Word: valenti
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...totally ignored in the era when European films depicted what comes naturally (and occasionally, unnaturally), and when books gained almost complete literary license. But nobody in the movie industry thought it was worth the bother to bury the dead code until Lyndon Johnson's former aide Jack Valenti became president of the M.P.A.A. last May. Valenti, who had been a Texas public relations man before he went to work for L.B.J., was determined to give Hollywood a new image (TIME, Sept. 2). Last week, after four months of work with the M.P.A.A. board, Valenti presented a new code that...
Parental Guide. A classification system will enable the M.P.A.A. to label certain films as "Suggested for Mature Audiences." Even this is not mandatory; it is a "request" to theater owners and a caveat to customers. Valenti feels that it is up to grownups to decide which pictures they want their children to see; the warning label will be mainly a guide for parents...
...Billy Wilder is the statement that seduction is never "acceptable as a subject matter for comedy." Instead of "profanity is forbidden," the code specifies that "undue profanity should not be permitted." Where once the code banned nudity altogether, it now forbids "indecent or undue exposure." When a reporter asked Valenti if "bare breasts could be deemed indecent in one film and decent in another," Valenti emphatically replied...
...will be some time before Valenti succeeds in dousing Hollywood with a good helping of "soul juice"-if he succeeds at all-but he is such an excessively eager fellow that his mere presence has given Hollywood a lift. Says he: "I came to this job not misshapen by old ideas and old prejudices. I don't know what's 'impossible' to do, and so I go ahead and try to do it. Will it work? I don't know, but I'm damn sure going to give it a whirl...
...Alfie seem more interesting than he actually is. And it is also true that the script struggles loyally to endow Alfie with humor and humanity. After the friend's wife undergoes an abortion-a scene that takes place off-camera but was only with reluctance approved by the Valenti office-Alfie stares in horror at the unseen fetus of his unborn son. The audience is clearly expected to conclude that Alfie is sensitive, after all, because he doesn't like to see a fetus on his kitchen table...