'Lust, Caution': Not just a movie title?

0 Comments | USA TODAY, March, 2008 | by Scott Bowles

LAS VEGAS -- Ang Lee says he had no intention of breaking ground when he directed the film Lust, Caution.

"I just wanted to make the movie I wanted to make," he says. "I didn't care what kind of rating it got."

The Motion Picture Association of America did, however, and slapped his drama with an NC-17 rating -- typically the kiss of death for a film with aspirations of drawing a mainstream audience.

But instead of trimming the film to get a more commercially viable R-rating, Lee and Focus Features distributed the movie uncut.

And though the $15 million film took in only $4 million in the USA, it earned another $60 million overseas and helped Lee win the Freedom of Expression award at the ShoWest convention.

The MPAA and theater...