Rome. “No one will ever know why it took so long to get to this point.”

Fox Searchlight’s decision is an intriguing one. For years, major studios who are signatories to the Motion Picture Assn. of America have opted to cut contentious movies in order to secure an R rating. The last major studio film to open with an NC-17 rating was “Showgirls” in 1995. Some studios, such as the Disney-owned Miramax, even have clauses in their contracts prohibiting the production or distribution of NC-17 films.

Peter Rice, the head of Fox Searchlight, said his bosses, 20th Century Fox Chairmen Tom Rothman and Jim Gianopulos, respected his decision to keep the NC-17 rating.

“There was a lot of discussion but ultimately we, as an independent company within a larger organization, are incredibly lucky in the amount of support we get from our parent company,” said Rice.

Bertolucci, 63, is widely regarded as a master of world cinema, thanks to such work as “The Last Emperor” (his 1987 film that won nine Oscars), “The Conformist,” “1900” and “The Spider’s Strategem.” But he also is no stranger to controversy; his 1973 movie “Last Tango in Paris” (originally rated X, now rated NC-17) caused an outrage when it was released. Coincidentally, that film was also about sexual partners in a Parisian apartment.

He was contractually obliged by Fox Searchlight to deliver an R-rated film. But in September at the Venice Film Festival, he flamboyantly made public his grievances about the proposed cuts to “The Dreamers.”

At a crowded press conference, he declared it was likely to be “amputated and mutilated” for its U.S. release. Noting that the film would be seen uncut throughout Europe, he added: “Some people obviously think the American public is immature.” Bertolucci disclosed Tuesday that he had been talking with Fox Searchlight executives since Venice. “I said I was very sorry that I had to make the cuts to deliver an R-rated movie,” he recalled.

“Then I stopped fighting, because it seemed to me there was no way a major movie studio would release an NC-17 movie. That was what I had always been told.”

But last week Fox Searchlight informed the film’s British producer, Jeremy Thomas, that “The Dreamers” would open with an NC-17 rating. “That came out of the blue,” Bertolucci said. “But they’ve said they’re doing this because of their respect for my work. So let us accept what they say.”

Despite suggestions the NC-17 rating may hamper the marketing of “The Dreamers,” Bertolucci said Fox Searchlight had given assurances that only a few American theaters would balk at exhibiting the film and that TV advertising would not be affected.

Executives at Fox Searchlight insist the movie will live or die by its critical reception in the U.S. -- not by the rating. Its first big test will be how well it is received when it premieres at the Sundance Film Festival. Searchlight’s distribution team already is booking theaters in major cities such as New York and Los Angeles. In the next few weeks Searchlight will find out if exhibitors in more conservative places like Salt Lake City and Omaha, Neb., are willing to book the movie.

One memorable quote has already emerged from the resolution of the dispute. Bertolucci, as well as other filmmakers and critics such as Roger Ebert, have often been scathing about Hollywood studios’ greater tolerance for violence on screen than for portrayals of sexuality. In a statement issued Monday by Fox Searchlight, Bertolucci remarked: “After all, an orgasm is better than a bomb.”

“I was just making a link with 1968, when people used to say ‘make love not war.’ It was a little joke.” Bertolucci is now interested to see whether other studios will follow Fox Searchlight’s lead and take a different view on the NC-17 rating: “It wouldn’t be bad,” he said. “I’d be very happy if this could start a new direction.”

That remains to be seen. Of the nearly 70 movies the MPAA website lists as rated NC-17, all of them are for explicit sexual content or nudity. Violence is not mentioned in a single description, unlike many films that end up with an R rating. Quentin Tarantino’s crimson-drenched “Kill Bill: Vol. 1,” for example, was rated R “for strong bloody violence, language and some sexual content.” “The Dreamers” earned its NC-17 “for explicit sexual content.”

Bertolucci is scheduled to arrive Monday at Sundance in Park City, Utah, for the U.S. premiere of “The Dreamers.” It opens Feb. 6 in the U.S.

Lorenza Munoz in Los Angeles contributed to this report.