‘Henry & June’ Ban Called an ‘Isolated Situation’

The yanking of the adult-rated “Henry & June” from a suburban Boston movie theater before it even opened was characterized as “an isolated situation” on Friday by the movie’s distributor, Universal Pictures.

“Henry & June,” the first movie to carry the Motion Picture Assn. of America’s new NC-17 (no children younger than 17 admitted) rating, opened in 31 markets Friday, but a theater in Dedham, Mass. gave in to pressure from city officials this week and agreed not to show it.

“It’s difficult to see how a city government can bring this much pressure to bear,” said Fred Mound, Universal’s president of distribution, referring to the two Dedham selectmen who protested the content of “Henry & June” and got National Amusements, Inc. to pull the film from its 12-screen Dedham Showcase Cinemas.

“The fact is that the two selectmen have not seen the picture. That’s really disturbing,” said Mound. One of the selectmen was quoted in a local paper as saying “NC-17 is merely a semantics thing: a rose by any other name.”

Officials of National Amusements, which operates 650 screens in the Northeast and Midwest, said the film was pulled “in order to respect the local community’s wishes.” The theater will continue playing Universal’s “Darkman,” an R-rated action-oriented film.

“Henry & June,” based on author Anais Nin’s relationships with writer Henry Miller and his wife in 1931 Paris, was originally rated X by the MPAA, but the rating was changed to NC-17 when the new adults-only rating was adopted early last week.