We are beginning to know the refrain: to pass customs, some films have to go through the editing room, just to camouflage certain lines of dialogue that the censorship cannot support. Most of the time, it’s for a question of mentioning a character’s homosexuality. Usually, it’s for an ultra-secondary character, a fraction of a second — like at Pixar, for example. Sometimes a little more, although this is rarely central to the plot. But what about a film where this would be the case? Not that we have a particular desire to spoil you the third part of Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore’s Secrets, but the romantic relationship between the future director of Hogwarts and the great Villain Gellert Grindelwald is an important part of the story. And for good reason: it is because of this common past between the two former lovers that there is a real tension between the characters and that the conflict is more powerful, in quotes. However, Variety informs us that for its broadcast version in Chinese theaters, the film will be censored from the dialogues making a frontal mention of this love story. We are talking about six seconds, two sentences: one of Dumbledore addressing the villain (now played by Mads Mikkelsen): “Because I was in love with you”, and one where Dumbledore tells the team: “The was when Gellert and I fell in love.” The rest being only vaguely suggested or taken for granted, the censors leave the rest of the 142 minutes intact. Is this still coherent? According to Warner, yes. It remains to be seen how the public will receive this film where we are talking about something falsely vague, now.
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