The MPAA has given the minorly-controversial epic Casanova and R rating, and that makes director Lasse Hallstrom mad. So mad, in fact, that he's pointing fingers in bizarre places. Calling the rating "a pretty dramatic decision and the wrong one," he insists that the MPAA is merely reacting to increased cultural tensions brought on "after Clinton and [Janet] Jackson showing one tit at a football game. Had this film been made a few years ago it would've been rated PG-13." Hallstrom says the ratings board had a problem with "the under-the-table scene", in which "an underage teenager frolics with Casnova during a ball". Hallstrom has battled with the MPAA before; he also complains about having to "cut out thrusts" in a sex scene between Charlize Theron and Tobey Maguire in The Cider House Rules in order to land a PG-13.

Lasse Hallstrom's "Casanova" is a brilliant film about history's most famous Lothario set in 18th century Venice. This is most certainly the best offering of Casanova ever put to celluloid....

It has a wonderful, crazy cast and a great script," he told us. "It's a really peculiar, maybe not so little, movie, but certainly with an independent feel. I pushed a lot of boundaries on it. It's a real mixture. It's funny, but it's also wacky and dark and slapstick at the same time. It's a pretty original piece.