Appropriate?
'Klovn' poster too raunchy for some Danes
The Local · 2 Oct 2015, 13:04
Published: 02 Oct 2015 13:04 GMT+02:00
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The 2010 Danish film ’Klovn the Movie’, a squirm-inducing comedy relying heavily on sex jokes and one awkward situation after the other, was a domestic hit in Denmark and earned a re-release on the US market in 2012.
Expectations were thus high for the 2015 follow-up ‘Klovn Forever’, which takes its premise of overly-hormonal sex-obsessed humour to new awkward levels. The movie has been a hit at the box office, with the third largest opening weekend in Danish film history.
But the film’s attempts to push the limits of good taste have not been without criticism. A number of critics have said that the movie is more embarrassing than funny and the Media Council for Children and Young People (Medierådet) slammed the film as “bordering on pornographic”.
“The film has a humorous mood that is dominated by sexualized language and contains a number of scenes with explicit and very direct sexual depictions. In several scenes adults are seen having intercourse in different positions in many of the scenes are bordering on pornographic,” the council said according to the website Ekkofilm.dk
An image promoting the movie that features stars Casper Christiansen and Frank Hvam naked from the waste down and posed in the sexual position known as ’69’ has also led to complaints.
A censored version of the poster. Click on the image for the uncensored version.
An Aalborg woman successfully lobbied to have the explicit image removed from a bus stop that her three children, aged six to 12, use everyday.
“I think it’s a half-pornographic photo that is shoved in your face. When you are out in public, the posters that are hanging at bus stops should be something acceptable for both children and adults to see,” Elisabeth Knudsen told regional broadcaster TV2 Nord.
Knudsen succeeded in getting the poster removed from her local bus stop and filed an official complaint to the Danish Consumer Ombudsman (Forbrugerombudsmanden).
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The tabloid Ekstra Bladet also ran a recent article with reader complaints about the poster.
“I lost my sunglasses and almost threw up when I saw the giant poster with the guys from Klovn hanging here in Søborg. I’m normally not a prude but this crossed the line. And you should also think about the children,” 77-year-old Åse S wrote in to the paper.
“They’re lying there looking into each other’s rear ends. It is pure porn and it isn’t fun to drive by it with my grandchildren, who curiously ask me: ‘What is that all about?’,” another reader, Kirsten, wrote. She filed an official complaint with Greve Council over the poster.
Despite the assorted complaints, the ad in question is still displayed throughout Denmark and tickets for ‘Klovn Forever’ continue to sell briskly.
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