The celebrated German filmmaker Wim Wenders announced on Wednesday that he would withdraw a 1975 movie from circulation that included a topless scene with a 13-year-old actress.
The actress, Nastassja Kinski, told the Süddeutsche Zeitung last month that she had spent 15 years trying to get Wenders to cut the scene from her film debut, “Wrong Move,” but that the director refused to talk about it.
“Even though I didn’t know much at 13, I could already tell that wasn’t right,” she told the newspaper, referring to the filming of the scene. Wenders was 29 when he made the film.
The questions of chauvinism, power, artistic license, underage nudity and legacy led to a wide-ranging discussion in Germany, where both are famous film personalities. Kinski went on to work with Wenders in “Paris, Texas” and “Faraway, So Close!,” the sequel to “Wings of Desire”; she is the daughter of Klaus Kinski, a generational actor who was known for his forcefulness onscreen and his difficult personality offscreen.
During an acceptance speech last week at the German Film Awards, where Wenders, 80, received a lifetime achievement award, the director acknowledged that he would never have shot the nude scene in “Wrong Move” today. He also talked about the ethical dilemma of editing a movie that was released a half-century ago.
“I have to say, I’m pretty much on my own with this question, and I’m at a loss,” he said.
The public discussion by Kinski and Wenders led to a wave of opinion pieces and commentary in the German media, much of it in support of the actress.
On Wednesday, Wenders released a statement on his foundation’s website in which he apologized to Kinski and said he would temporarily withdraw the film from all distribution channels until an amicable solution could be reached with the actress.
“It is essential that our society find appropriate ways to engage with controversial films of the 20th century and embrace new learning processes and inclusive perspectives regarding film,” he wrote.
The actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting sued Paramount Pictures over a 1968 version of “Romeo and Juliet” in which they were filmed nude as teenagers.
In one scene in that Oscar-winning film by the Italian director Franco Zeffirelli, the actors wake up in bed together nude. In their lawsuit, the actors said they were deceptively filmed after having been promised that they would be wearing flesh-colored body suits and that the result amounted to pornography.
In 2023, a judge dismissed the case because the claim was about filmmaking, which is a protected activity under the First Amendment.
Christopher F. Schuetze is a reporter for The Times based in Berlin, covering politics, society and culture in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The post Wim Wenders Pulls Film With Teenage Nudity After Actress’s Pleas appeared first on New York Times.
