Complaints of censorship have erupted in France after Love, the controversial 3D film from enfant-terrible auteur Gaspar Noé, had its certificate changed three weeks after its initial release.

After its premiere at the Cannes film festival, Love was originally awarded a 16 certificate, but an appeal to the administrative court in Paris saw it raised to an 18 earlier this week.

Calling the decision “nonsense”, Noé told French newspaper Libération that his main concern was that “directors or producers may start to be afraid. There is a risk that the film-makers or writers censor themselves.”

Noé also pointed the finger at a lawyer called Patrice André, apparently acting on behalf of a pressure group called Promouvoir, as instigating the court action that led to the rating change. André, who also goes under the name André Bonnet, told entertainment website AlloCine, that the ruling was simply the application of the existing law, and suggested that “unscrupulous directors wanted to reintroduce pornography into mainstream cinemas”.

Shortly after the decision, Love’s producer Vincent Maraval tweeted a graphic that translates as: “In France, love is now forbidden for those under 18.”

The move to change the rating after the film has come out is thought to be unprecedented in France, and seems likely to have a substantial impact on the number of people who will see the film, as well as the amount of cinemas that will show it. Libération reports that Love has clocked up around 30,000 admissions so far, and that an appeal has gone to the state council to try and get the ruling reversed.