I'm reading, "Wim Wenders Pulls Film With Teenage Nudity After Actress’s Pleas/Nastassja Kinski was 13 years old when she was shown topless in the 1975 film 'Wrong Move.' 'I could already tell that wasn’t right,' she told a German newspaper" (NYT).
"On Wednesday, Wenders released a statement on his foundation’s website," the NYT says, linking to a German text. I used Grok to put it in English:
As the only person still alive who was in a position of responsibility for Falsche Bewegung at the time, I recognize that Nastassja Kinski should have been better protected back then. For this, I apologize to you, Nastassja, without any ifs or buts.
The non-profit Wim Wenders Foundation, which owns the film, is withdrawing it from all current forms of distribution. Streaming, TV, and distribution partners have been instructed to no longer make the film publicly available.
The many reactions, tips, and conversations of the past few days have significantly helped to sharpen my view of the events at the time. I am grateful for that. Only through open and respectful dialogue can positions be reconsidered and responsibilities be recognized anew.
It is necessary for our society to find appropriate ways of dealing with controversial film works from the 20th century and to engage in new learning processes and inclusive perspectives regarding films. In this important debate, we will seek a broad exchange — with the German Film Academy, the DFF – German Film Institute & Film Museum, with other film heritage institutions, and with other intergenerational groups.
Only after that — even if it takes longer — and once we have been able to present a consensual solution, also in consultation with Nastassja Kinski, will we release the film again.
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24 comments:
It is time for stocks and rotten fruit.
Thank god AI/LLMs are already replacing this industry.
What about all those National Geographic photos?
I don't find anything sexual about a 13 year old. Even when I was 13, I only fantasized about fully adult women. Now, even fully adult women are less sexy to me than more mature ones. That's a blessing.
Social progress.
When I was eight or nine, back in the mid-1970s, we moved to Iowa City and we're befriended by a lovely family with three daughters who fell exactly between my siblings and me in age. Both parents and kids quickly became fast friends.
But that family has different standards of modesty than ours. Notably, the girls all swam in their doughboy pool (is it still called that? The above-ground kind) topless, and their mom has us all strip outside, leaving our wet things, and come into the house naked to dry off and change back into our clothes when we were done. My little sister and I never swam without a top after the age of about four, and we were very embarrassed. The mom pooh-poohed it - "were all just girls together" (my little brother was either not there or too young to care) - and we did as we were bidden. And, those girls also played in their sprinkler in their front yard wearing just swim bottoms, something my parents wouldn't have dreamt of.
But there was absolutely nothing sexualizing about it. As I said, our standards of modesty were just different. And given the times, it's pretty likely that in a college town, my family's stricter standard was the outlier.
I wonder if it'll ever be possible to portray a little girl of that just-post-60s time without a top on doing normal little kid things like running through the sprinkler. I doubt it; and in this instance, at least, I reluctantly come down on the side of the precautionary principle: the potential for harm is great enough that, no matter how innocent the intent and how careful the execution, we just shouldn't.
Elizabeth Siddall was only 19 years old when she posed for the Millais painting of the drowned Ophelia. She was pressured to pose in a cold bathtub for hours. She caught pneumonia and nearly perished. When you look at that painting, you're not seeing the drowned Ophelia but at an impressionable young woman who is being pushed to the point of death by a slick talking older man. Shouldn't this painting and all its reproductions be taken out of view or even better destroyed?
Just to clarify I am upset that a film was pulled because of whining.
If a movie has a reason to show naked children rate it properly. I have no idea what this movie is but if it has been 50 years and nobody raised an issue until now I have my suspicions that the reasons to complain now involve gold digging.
Don;t get me started on Botticelli.
Thought I saw my comment there, now it's gone.
I don't know this movie but I referenced the little naked or half-naked girl on the Blind Faith album cover. It caused some controversy so they later pulled it and put some boring photo of the group on subsequent pressings.
But there is an innocence to innocence. It is not automatically lewdly meant. Bluenoses should take note. They should, but they have dirty minds and like to imagine the worst and then impute it to someone else.
This will probably make money for everyone involved, just as getting "Banned in Boston" during the Comstock era was a delightful gift to movie producers and authors.
I never found the Blind Faith album cover to be titillating (no pun intended). I thought it was inappropriate to be displayed without a cover cover such as the Two Virgins cover (ewww)
So, he's beating his breast then.
Haven't seen this movie, but a later movie Wenders and Kinski made together (Paris, Texas) is brilliant.
At exactly what point did it become OK to display Nastassja's nudity in film? At what stage of the development of her breasts did it stop being inappropriate to show them ?
In the mid‑2000s, a self‑described pedophile ran a website called “Seattle‑Tacoma‑Everett Girl Love,” where he posted nonsexual photos of girls in public places and shared information about where he liked to watch them.
Cops said that simply photographing children in public didn’t violate existing child pornography laws. Eventually an injunction was issued, there was lots of public outrage and he took down the site.
So my point is that these images, although innocent are probably shared on a lot of sites that are not so innocent. I don’t know how much it will help to withdraw the movie now. But it can’t hurt.
Jamie,
The Doughboy Brand pool is still made doughboyplus.com/
And thanks for sending me down another rabbit hole. I am very familiar with Doboy brand packaging machinery. They make plastic bagging machinery. Used to be Doughboy Machinery.
I had heard they started in WW part 2 doing something for the army then branched into swimming pools then into the machinery to make packages.
In Grok I found they started in 1855 as a sawmill, got into making breakfast cereal, developed expertise in packaging and got a huge contract to wrap K-rats. After the war they got into swimming pools, then started selling the machinery they built for their own packaging. Pools and machinery were spun off.
Doboy Machinery is no more, having been bought by Bosch and is now under Bosch's Sygenta brand.
Probably more than you wanted to know with your aside.
(I'll do anything to avoid doing something useful like dashboards)
John Henry
The images can be constructed or generated with modulation schemes through automation of Photoshop-era and earlier techniques using AI prompts.
We live in interesting times with precedents.
Another much ado about nothing fake scandal. I've never heard of this movie, but I don't believe for a second that Kinski was harmed by it.
Much like the racist dog whistle: if you think this is sexual...
Teen titties!
Please avert your eyes.
"At what stage of the development of her breasts did it stop being inappropriate to show them ?"
Cat People, 1982.
And slap me silly but Nastassja Kinski is the daughter of Klaus Kinski and I somehow did not know.
'..I could already tell that wasn’t right..'
it's NOT right; and there's a phrase that describes it:
the phrase starts with "kiddy p" and ends with "orn"
Easy pezzy. Use AI to recreate the scene without showing the character’s breasts.
Seems like a marketing ploy. Does anybody anywhere remember this movie?
"Only after that — even if it takes longer — and once we have been able to present a consensual solution, also in consultation with Nastassja Kinski, will we release the film again."
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