Banned and censored films are to be shown in their intended form at a London film festival.

'Seduced: Sex And Censorship In The Cinema' will be held at The Barbican Centre in October. It will feature 19 movies that have been cut or axed altogether by the British Board of Film Classification.

One on the bill is The Last Woman which sees Gerard Depardieu mutilate his own body with an electric knife. The film, made in 1975, never made cinemas.

The earliest due to show is A Fool There Was, from 1915, in which a married man is seduced into leaving his job, wife and child.

Robert Rider, head of cinema, commented: "They've got to be seen in terms of the moral climate of the period."

The festival will run from October 18 to 24.