Les Amants (The Lovers), Louis Malle, 1958
Banned in 1959 in canton Basel City because “it crossed the ethical and moral line by miles”. Shown for the first time in 1971.
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Et Dieu créa la femme (And God Created Woman), Roger Vadim, 1956
Canton Basel City didn’t like its “gay eroticism” and banned it. Neighbouring canton Basel Country didn’t have a problem.
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La Jument Verte (The Green Mare), Claude Autant-Lara, 1959
Canton Basel City found it “smutty and driven by physical urges”. Their hardened attitude resulted in a ban, which was lifted in 1963.
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Fanny Hill, Russ Meyer, 1964
Canton Lucerne failed to see the funny side of this sex comedy and banned it.
AFP
De L’amour (All About Loving), Jean Aurel, 1964
Canton Basel City slapped it with a ban (lifted on appeal) for being “common and vulgar” and for “treating women like objects”.
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Ai no korida (In the Realm of the Senses), Nagisa Oshima, 1976
Generated controversy all around the world on its release for scenes of unsimulated sex. Banned in canton Geneva among other places.
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Das Wunder der Liebe, Teil 2 (The Miracle of Love, Part 2), Oswald Kolle, 1968
Canton Basel City banned it on the grounds that it was “provocative and disgusting". Canton Basel Country ran it uncut.
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Sommarnattens leende (Smiles of a Summer Night), Ingmar Bergman, 1955
“Too frivolous” for canton Lucerne’s censors.
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Universo di notte (Universe of the Night), Alessandro Jacovoni, 1962
Canton Basel City again: “Dreadful film about perversions and sadism.”
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Repulsion, Roman Polanski, 1965
Banned in canton Geneva; shown elsewhere but with cuts.
AFP
Pink Flamingos, John Waters, 1972
Swiss censors considered the cult classic “nauseating and repellent”. Confiscated after public showings in Zurich and elsewhere.
AFP
To keep what they consider the moral order, Swiss censors have been keeping an eye on the nation’s cinemas and televisions for decades. “No pornography or violence” was the main rule.
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In Switzerland, film ratings are left to the country’s 26 cantons, with the result that films can be banned in one canton but shown uncut just across the cantonal border. (Images: cinetext, AFP)
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“Pornography is my profession”
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With dirty hands and an old film projector wedged under her arm, Stähli opens the door of her office, located in Zurich’s lively Kreis 4 district. She’s been busy emptying the office cellar, which resembles a dusty sex museum full of old films and other porn artefacts. Since the end of the 1970s it is…
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Take a woman, blonde, brunette or redhead – it doesn’t matter much. She smiles, groans, and yells. A man is engaged in intercourse with her – face-to-face, from behind, from the side. The video camera picks up every movement and records the encounter in the greatest detail. The scene is repeated. There is no plot,…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.