German actress Nastassja Kinski has been trying for years to get filmmaker Wim Wenders to remove a scene from his lesser-known 1975 film “The Wrong Move.”
In the brief scene, her co-star Rüdiger Vogler (then over 30) visits the 13-year-old girl in her bedroom, where she is lying on the bed wearing only panties. The man takes off his underwear and lies down on top of her; He slaps her and then caresses her face.
“Even though I didn’t know much at the age of 13, I could already tell that it wasn’t right,” Kinski recently told a German daily. south german newspaper Newspaper.
The acclaimed German director first publicly responded to Kinski’s demands in 2024, stating that while he understood her “current perceptions and feelings”, he added that he would not film the scene that way today.
Through his acceptance speech for the Honorary Award for Lifetime Achievement at the German Film Awards ceremony held in Berlin on 31 May, Wenders has now turned the controversy into a broader public debate.
In his speech, he reiterated that such a scene would not be performed that way today, but also said that it also raised a bigger question for him: how should one deal with films that were made in a different era?
“I can’t blame the 29-year-old I was at the time, 50 years ago, who made a movie of its time; in a way, wanted to capture the zeitgeist,” said Wenders, who later collaborated with Kinski on his acclaimed “Paris, Texas” (1984) and “Faraway, So Close!” (1993).
Saying that he was aware that the scene pained an actress “whom I deeply admired, and still do,” Wenders said he was hesitant to edit the film in retrospect.
It’s a moral question, he said, that he doesn’t want to deal with himself. Wenders called on the German Film Academy to initiate a discussion about his dilemma, and said he hoped young filmmakers would contribute to the conversation.
Asked to comment on the debate, a press spokesperson told DW that the German Film Academy has not yet made any statement on the issue.
Should films be revised after completion?
For vendors, replacing complete films could create difficult precedents for archives, restoration, and cultural history.
But many films have already been re-edited after their release, whether to shorten them for commercial success in theaters, to make them more suitable for certain markets, or simply because the filmmaker determined it was better that way.
In his speech, Wenders mentioned how Stephen Spielberg regretted revising “E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial” for the sci-fi blockbuster’s 20th anniversary. In the revised version, the federal agents who were originally shown carrying guns were instead holding walkie-talkies.
Spielberg said in America, “That was a mistake.” Time Magazine platform in 2023. “I should never have done that. ‘E.T.’ is a product of its era. No movie should be revised based on the lenses we are now willingly or forced to view through.” He felt that the films were “an indication of where we were and what the world was like when we made them.”
From “Aladdin” (1992) to “Lilo & Stitch” (2002), many classic Disney films have been edited to adapt to the sensibilities of modern audiences in re-release versions or in versions streamed on the Disney+ platform.
Even auteur filmmakers have revised their already released films. Ridley Scott re-cut his 1982 sci-fi hit “Blade Runner” in 2007; George Lucas made changes to his original “Star Wars” trilogy of films for their 20th anniversary. Just a week after the release of “The Shining” (1980), Stanley Kubrick ordered projectionists to cut a scene from his iconic film that critics deemed confusing.
But in the end, such cases are not comparable to the debate surrounding “The Wrong Move”, because the corrections were not made at the request of a female actor who was still aggrieved by the existence of a scene filmed at a young age.
Vendors criticized for shirking responsibility
Most critics reacting to Wenders’ speech believed that the filmmakers were merely shifting blame by asking the German Film Academy to initiate a broader debate on the issue, even though they have the final say on the film. He has the power to decide to remove it – especially if he truly acknowledges that the scene remains traumatic for Kinski.
“This is not a case of censorship or cancel culture, as he said in his speech,” said Kinski’s attorney Christian Schertz, who has announced that a lawsuit will soon be filed if the scene is not removed.
A critic in a German newspaper wrote, “The matter is between him and Nastassja Kinski, but he has avoided direct confrontation with her for years.” daily newspaper .
Another observer said that even though Kinski had always expressed his desire to respectfully remove the images, in his speech, Wenders made his request seem as if he were “threatening the freedom of cinema: the freedom of every single artist in the room. Anyone watching and hearing his words can only feel shocked,” an editorial excerpt said. south german newspaper.
Another opinion article in a German daily World It was also agreed that “it would be symbolically correct to remove the scene.”
By turning the issue into a public problem, Wenders “performed an absolutely clever maneuver,” Annette Brauerhoch explained in an article. Deutschlandfunk Interview. “With this appeal to the public and the academy, he effectively spread the responsibility that was at his disposal to thousands of people.”
Child actor exploitation controversies have changed industry norms
There are ongoing controversies over old films featuring erotic roles by children.
Louis Malle’s “Pretty Baby” (1978) starred 12-year-old Brooke Shields, who appeared nude in the role of a child prostitute. The film was banned in some Canadian provinces until 1995.
Shields also described how she felt “forced” and uncomfortable on the set of the 1980 film “The Blue Lagoon”, which was filmed when she was 14, while her co-star Christopher Atkins was 18. In the film, the main characters are shown nude and engaging in intimate scenes.
Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting were only 15 and 16 when they starred in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 “Romeo and Juliet.” She filed a $500 million lawsuit against Paramount Pictures over a nude scene in the film. Even though a court permanently dismissed their case in October 2024, such controversies have led to significant changes in how the entertainment industry works with children today.
Modern productions strictly enforce boundaries for underage actors, requiring parental presence on set, obtaining explicit parental consent, and using professional intimacy coordinators to navigate sensitive material.
Edited by: Brenda Haas