CANNES WINNER TOO BLUE FOR IDAHO

When Blue Is the Warmest Color, the winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, was handed an NC 17 (adults only) rating by the MPAA in August, distributor Sundance Selects decided not to appeal. But it now turns out that, because of that rating, it will not be shown in the state of Idaho when it opens in limited U.S. release on October 25. The Flicks Theater in Boise, the state’s only arthouse theater, told the Hollywood Reporter that showing the film would jeopardize its liquor license, which bars the showing of films that depict “any person being touched, caressed or fondled on the breast, buttocks, anus or genitals.” Blue includes several explicit lesbian sex scenes. The National Association of Theatre Owners has in recent years urged film producers not to shy away from making films that could receive NC-17 ratings. In 2010, NATO President John Fithian told USA Today that it was “an industry myth” that theaters would refuse to show NC-17-rated movies. “It’s not difficult to get an NC-17 film in theaters if it has commercial viability,” he said.