There's nothing sexual about it, but I think the scene would have been too violent. It's worth noting that in the Thomas Mann's story on which the film is based, Sophie Fuhrmann is only 8 years old (and looks younger), and she takes off her dress and goes into the sea to wash it because it's stained with sand, not because it's torn, as happens in the film:deadman wrote: Sun Nov 16, 2025 10:19 pm That beach scene originally featured the boys wrestling with her and pulling off her swimsuit a little at a time. We see several takes of that version in the BTS video. Ultimately they decided to go with a much shorter sequence where one boy pulls until the strap on her left shoulder breaks, then she removes the suit herself.
The original scene called for in the script was more fun! There was nothing sexual about it, they weren't trying to assault her, it was just a group of kids playing, I'm not sure why they felt the need to cut it short.
"Our small daughter - eight years old, but in physical development a good year younger and thin as a chicken - had had a good long bathe and gone playing in the warm sun in her wet costume. We told her that she might take off her bathing-suit, which was stiff with sand, rinse it in the sea, and put it on again, after which she must take care to keep it cleaner. Off goes the costume and she runs down naked to the sea, rinses her little jersey, and comes back."
Obviously, the director reserves the right to make changes (there are other, far more significant differences between the film and the book), but I honestly don't know what was going through Brandauer's mind when he wanted to construct that scene in such a violent way.
