A peach of a request.

The only thing this Movie Ratings Obsessive enjoys more than e-mailing the BBFC, is emailing the BBFC while picturing Timothée Chalamet, gorgeous star of Call Me By Your Name and set to become the third youngest man to receive a Best Actor Oscar nomination next Tuesday, at the age of 22, being intimate with a peach.

Call Me By Your Name, like Carol and Moonlight, two other LGBT prestige pictures, is rated 15. The category-defining issue is, unsurprisingly given the content of the film, its steamy sex scenes.

I had long been quite perturbed with the BBFCinsight for this film, which is sparse to the point of misleading:

The only love scene with nudity in Call Me By Your Name was when Elio loses his virginity to his Summer girlfriend (in part to exorcise residual horniness accrued from flirting with Oliver all day). For the BBFCinsight to only list that makes it seem as if that’s the only amorous encounter in the whole film, which mis-sells the love story at the centre of the film in a disingenuous manner akin to this shocking advert: 

I told the BBFC so in my email (and yes, I did smirk when I wrote the smuttier sentences):

Hi,
I am e-mailing regarding CALL ME BY YOUR NAME's extended information, which I found somewhat sparse.

The film is rated 15 for strong sex, and the insight reads, 'There are scenes depicting a young couple having sex, which contain some nudity.' Presumably this refers to Elio and his girlfriend, as I recall breast and buttock nudity in the film. 

However, the insight does not mention the scene where Oliver performs fellatio on Elio, nor where Elio masturbates using a peach. Given that these scenes would perhaps be deemed too strong for 12A, I was wondering why they were omitted from the extended information? 

I understand the BBFC are trying to cut down on the text in extended insights to avoid giving away unnecessary spoilers and to make the text more digestible, but I thought parents would have benefited from knowing about those scenes in advance, particularly the peach one. 

Many thanks in advance.

Having been used to rebuttals from the BBFC as replies in the past with no further action taken, I was expecting their go-to response of linking me to their guidelines, once again. Amazingly, however, this time they actually paid heed to what I said!

He passed my comment on to the Compliance Officers and they did something about it, imagine that! The BBFCinsight has indeed been altered as a result of my e-mail:

So this shows that the BBFC aren’t as stubborn as I’d thought. Admittedly, they took actions to rectify a lie of omission that should never have occurred in the first place and it was somewhat of a diluted account of what actually happens in the film (notice no mention of the peach).

But I’m delighted they finally listened to me!

… Although not as delighted as I will be next Tuesday, when my favourite handsome French-Jewish New Yorker gets his well-earnt Oscar nomination! 

(Screwing a peach, or otherwise)

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