Larry Clark and Lilliane Bettencourt plunge Paris into censorship row

A poster advertising a new political satire at a Paris theatre has been banned from the city’s transport system, whilst minors have been prohibited from entering an exhibition at the Musée d’art moderne, amid charges that censorship is permeating the French capital.

'Kiss the Past Hello' exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in Paris where under-eighteens have been banned. RFI

The forbidden poster advertising Le Banier de Crabes at Le Théâtre des deux Anes depicts L’Oréal heiress Lilliane Bettencourt in a Sound of Music type scenario, carrying a basket containing a miniature President Nicolas Sarkozy and Labour Minister Eric Woerth, alongside a miniature Patrice de Maistre and François-Marie Banier – who have been at the centre of the Bettencourt scandal.

AFP / TF1

Transport Media, the RATP’s advertising body has banned the poster because it puts in one basket two government officials with two people indicted in connection with the Bettencourt case.

“It is defamatory as it puts the reputation of two people of the state into question by assimilation with two people in criminal judicial proceedings. We have a duty of neutrality," Transport Media said.

The ban does not sit well with the theatre’s director and author of the production Jacques Mailhot who plans to pursue Transport Media. “It's a very arbitrary action of censorship,” he said.

Meanwhile, La Mairie (Paris’s City Hall) has taken the decision to prohibit under-18s from entering the ‘Kiss the Past Hello’ retrospective which opened at Paris’ Museum of Modern Art on Friday. The exhibition examines the 40-year career of the US photographer and filmmaker Larry Clark (best known for the 1995 movie Kids which caused scandal for its raw portrayal of teenagers, sex and drugs).

City Hall responded Friday to criticism from elected officials and media who accuse it of censorship of adolescent sexuality. In a statement, it defended its decision by presenting the crudest of exhibition’s images, those of teenagers injecting drugs or having sex. Though these 13 shots reportedly only make up only 10 per cent of the total retrospective.