AUSTRALIA'S censorship regime has provision for the review of classification decisions, but it's a double-edged sword: distributors can appeal unfavourable calls as can, since 1999, so-called community interest groups. A couple of years ago, the conservative-agenda, Australian Family Association, went into overdrive to lobby, unsuccessfully as it happened, to have 9 Songs (pictured), Irreversible and Anatomy of Hell banned after they received the maximum rating for a cinema release film, R18+. Much to the anger of the distributors - the cost of defending an appeal that involves hiring a $3000-per-day barrister, which can run into tens of thousands of dollars - the AFA has had its review application fee waived on two occasions.

Hopscotch's Troy Lum is relieved that the Office of Film and Literature Classification has given its forthcoming release, Shortbus, an R rating, but remains concerned that he will be dragged through yet another review process, most galling of all, by people who haven't even seen the film in question. Appeals need to be made within 30 days of the original classification decision (which, in the case of Shortbus, has already lapsed) but a state attorney-general can initiate a review outside of that time-frame, as has happened in the past when South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson instigated a review of Catherine Breillat's Anatomy of Hell several weeks after it had opened in cinemas in Sydney and Melbourne. Australia's wowsers need not get themselves into a lather. Even in the US (though recent history suggests that Australia is even more censorious than the puritanical Americans), where the film opened two weeks ago, it has provoked zero outrage or controversy and has been lauded for its humorous and realistic account of adult relationships. The film, which is written and directed by John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), opens in Australia on November 9.