Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
Director Wim Wenders’ decision to withdraw a 1975 film over a nude scene depicting a 13-year-old has sparked widespread debate in Germany on whether artworks should be changed retroactively.
The controversial scene in Wenders’ 1975 film Wrong Move, a modern adaption of a novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, features then 13-year-old actress Nastassja Kinski with a bare upper body.
Kinski, now 65, said she had asked Wenders for years to remove the two-minute scene.
Wenders publicly apologised to Kinski in a statement, announcing that he would withdraw the film from distribution until “a mutually agreed solution” was found.
Reacting to the move, the German Film Academy said it would hold a meeting in September to address the issues raised by Wenders’ decision.
Academy presidents Vicky Krieps and Florian Gallenberger noted the question inherent in Wenders’ decision – whether films and other works of art should, must or are permitted to be altered after their release – had sparked “intense debate” not only in the public sphere but also within the institution.
It would take time to consider the legal, ethic, artistic and cultural dimensions in equal measure, meaning a decision on how the academy would deal with the film in the future should be expected following the meeting in September at the earliest, they said.
Kinski went on to find international fame in films including Wenders’ 1984 cult hit Paris, Texas, and also appeared in his 1993 film Faraway, So Close.
