Netflix UK has acknowledged a complaint made by the celebrated director Xavier Dolan after it altered the aspect ratio of his prize-winning film Mommy without telling him, and has backed down.

In a tweet on Monday (January 4th), the Canadian director said that Netflix had mispresented his movie, which won the jury prize at Cannes in 2014, by altering the screen ratio and therefore changing the “narratively crucial sentiment” of some scenes.

“Who has bestowed on you the right to revise my choices?” he wrote. “And how competently have you pondered the impact of such decisions on my film and the public?... You did not direct this movie. You did not write this movie. You did not produce this movie. So can anyone or anything except me warrant the liberty you took upon my work? No.”

Xavier DolanXavier Dolan

Netflix is obviously a great invention for consumers who want to binge-watch their favourite shows and movies, some directors have previously been sceptical about the streaming platform.

Dolan’s complaint is that, by keeping the entire movie to an unchanging, wider aspect of 1:85 rather than a square 1:1, viewers aren’t able to see the movie temporarily widen for a key scene. He said that Netflix’s decision to edit the picture to create a “permanent pillar box” aspect ratio had “shut down the emotional capacity of a scene”.

He later tweeted to thank Netflix for correcting their mistake, after the company had quickly replied to his initial post saying: “Hi Xavier, thank you for letting us know. We are looking into this.”

Winning many plaudits when it was released, Mommy centred on a widowed suburban mother struggling to raise her troubled teenage son, who in turn finds support in friendship with a new neighbour.

More: ‘Mommy’ makes Xavier Dolan five for five [movie review]