>         From the New York Times (7/8/99)
> 
> 
>           In Norway, a Nanny Standard for Movies
> 
>           By WALTER GIBBS
> 
>           [O] SLO, Norway -- A country where
>               violent films and videos are
>           banned, pornographic cinemas are
>           nonexistent and advertisers are
>           forbidden to focus on children was
>           probably not what President Clinton
>           had in mind this summer when he
>           challenged Hollywood to tone down its
>           act.
> 
>           But for Norway, censoring
>           entertainment is as natural as
>           sweeping the streets. The streets are
>           well swept indeed. By almost any
>           standard, this Scandinavian capital
>           might be considered a bastion of
>           wholesomeness. The police are unarmed,
>           the children frolic in public
>           fountains, and the most divisive
>           political issue in Parliament this
>           year is kindergarten policy.
> 
>           No one manning the cultural ramparts,
>           however, takes Norway's platonic order
>           for granted, least of all a vigilant
>           woman named Ingeborg Moraeus Hanssen.
> 
>           A political celebrity with swirling
>           capes and robes, Ms. Moraeus Hanssen
>           leads the Oslo Municipal Cinema Co., a
>           branch of city government that owns
>           all 31 movie screens in the city. She
>           must approve every commercial film
>           before it is shown. At stake, in her
>           view, is the mental health of
>           Norwegian young people.
> 
>          "I care much more about my public than
>           I do about the movies," she said
>           recently in her office overlooking
>           Karl Johans Gate, the cultural hub of
>           Oslo. "This industry can be very, very
>           gruesome. You live just once on this
>           earth, and I don't want people wasting
>           their time watching stupid movies
>           filled with violence and raw sex."
> 
>           As she spoke, she rapped her knuckles
>           on her large wooden desk. Spread
>           before her were the day's newspapers,
>           which had not yet reported her latest
>           thumbs-down ruling. The American
>           action thriller "Universal Soldier:
>           The Return," featuring computerized
>           warriors, will not be shown in Oslo
>           because Ms. Moraeus Hanssen considers
>           its violence "speculative" and of no
>           artistic value. (The film is scheduled
>           for release in the United States on
>           Aug. 20. )
> 
>           Last year, French film director Jan
>           Kounen called Ms. Moraeus Hanssen "the
>          lady of darkness" for rejecting his
>           gangster film "Dobermann" on the same
>           basis.
> 
>           "This could maybe happen in Iraq or
>           China," Kounen thundered to Norwegian
>           reporters, "but in a democratic
>           society, such censorship is
>           scandalous." He threatened to get even
>           by setting his sequel, "Dobermann II,"
>           in Oslo.
> 
>           Because Norway's population of 4.4
>           million is smaller than that of many
>           cities, its restrictive policies are
>           no more than an irritant to the film
>           industry, which regards Norway as a
>           throwback. In 1980 the national
>           authorities banned the Monty Python
>           comedy "Life of Brian" because of
>           content deemed blasphemous. In
>           neighboring Sweden, gleeful cinema
>           owners ran advertisements under the
>           headline "Too funny to be shown in
>           Norway!"
> 
>           Since the Monty Python experience,
>           Norwegian officials describe their
>           position on films as progressive
>           rather than backward. They hope that
>           American lawmakers, shaken by a string
>           of high school shootings, will take
>           steps to dam the global flow of
>           disturbing images in film and other
>           media.
> 
>           Trond Waage, Norway's Cabinet-level
>           commissioner for children, said young
>           people not weaned on American media
>           lacked the detachment and irony
>           necessary to deal with harsh or
>           manipulative messages.
> 
>           "Children are the holiest and best
>           thing about our world, and we can see
>           they are under attack," he said,
>           calling on the United Nations to
>           develop international media standards.
>           He insisted that the "mental
>          pollution" emanating from
>           entertainment capitals was a matter of
>           public health, not just morality.
> 
>           "I'm not moral," he said. "I'm
>           furious."
> 
>           Norwegian agencies that shield
>           children from the media admit they are
>           fighting a rear-guard battle. When a
>           5-year-old Norwegian girl was killed
>           roughhousing with playmates in 1994,
>           the action-packed American children's
>           television series "Mighty Morphin
>           Power Rangers" got the blame and was
>           pulled off the air. But satellite
>           television signals and the Internet
>           continue to provide forbidden fruits
>           ranging from advertisements for
>           children's cereal to escapist violence
>           and pornography.
> 
>           Norwegian officials planning for the
>           long term say schools must give
>           youngsters the psychological means to
>           make healthy choices. In the meantime
>           the authorities joust away at
>           perceived threats. No private
>           organization exists to defend artistic
>           expression, and few people seem to
>          think one is needed.
> 
>           "We have always been a control-seeking
>           country with faith in the
>           authorities," says Tom Loeland,
>           director general of the Norwegian
>           Board of Film Classification.
>           "Regulation is a very well integrated
>           part of our democracy."'
> 
>           Since 1997 Loeland's board has banned
>           three dozens films that distributors
>           wanted to import for the home-rental
>           market. But it is the municipal
>           ownership of theaters, a framework
>           unique to Norway, that occasionally
>           causes fireworks.
> 
>           Every town with a movie house has a
>           public official responsible for
>           programming, but none have the clout
>           of Ms. Moraeus Hanssen. When she shuns
>           a foreign movie it is hardly worth
>           importing because Oslo accounts for a
>           third of the filmgoers in Norway.
>           Filmmakers around the world know of
>           her prickliness.
> 
>           "When I refused the movie 'Crash,'
>           David Cronenberg called me up angry
>           and shouting," she recalled, referring
>           to the film's director, a Canadian.
>           "But I am used to it. Directors always
>           tell me their film is a masterpiece.
>           They say the violence is necessary.
>           Sometimes they even say it is funny. I
>           love that one. Finally they just say,
>           'How dare you!' Well, I dare." (In the
>           United States, "Crash" was rated
>           NC-17: no one under 17 admitted.)
> 
>           She knows that a relationship between
>           violent films and violent behavior is
>           hard to prove, she said, and she knows
>           that youngsters are savvy about film
>           technology. But she also believes that
>           they need help to identify the good,
>           the true and the beautiful.
> 
>           "I am against censorship," she
>           insisted. "What I am is an editor."
> 
>           One of her decisions that came under
>           scrutiny regarded Oliver Stone's
>           "Natural Born Killers." The film board
>           called it a social commentary and
>           allowed it to enter the country with
>           an "18" rating limiting its audience.
>           Ms. Moraeus Hanssen refused to
>           schedule it, but the outcry against
>           censoring a potentially historic work
>           was so great that she gave in. She
>           assigned the movie to a little-known
>           art-film house and told people not to
>           go.
> 
>           "That film is devil's work," she said.
>           "Oliver Stone is a genius in many
>           ways, but even a genius can sometimes
>           be in the hands of the Devil."
> 
>           Saul Zaentz, the American producer of
>           "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,"
>           "Amadeus" and "The English Patient,"
>           has never crossed the imperious Oslo
>           cinema director. He said her methods
>           would never work in the United States,
>           but were well suited for Norway.
> 
>           "I have known Ingeborg for many years
>           and have always admired her," he said.
>           "She loves what she is doing, she
>           knows what she is doing and she has a
>           lot of courage. She deserves her
>           freedom of speech."
> 
> 
>         Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company
>