Shame poster resurrects film's controversy

A discarded poster for the film Shame, directed by Steve McQueen, has resurrected the film’s reputation for scandal after it was prevented from being used as promotional material for the film’s release in Hungary. The image, which has resurfaced over the internet, shows a bare female back on which the word ‘Shame’ is written in what can be construed as semen.

McQueen’s drama focuses around the private life and sexual addiction of Brandon Sullivan (Michael Fassbender), and how his sister Sissy’s (Carey Mulligan), arrival in his New York habitat poses an interruption to this private indulgence. When the film’s sexual nature and full-frontal nudity of its starts was disclosed at the Venice Film Festival 2011, the critically acclaimed drama was released in the US with a rating of ‘NC-17’, awarded to it by the MPAA.

This rating continues the controversy initiated when Blue Valentine, directed by Derek Cianfrance and featuring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, was initially released in 2010 with an ‘NC-17’ rating attached. This was later reduced to an ‘R’ at the personal appeal of Harvey Weinstein, co-founder of the Weinstein Company.

Whilst the US distributor of Shame, Fox Searchlight, readily accepted the ‘NC-17’ rating for the British Independent Film’s release in America, Shame has not been so fortunate in Australia, where it was classified with an ‘R+18’ rating by the Australian Classification Board. This is over and above the ‘R’ rating the film’s trailer received, which in itself limits the audience to which the marketing device could be broadcast to. It may only be previewed alongside those films with a similar ‘R’ rating.

Commercially, the inability to thoroughly distribute a film’s trailer is viewed as condemning to a film’s performance at the box office. However, the limitation of Shame’s marketing awards the film an adult allure that has seen it become a commercial and critical success regardless.