Director Wim Wenders released an official statement this morning announcing that his foundation would not release the 1975 film Wrong Move due to a topless scene featuring Nastassja Kinski, who was 13 years old at the time of filming.
German director Wenders, known for such classics as “Paris, Texas,” “Wings of Desire,” and the recent “Perfect Days,” said in a statement posted on Instagram by the Wim Wenders Foundation: “As the only person responsible for Wrong Move at the time and still here today, I recognize that Nastassja Kinski should have been better protected at the time. For that, I apologize to you, Natasha.” Feel free to say no “ifs” or “buts.”
In “Wrong Move,” Kinski plays a silent teenager and co-stars with Rüdiger Vogler and Hans Christian Brech. In a comment below a post from Kinski’s unverified Instagram account, she responded in German, saying in part: “Wim, after all these years, only now are ordinary people commenting on newspapers in such large numbers, as do my colleagues. Because you asked the question a long time ago, and now there are thousands.”
Director Kinski has been outspoken about the film over the years, urging Wenders to release a new cut. “It was my first film and he was my first director, but he didn’t protect me,” she told Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper last month.
“Wrong Move” became Kinski’s first film. In 1984, she co-starred with Harry Dean Stanton in Paris, Texas, and last time with Wenders once in 1993’s Faraway, So Close! She also appeared nude in the 1970s films The Devil’s Daughter and Stay As You Are. In 1997, she spoke to W Magazine about being oversexualized as an underage actor. “If someone had protected me, or if I had more confidence in myself, I wouldn’t have accepted certain things. The nudity thing.”
According to director Wenders, “Wrong Move” will remain unavailable for viewing until a “mutually agreed solution” is found, citing the need for “extensive dialogue” with the German Film Academy and Kinski. “Our society needs to find ways to appropriately deal with controversial 20th century films and confront new learning processes and comprehensive perspectives on film.”
Variety reached out to Kinski’s team for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
