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A CUT ABOVE THE REST The first lighting cameraman ever to become Official Film Censor.
focus on ireland
Sheamus Smith has been a photographer, producer, director, worked for Disney, run a film studio and even held the prestigious post of Editor, Current Affairs for the state-run television sta- tion. He must also be the only lighting cameraman ever to become Official Film Censor.
That’s the grandiose title he has sported for the last 13 years in his native Ireland and he’s just the sev- enth person to hold the prestigious post in more than 60 years since trail- blazing Mr James Montgomery banned 1,700 films during his long tenure declaring grandly, “I act as a moral sieve.”
That’s not Smith’s style at all. The self-confessed poacher-turned-game- keeper doesn’t even really like his title: “My policy is I do not cut films although people sometimes ask me to cut them in order to give them a wider audience. However I know so many directors that I simply wouldn’t dream of cutting their movies.
“I look upon myself instead as a classifier. Mine is called The Film Censor’s Office purely because it’s enshrined that way in the act that cre- ated it in 1923. I’ve long been trying to change it and with us now looking at all videos and games too, I would expect it to become The Office of Classification sooner rather than later.”
The first non-Catholic to hold the office - geographically situated in Dublin right next door to a police sta- tion - Smith was, in a sense, a new broom from the moment he was appointed: ‘It had traditionally been a very conservative office. But the min- ister who appointed me said he didn’t believe in censorship which was in
itself very encouraging. Now if I thought there was even the slightest hint of official interference I’d proba- bly jump far in the other direction.”
Though his title continues to be an effective conversation-stopper at dinner parties, the office itself has evolved a great deal in the last decade or so: “When I first came in here I had one secretary and two pro- jectionists. With the office also responsible for licensing video outlets
as well as classifying some 3,000 videos a year, I now have a full-time assistant in the censorship/classifica- tion area not to mention seven part- time assistants. All told we have 18 people here.”
The present certification system - G (rather than the UK’s U), PG, 12, 15 and 18 - is one that he has overseen during his tenure: “Any major rows? Not really, touching wood like mad. The biggest pressure I ever had was
at the time of The Last Temptation Of Christ. There were people standing outside the office singing hymns, say- ing prayers and sending me petitions. I replied to all the letters and sent back various inanimate objects. Then I saw the movie, which none of the complainers had done, and gave it an 18 with one restriction... perhaps a gesture on my part. No member of the audience would be admitted after the film started. It was see it all or nothing. In fact the picture wasn’t a great success here which was disap- pointing because I rather liked it.”
So Smith’s policy is not to cut “though I did a couple of times soon after I arrived in the job. One was in a film when a wife was having it off on a restaurant table in the middle of the day while her husband was in hospi- tal undergoing a heart bypass opera- tion. The other one was someone doing ‘it’ in a confessional.”
Though the days of banning movies are gone, Smith is certainly not afraid to use his classification system to help restrict certain viewing. Thus the smutty Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me was 15 in the Republic compared with its 12 here while South Park, a 15 in the UK, received the full rigour of an 18 there, “basically because of the vulgarity and toilet humour. I don’t think a 15-year- old really needs to be exposed to that.”
Smith, one of the best connected film people in Ireland who still keeps in close touch with film-maker friends like Sir Peter Ustinov and producer Greg Smith, has no plans to quit his post just yet: “All my predecessors either died in the job or else
stopped officially at 70. I’ve a few more years to go and still enjoy doing the job.” ■ QUENTIN FALK