THE Oscar aspirations of Kate Winslet, the British star, have been threatened by critics’ claims that nudity in her latest film, The Reader, has “trivialised” the story it tells about the Nazi Holocaust.

Winslet, who plays a former concentration camp guard with a voracious sexual appetite, was believed to be a certainty for her sixth Oscar nomination next month until an attack by Charlie Finch, a writer for www.artnet.com, spread across the internet and raised doubts among Oscar voters in Hollywood.

The furore began at a private screening last week hosted by Stephen Daldry, the film’s British director. Finch, who contributes to several New York newspapers and magazines, accused him of creating a “dishonest and manipulative” vision of Nazi war crimes and postwar Germany which, because of its sex and stars - including Ralph Fiennes - would “crowd out” many better films about the subject.

Daldry replied: “I am sorry you feel that way. There are 252 movies about the Holocaust and this is not one of them.” Finch was hissed at by members of the invited audience, many of them friends of Daldry - who has been busy in New York with his musical Billy Elliot, which opened in October - but the damage was done. Within hours Finch’s attack was repeated by other critics, most of whom had not seen the film.

Winslet plays Hanna, a middle-aged tram conductor in postwar Berlin who initiates a torrid affair with a teenage boy. He is portrayed by a German actor, David Kross, who had to wait until his 18th birthday before he was allowed to film the sex scenes.

Finch said Winslet’s sexual escapades in The Reader were out of place: “It trivialises the Holocaust. What is repellent is how Daldry uses Kate Winslet’s nubile body to create sympathy for a repellent character. Daldry avoided showing the horror of her crimes: instead we have Holocaust chic which is all about sex, not mass murder.”

Winslet was stung into defending the film. She told a local newspaper: “There is a lot of nudity in the beginning. But it’s 100% justified by the story.”

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