Crowds Flock to Film to Beat Censor's Ban

Almost 50,000 Australians rushed to their local art-house cinemas this weekend to watch the erect penises and heaving buttocks that have made the French film Baise-Moi infamous, before censors had it removed from screens yesterday.

Police officers marched into a Sydney cinema to cancel a screening. In Melbourne on Sunday, hundreds queued in the rain to see the film before the ban was enforced.

The tale of two women going on a sex-and-murder roadtrip after one of them is raped was banned three days after its release in France - though it was later released again - and caused tabloid outrage on its release in Britain.

In Australia, a coalition of Christian conservatives and porn industry representatives concerned that Baise-Moi encroached on their territory lobbied the rightwing Liberal government to ban the film before its release last month.

Box office records were broken at art-house cinemas when, a few days before Baise-Moi opened, the government ordered a panel appointed by the Australian attorney general to review the film's "adults only" rating.

Now an equally improbable combination of state leaders, free speech activists and right wing radio talkshow hosts are condemning the ban.

"This could be the worst film made in the last five years but it leaves some of us with a dubious feeling if we now have police going into cinemas," Bob Carr, the Labor premier of New South Wales, said. "We don't want to give encouragement to people who institute banning of books or closing down stage shows."

But Mr Carr last night conceded that it would be legally difficult for his state government to defy the ban and screen the film in Sydney.

Australian cinema operators and free speech activists have accused the panel of pandering to the government's rightwing agenda.

Alex Meskovic, the manager of Sydney's Chauvel cinema, was ordered by police on Sunday to stop showing the film. He called the review board a "totally unfair kangaroo court".

Mr Meskovic and the film's Australian distributors said they will consider legal action after their lawyers have scrutinised the review board's report on its decision, which will be released in 10 days.

Cinemas in Melbourne and Canberra are exploring whether they can use state laws to circumvent the federal government's ban.