New System for Handling Films Marked as Adult
Recently, a lot of sexploitation and other classic exploitation and cult films have been removed from Letterboxd because someone on TMDB has been marking them as Adult. I think that the process of importing titles needs to be rethought, because it is drastically affecting my abilities to keep track of my lists and reviews, and it really hurts to see titles disappear after I have put effort into writing reviews and managing lists.
Something really needs to be done about this, because this has continued to be an issue since I first started using the site, and so far there has been no solution to these issues.
Turner Stewart
shared this idea
Let’s do this: can someone in this thread compile a list of “important/historically significant” adult films that should be on LB. Then we can see about adding an exceptions list to our importer that uses this list.
79 comments
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Mothravka
commented
It's been far too long and nothing has happened. There is no need to make a list of “important/historically significant” adult films concerning this matter, that will just make things worse, more annoying and uneven.
Just make a filter so the users can choose to see or not to see adult films on the site. Or even better, just lift the ban. But that will probably not happen.
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hill89
commented
Checking in again to see what's going on. This is getting annoying, and seems like it would be the one of the easiest suggestions on here to get fixed.
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Madeline
commented
After you going to continue to ignore us? I'm deleting my account.....
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Anonymous
commented
Please allow adult movies on the database.
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J.
commented
I would also really like to see a solution to this. I buy a lot of the hardcore titles that Vinegar Syndrome puts out and it's incredibly annoying not to be able to log any of those (or other adult films for that matter). Not only that but the whole thing seems incredibly arbitrary because there ARE some movies that have been up on the site for a long while now that definitely would be classified as hardcore, not to mention movies that at the same time unjustly disappears, for example Malabimba that was mentioned earlier in the thread which most definitely is not hardcore.
Other than the points above I struggle to see the boundary when something crosses over to the "unacceptable" according to Letterboxd. There are tons of sexploitation movies that aren't hardcore but with heavy emphasis on sex, that are allowed on the site. Is the problem then that the movie contain unsimulated sex scenes? Well, that can't be the case since there are many "mainstream" movies with unsimulated sex that wouldn't be considered adult films, Nymphomaniac, Love, The Idiots etc. Is the problem that the films main intention is to arouse? If that's the case who will be the judge of that? The point I'm trying to make is that I find the whole label of "adult film" problematic in many ways, because it isn't as clear as it's made out to be many times.
If you are concerned about opening the flood gates to all manners of Gonzo porn then one solution would be to only import movies that has had a cinematic release which I assume is data that is obtainable from TMDB.
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Anonymous
commented
I’ve seen Alabama Jones on Letterboxd, which is less artistically directed than many other hardcore films out there. It’s okay to have on the site because it’s not hardcore? Then what about films like Nymphomaniac that use real sex?
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Anonymous
commented
Why don’t people take adult films seriously? Especially with vintage adult films from the 70s making comebacks on Blu Ray with 4K restorations and special features like in-depth interviews, these really need to start being looked at as films themselves instead of smut. A movie is a movie. They’re still works of art, even if they’re for a niche group of people. They even got theater play and promotion back in the day. There just needs to be a filter switch like on every other social media site. It can’t be that difficult to do.
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Fl Gh
commented
So, trying to import an alien abduction movie called the mourning from 2015,but i get "file not imported" reason, movie marked as adult, which is bullcrap. Please fix this stupid filter.
This is the movie in question
https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/346963-the-mourning -
Douglas Reese
commented
Checking in for an update.
letterboxd user: paul...
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Nick Chaney
commented
Please actually do something on this front. Steer away from a "curated by Letterboxd staff" list, and allow people to flip the switch on the filter if they want to or not. Adult films are such an incredibly important and vital part of filmmaking history that it's insane that we can't log them as films in our diaries. The idea that this topic is of no real importance to the Letterboxd staff is extremely disheartening. It may not be everybody, but no film is for everybody.
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KarlMalden
commented
so uhhhh any update?
was curious why Alice in Wonderland (1976) was missing - even wikipedia says it has an R-rated cut. But marking it adult automatically triggers deletion.
Glaring oversight on letterboxd's part.
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Nick
commented
I’d love to hear some kind of update on this.
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Anonymous
commented
This needs to be fixed immediately. It makes Letterboxd essentially useless. I'll be deleting my account soon.
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hill89
commented
Checking on this again, and will keep doing so until this issue is resolved.
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Nick
commented
This has been annoying me too in regards to Vinegar Syndrome titles. Out of curiosity which VS title was removed?
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Anonymous
commented
When are you finally going to address this issue? I wrote a review of a title put out by the very respectable and great Vinegar Syndrome recently, only to see the movie (and the review) removed because someone woke up and classified it as "adult". This is getting ridiculous. You should stop ignoring this important part of cinematic history. At the very least, please allow logging of all movies that are released by companies like Vinegar Syndrome and Synapse. I can see why you wouldn't want to open the floodgates to include contemporary porn, but at the very least please do allow the classics.
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Anonymous
commented
This is fucking ridiculous. They’re movies.
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Michelle
commented
There's been a lot of very important films brought up in this thread, but I would specifically point out Japanese pinku films, which are artistically very important and a historically vital genre in Japan. A film history that doesn't include pinku films is totally incomplete. Plus, just as a practical note, the completely arbitrary nature of which pinku films aren't tagged as adult on TMDB and which ones are is laughable sometimes. The erotic horror film Entrails of a Virgin is an "adult" film, but both its sequels (which feature harder sex, and more of it) aren't? Just seems silly to me, and an inability to consistently add the films I'm watching makes my experience on Letterboxd noticeably worse.
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hill89
commented
I just check The Sinful Dwarf on TMDB in regards to Nick's comment, and it has indeed been changed to Adult. Come on Letterboxd, this kind of nonsense is why this whole filter just needs to be lifted.
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Nick
commented
Goddamnit, just discovered all my check ins for The Sinful Dwarf are deleted. It’s not even an adult film!