Case Name: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. A MOTION PICTURE FILM ENTITLED "I AM CURIOUS-YELLOW" ("Jar Ar Nyfigen-Gul") (35 mm., Black and White 6 Double Reels, 11,746 ft., Swedish soundtrack with English subtitles), Grove Press, Inc., Claimant-Appellant
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1968-11-26
Citations: 404 F.2d 196
Docket Number: No. 569, Docket 32448
Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. A MOTION PICTURE FILM ENTITLED “I AM CURIOUS-YELLOW” (“Jar Ar Nyfigen-Gul”) (35 mm., Black and White 6 Double Reels, 11,746 ft., Swedish soundtrack with English subtitles), Grove Press, Inc., Claimant-Appellant.
Judges: 
Reporter: Federal Reporter 2d Series
Volume: 404
Pages: 196–205

Head Matter:
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. A MOTION PICTURE FILM ENTITLED “I AM CURIOUS-YELLOW” (“Jar Ar Nyfigen-Gul”) (35 mm., Black and White 6 Double Reels, 11,746 ft., Swedish soundtrack with English subtitles), Grove Press, Inc., Claimant-Appellant.
No. 569, Docket 32448.
United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.
Argued July 22, 1968.
Decided Nov. 26, 1968.
Lumbard, Chief Judge, dissented.
See also D.C., 285 F.Supp. 465.
Edward de Grazia, New York City (Richard T. Gallen, New York City, on the brief), for appellant.
Lawrence W. Schilling, Asst. U. S. Atty. (Robert M. Morgenthau, U. S. Atty. for the Southern District of New York and David Paget, Asst. U. S. Atty., on the brief), for appellee.
Before LUMBARD, Chief Judge, and FRIENDLY and HAYS, Circuit Judges.

Opinion:
HAYS, Circuit Judge:
This is an appeal from a judgment of the district court, after a jury trial, ordering the forfeiture and confiscation under Section 305 of the Tariff Act of 1930, 19 U.S.C. § 1305 (1964) of the motion picture entitled "I Am Curious-Yellow." We reverse the judgment on the ground that under standards established by the Supreme Court the showing of the picture cannot be inhibited.
"I Am Curious-Yellow" was produced in Sweden and the dialogue is in Swedish; English subtitles have been added. As with many other contemporary artistic productions there can be a difference of opinion as to what the picture is "about." It would perhaps not be demonstrably wrong to say that it is concerned with that subject which has become such a commonplace in contemporary fiction and drama, the search for identity. It is the story of a young girl who is trying to work out her relationship to such political, social, and economic problems as the possibility of a classless society, the acceptance of the Franco regime, and the policy and practice of nonviolence. At one point the girl experiments with oriental religious ritual and meditation. The girl's inter-personal relationships are also pictured, including particularly her relation to her father, presented as an idealist who has become disillusioned and has given up meaningful activity. A fairly large portion of the film is devoted to the relations between the girl and her young lover.
A number of different techniques are employed in the production of the film. For example much of the early part is in terms of "cinema verité," showing the girl asking questions on subjects of public importance of the ordinary man or woman in the street. The problem of the nature of reality is suggested by passages representing the girl's fantasies and by the injection into the story of material concerning the making of the picture itself, such as the director's relations with the leading actress.
There are a number of scenes which show the young girl and her lover nude. Several scenes depict sexual intercourse under varying circumstances, some of them quite unusual. There are scenes of oral-genital activity.
It seems to be conceded that the sexual content of the film is presented with greater explicitness than has been seen in any other film produced for general viewing. The question for decision is whether, going farther in this direction than any previous production, the film exceeds the limits established by the courts.
The government argues with considerable cogency that the standards by which motion pictures are to be judged may be different from those that are used in the case of books. It points out that a motion picture reproduces actual conduct so that it can be seen and heard. Books are read by individuals in private, whereas motion pictures are viewed in public. Nudity and sexual activity in motion pictures, it is argued, bear a close resemblance to nudity and sexual activity in a public place. Obviously conduct of this type may be forbidden.
No doubt the standards by which motion pictures are to be judged differ in some particulars from those to be applied to books, see Freedman v. Maryland, 380 U.S. 51, 60-61, 85 S.Ct. 734, 13 L.Ed.2d 649 (1965); Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, 343 U.S. 495, 503, 72 S.Ct. 777, 96 L.Ed. 1098 (1952); United States v. One Carton Positive Motion Picture Film Entitled "491," 367 F.2d 889, 907 (2d Cir.1966) (Lumbard, Ch. J., dissenting); but see Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184, 84 S.Ct. 1676, 12 L.Ed.2d 793 (1964). Nevertheless the comparison urged by the government between nudity and sexual activity in a public place and the same matters as portrayed in a motion picture such as "I Am Curious" is far fetched. In the motion picture the material is a part of an artistic whole and is united with and related to the story and the characters which are presented. This is vastly different from a sudden unrelated episode taking place in public. The exhibition in a motion picture of an isolated instance of sexual intercourse or of irrelevant nudity, which would indeed be equivalent to public display, could be halted under the established standards, just as could similar material if it appeared in print.
Whatever differences there may be in the application of obscenity standards, a motion picture, like a book, is clearly entitled to the protection of the first amendment. Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, supra; Interstate Circuit, Inc. v. City of Dallas, 390 U.S. 676, 88 S.Ct. 1298, 20 L.Ed.2d 225 (1968). And the test of whether a motion picture is to be condemned is the three-fold test stated in A Book Named "John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure" v. Atty. Gen. of Com. of Massachusetts, 383 U.S. 413, 418, 86 S.Ct. 975, 977, 16 L.Ed.2d 1 (1966):
"[Tjhree elements must coalesce: it must be established that (a) the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to a prurient interest in sex; (b) the material is patently offensive because it affronts contemporary community standards relating to the description or representation of sexual matters; and (c) the material is utterly without redeeming social value."
The issue of the obscenity of "I Am Curious" was submitted to the jury under this three-fold test and the jury found the picture obscene. However, in our view obscenity vel non is not an issue of fact with respect to which the jury's finding has its usual conclusive effect. It is rather an issue of constitutional law that must eventually be decided by the court. As Mr. Justice Harlan said in Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476, 497-98, 77 S.Ct. 1304, 1316, 1 L.Ed.2d 1498 (1957) (concurring and dissenting):
"[I]f 'obscenity' is to be suppressed, the question whether a particular work is of that character involves not really an issue of fact but a question of constitutional judgment of the most sensitive and delicate kind. Many juries might find that Joyce's 'Ulysses' or Boccaccio's 'Decameron' was obscene, and yet the conviction of a defendant for selling either book would raise, for me, the gravest constitutional problems, for no such verdict could convince me, without more, that these books are 'utterly without redeeming social importance.' " (Emphasis in original.)
See also the remarks of Mr. Justice Brennan in Jacobellis v. Ohio, supra, 378 U.S. at 187-90, 84 S.Ct. 1676.
Applying the Memoirs standards we find that the picture cannot be classified as obscene on at least two of the three grounds comprising the test.
Although sexual conduct is undeniably an important aspect of the picture and may be thought of as constituting one of its principal themes, it cannot be said that "the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to a prurient interest in sex." Whatever the dominant theme may be said to be (see footnote 2 supra) it is certainly not sex. Moreover, not only is the sexual theme subordinate, but it is handled in such a way as to make it at least extremely doubtful that interest in it should be characterized as "prurient."
It is even more clear that "I Am Curious" is not utterly without redeeming social value. Whatever weight we may attach to the opinions of the "experts" who testified to the picture's social importance, and whether or not we our selves consider the ideas of the picture particularly interesting or the production artistically successful, it is quite certain that "I Am Curious" does present ideas and does strive to present these ideas artistically. It falls within the ambit of intellectual effort that the first amendment was designed to protect.
On the issue of whether the picture is "patently offensive because it affronts contemporary community standards relating to the description or representation of sexual matters," the jury's verdict may carry more weight. (But see Jacobellis v. Ohio, supra, 378 U.S. at 192-95, 84 S.Ct. at 1680; cf. United States v. Klaw, 350 F.2d 155 (2d Cir. 1965); see also Ginzburg v. United States, 383 U.S. 463, 479-80, 86 S.Ct. 942, 16 L.Ed.2d 31 (1966) (Black, J., dissenting)). However, it is unnecessary for us to pass upon this third test, since the picture is not obscene under the other two of the Supreme Court's standards.
We hold, therefore, that the picture cannot be condemned under Section 305.
. § 1305. Immoral Articles; Prohibition of Importation
(a) All persons are prohibited from importing into the United States from any foreign country any book, pamphlet, paper, writing, advertisement, circular, print, picture, or drawing containing any matter advocating or urging treason or insurrection against the United States, or forcible resistance to any law of the United States, or containing any threat to take the life of or inflict bodily harm upon any person in the United States, or any obscene book, pamphlet, paper, writing, advertisement, circular, print, picture, drawing, or other representation, figure, or image on or of paper or other material, or any cast, instrument, or other article which is obscene or immoral, or any drug or medicine or any article whatever for the prevention of conception or for causing unlawful abortion, or any lottery ticket, or any printed paper that may be used as a lottery ticket, or any advertisement of any lottery. No such articles whether imported separately or contained in packages with other goods entitled to entry, shall be admitted to entry; and all such articles and, unless it appears to the satisfaction of the collector that the obscene or other prohibited articles contained in the package were enclosed therein without the knowledge or consent of the importer, owner, agent, or consignee, the entire contents of the package in which such articles are contained, shall be subject to seizure and forfeiture as hereinafter provided: Provided, That the drugs hereinbefore mentioned, when imported in bulk and not put up for any of the purposes hereinbefore specified, are excepted from the operation of this subdivision: Provided further, That the Secretary of the Treasury may, in his discretion, admit the so-called classics or books of recognized and established literary or scientific merit, but may, in his discretion, admit such classics or books only when imported for noncommercial purposes.
Upon the appearance of any such book or matter at any customs office, the same shall be seized and held by the collector to await the judgment of the district court as hereinafter provided; and no protest shall be taken to the United States Customs Court from the decision of the collector. Upon the seizure of such book or matter the collector shall transmit information thereof to the district attorney of the district in which is situated the office at which such seizure has taken place, who shall institute proceedings in the district court for the forfeiture, confiscation, and destruction of the book or matter seized. Upon the adjudication that such book or matter thus seized is of the character the entry of which is by this section prohibited, it shall be ordered destroyed and shall be destroyed. Upon adjudication that such book or matter thus seized is not of the character the entry of which is by this section prohibited, it shall not be excluded from entry under the provisions of this section.
In any such proceeding any party in interest may upon demand have the facts at issue determined by a jury and any party may have an appeal or the right of review as in the ease of ordinary actions or suits.
. Thirteen "experts" (professional critics, English professors, a minister, sociology professors, a "professor of film," psychiatrists, a novelist) gave testimony as to their views of the social value of the film. Some of their answers to questions as to the dominant theme of the film were: change, transition; the nature of reality or of "modern" reality; the New Left; the interrelationship of various aspects of human activity; the quest for values; the beliefs and commitments of the young; the younger generation; the generation gap; the relationship between fantasy and reality; young people's search for identity and self-recognition; political, social and sexual maturity; political responsibility; the use of ritual to establish fundamental truth; the nature of polities; the complexity of modern reality.