Director Atom Egoyan returned home for the film festival screening of his new film, Where the Truth Lies, after a bruising encounter with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the US film ratings board that is notoriously conservative on sexual content in movies and altogether more relaxed on screen violence.
Egoyan travelled to Los Angeles with one of his film's leading players, Rachel Blanchard, to appeal the MPAA's restrictive NC-17 rating on his film, which means that many US cinema chains will not show the picture and some media outlets will not carry ads for it.
The offending scene involves Blanchard in a menage-a-trois with Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth, and as anyone who saw the film on its world premiere at Cannes will agree, Egoyan argued that it is pivotal to the film and that cutting it would render the film incomprehensible.
Egoyan and Banchard made their case before an MPAA jury of 10 people from the cinema and distribution areas, along with a Catholic priest and an Episcopalian minister. To Egoyan's dismay, the decision was upheld.
Where the Truth Lies is due to go on Irish release in December.
