Naked Winslet panned for 'Holocaust slur'

Reuters

TOOK ME TO THE BRINK: British actress Kate Winslet has defended her controversial role in Holocaust film The Reader.

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British star Kate Winslet's latest film, in which she plays a former concentration camp guard with an insatiable sexual appetite, has been panned for using her "nubile body" to trivialise the Holocaust.

Winslet bares all in post-war drama The Reader and has said the role pushed her "to the brink", but the recent criticism could cost her an Oscar nomination next month.

At a private screening of the film last week, influential film critic Charlie Finch attacked the film, arguing Winslet's sexual escapades were out of place, the Sunday Times reports.

"It trivialises the Holocaust," he said.

"What is repellent is how Daldry uses Kate Winslet's nubile body to create sympathy for a repellent character. [Director Stephen] Daldry avoided showing the horror of her crimes - instead we have Holocaust chic which is all about sex, not mass murder."

Winslet plays Hanna Schmitz, a middle-aged tram conductor in post-war Berlin who has an affair with a teenage boy.

The boy is played by German actor David Kross, who had to wait until his 18th birthday before he was allowed to film the sex scenes.

Winslet said she was nervous filming the sex scenes with her 18-year-old co-star.

"It was the same as shooting any other scene of that nature," she told Entertainment Tonight.

"A scene with that level of intimacy involving nudity, you know, it's always nerve-wracking, and you really have to rehearse those scenes so that everybody knows exactly what's going on.

"He didn't need that much looking after."

Winslet said playing Hanna Schmitz had been physically and emotionally draining.

"It really took me to the brink in many ways.

"To bring my character Hanna Schmitz to life was an absolutely enormous challenge and a huge responsibility as well, because it's a much-loved piece of German literature.

"Many people have differing opinions of Hanna Schmitz - they love her, they loathe her."

The criticism has forced Winslet and director Daldry to defend the film.

"There is a lot of nudity in the beginning. But it's 100 per cent justified by the story," Winslet said.

In response to Finch's criticism, Daldry replied: "I am sorry you feel that way. There are about 225 films about the Holocaust. There is room for mine."

The Reader, which also stars Ralph Fiennes, is released worldwide in January.

-With Bang! Showbiz