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‘Mary Whitehouse is living in my head’: how the video nasty scandal inspired a hot new film

Censor, Prano Bailey-Bond’s horror debut, was inspired by the 80s home video outrage. She discusses art versus offence, while the BBFC’s head makes the case for its relevance today

Rising film directors hailed as rock stars by the movie industry don’t always have much to talk about. Prano Bailey-Bond is different. Her first feature, the smart, playful horror Censor, is a talking point itself, an excavation of a murky British past. Then there is her background, of eye-opening things seen notably young. Her interview style is sharp. “I try to keep it fresh without changing the whole story,” she says.

Bailey-Bond has dark hair in a fringe, a trace of a Welsh accent and the friendly, practical manner of a film-maker used to working on a budget. Censor is set in an unwell-looking London, circa 1985. The heroine – ish – is Enid, played by Niamh Algar, a film examiner at what we take to be the British Board of Film Classification. Her personal history is a risk for an organisation in crisis. That much is drawn from real life – the tinderbox era of video nasties.

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2V7nIRr
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