C4 refuses to cut movie's incest scenes

CHANNEL 4 executives are backing a controversial film that features explicit scenes of incest, saying they would rather not release it than have a single frame cut.

Tim Roth, the British actor best-known for his appearances in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, has made an explosive debut as a director with a film based on Alexander Stuart's novel The War Zone. The book was at the centre of a controversy 10 years ago when it was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize, and its raw and disturbing subject matter upset some of the judges.

Now the emotionally powerful novel has been filmed by Roth and was shown at the weekend, out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It has been funded by Channel 4's Film Four company.

The film, starring Ray Winstone, Tilda Swinton, and the young actors Lara Belmont and Freddie Cunliffe, features an explicit scene of a middle- class father committing buggery with his teenage daughter.

Mr Roth said yesterday: "I fell in love with the book when I was sent it. This film comes straight from my heart."

He added that there was a lot of secrecy surrounding sexual abuse and those who commit it.

Paul Webster, chief executive of Film Four, said yesterday: "It is intentionally uncompromising. But I am adamant that we will not cut a single frame. It will be more complex in the States, but we would rather not release it than cut it."

n Sir Ian McKellen, departing from his usual classical roles,will play the villain in Twentieth Century Fox's X-Men. Sir Ian will play Magneto, Master of Magnetism, in the live-action feature based on the Marvel comics characters who are born with mutated genes that impart superpowers. Merchant Ivory, meanwhile, is to film The Golden Bowl by Henry James.