10

10 is a 1979 American romantic comedy film written, produced and directed by Blake Edwards; starring Dudley Moore, Julie Andrews, Robert Webber, and Bo Derek in her first major film appearance. Considered a trend-setting film at the time, and one of the year’s biggest box office hits, the film made superstars of Moore and Derek. It follows a man who in middle age becomes infatuated with a young woman he has never met, leading to a comic chase and an encounter in Mexico. The title refers to her physical attractiveness being “a perfect 10”, on a rating scale of 1 to 10 (such ratings were popularized after the first perfect 10 gymnastics score was awarded to Nadia Comăneci at the 1976 Olympics). The film was one of the first major Hollywood productions to shoot alternate versions of scenes in order to facilitate network television broadcast with a minimum of censorship. In the case of 10, filming two versions of scenes where Moore’s character uses a telescope to spy on his male neighbour, another wealthy Beverly Hills resident who lives down the hill and regularly hosts parties with many nude women. In the theatrical version, porn actress Annette Haven plays the neighbor and appears nude; the TV version substitutes a blonde actress, (Denise Crosby in her first film role, later of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame), who wears a swimsuit. Similarly, in the version shown in theaters, when Bo Derek’s character puts on Ravel’s Boléro, she says that it’s the perfect music to “fuck” to, whereas the version shown on television replaces “fuck” with “make love”, while retaining Moore’s character’s startled reaction to hearing his idealized woman casually swearing.

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