@NeoLosman said:

As Tarantino and Scorcese have pointed out, cinema from late '15-today has largely been a regression to the Hays Code days during which HCW was produced. Had it been a pre-code film, we would've gotten a sequence of Gene Tierney in lingerie. Had it been made in the 70s, perhaps the 80s as an independent film, the 90s, or 2000s-early 10s, we would've almost certainly gotten an eyeful of her in the buff. Today though, we're going through one of those censorious periods of US history, where fun and exhilaration are less common than healthy veins on a dope fiend

True about the Hays Code’s influence on HCW. In fact Lubitsch did an earlier pre-Code film Design For Living which was a much more explicit story about a sexual 3-way. Maybe the premise of HCW itself was Lubitsch’s post-Code revenge, using the Lucifer character to represent the censor who is considering whether to burn a guy/movie for mere marital infidelity. Hmmm… interesting

With regard to today’s code regression, I don’t think it’s the same as a literal government censor board. Today’s kinder gentler film climate is because of mega studios like Disney wanting to scoop the family-friendly market, shying away from controversy. That’s not censorship, it’s free market economics. So if Scorsese has a gripe, he can always fund his own indie flick with explicit sex scenes. Somehow I doubt he would do that because he’s chasing the American money just like Disney. Tarantino on the other hand consistently pushes the boundaries from what I’ve seen, so I think his complaining is more justified.

But, government censorship aside, it's been the rule of art since the first cave painting... if you want to sell your work, you can't go offending people. Either go for the safe market, or be a rebel and take your lumps (like Orson Welles did when Hollywood "canceled" him).

Yup, the new censor board is the CEO boardroom, every bit as tyrannical as the Hays Code censors. And as cinema becomes a bigger cash draw, those CEOs are going to get more powerful.

Great parallel you drew with rock lyrics of the 80s... I wonder if the film world's solution will be the same as the music world's solution. That is, bands that didn't want to bow to Miss Manners censorship by the record labels ended up creating their own micro labels which eventually tore down the big ones. That plus indie musicians recording albums in their basements was enough to preserve artistic integrity ...and a healthy dose of pottymouth lyrics.

I wonder if the film world will experience a similar revolution where indie studios & basement filmmakers can tear down the Disneys and Marvels, or at least rattle them a bit. It's a longshot, but we may be getting there. It's just sad that cutting edge artists will always be swimming against the tide.