AceShowbiz -

Known to be a liberal country, France, through its minister of culture Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, has surprisingly issued on yesterday, November 21 a rare statement deciding anyone under 18 years old to be barred from watching "Saw III", which opens this week in the country.

"The violence and incessant and unbearable sadism of scenes explicitly linked to physical and moral torture fully justified the decision to ban the film (for minors)," the statement said.

In France, the under-18 ban is used only in exceptional cases judged too extreme for the 16-plus rating normally applied to mainstream films containing sex or strong violence. Such case previously happened in 2000 to a local movie "Baise-moi", known in English as "Rape Me", directed by Virginie Despentes.