| Last Tango in Paris | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Bernardo Bertolucci |
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by | Bernardo Bertolucci |
| Produced by | Alberto Grimaldi |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Vittorio Storaro |
| Edited by | Franco Arcalli |
| Music by | Gato Barbieri |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Release dates |
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Running time | 129 minutes |
| Countries |
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| Languages |
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| Budget | $1 million[1] |
| Box office | $96 million |
Last Tango in Paris (Italian:Ultimo tango a Parigi;French:Le Dernier Tango à Paris) is a 1972eroticdrama film directed byBernardo Bertolucci. The film starsMarlon Brando,Maria Schneider andJean-Pierre Léaud, and portrays a recently widowed American who begins an anonymous sexual relationship with a young Parisian woman.
The film premiered at theNew York Film Festival on 14 October 1972 and grossed $36 million in its U.S. theatrical release,[2] making itthe seventh highest-grossing film of 1973. The film's raw portrayal of rape and emotional turmoil led to international controversy and drew various levels of government censorship in different jurisdictions. Upon release in the United States, theMPAA gave the film anX rating. United Artists Classics released anR-rated cut in 1981. In 1997, the original cut of the film was reclassified asNC-17.
Paul, a middle-aged American hotel owner mourning the suicide of his wife Rosa, meets a young, engaged Parisian woman named Jeanne at an apartment that both are interested in renting. Paul takes the apartment after they begin an anonymoussexual relationship there. He insists that they not share any personal information, even given names, much to Jeanne's dismay. At one point in their relationship, he rapes her. Despite this, she tells him that she tries to leave him, but can't bring herself to do it. The affair of Paul and Jeanne continues for some time until Paul decides to leave Jeanne, after which she arrives at the apartment and finds that he has packed up and left without warning.
After attending his wife'sviewing, Paul meets Jeanne on the street and says he wants to renew the relationship. He tells her of the recent tragedy of his wife. As he tells his life story, they walk into atango bar, where he continues telling her about himself. The loss of anonymity disillusions Jeanne about their relationship. She tells Paul she does not want to see him again. Paul, not wanting to let Jeanne go, chases her through the streets of Paris. While running, she continually yells at him to go away and tells him that their relationship is over. Despite her threats to call the police, he chases her all the way back to her building where she is living with her mother and forces his way into her apartment. He mocks her for running away from him, followed by him saying he loves her and wants to know her name.
Jeanne takes a gun from a drawer. She tells Paul her name and shoots him. Paul staggers out onto the balcony, mortally wounded, and collapses. As Paul dies, Jeanne, dazed, mutters to herself that he was just a stranger who tried to rape her and she did not know who he was, as if in a rehearsal preparing herself for questioning by the police.
Bernardo Bertolucci developed the film from his sexual fantasies: "He once dreamed of seeing a beautiful nameless woman on the street and having sex with her without ever knowing who she was."[4] The screenplay was by Bertolucci,Franco Arcalli, andAgnès Varda (additional dialogue). It was later adapted as a novel by Robert Alley. The film was directed by Bertolucci with cinematography byVittorio Storaro.
Bertolucci originally intended to castDominique Sanda, who developed the idea with him, andJean-Louis Trintignant. Trintignant refused and, when Brando accepted, Sanda was pregnant and decided not to do the film.[4] Brando received a percentage of the gross for the film and was estimated to have earned $3 million.[5]
Maria Schneider stated in 2001 that her role in the original script was intended to be played by a boy.[6]
An art lover, Bertolucci drew inspiration from the works of the Irish-born British artistFrancis Bacon for the opening sequence of cast and crew credits.[7] According to American artistAndy Warhol,Last Tango was based on Warhol's ownBlue Movie film released a few years earlier in 1969.[8]
The film contains a scene in which Paulanally rapes Jeanne using butter as a lubricant. While the rape issimulated, Schneider has said the scene still had a tremendously negative effect on her. In a 2006 interview, Schneider said that the use of butter was not in the script and that "when they told me, I had a burst of anger. Woo! I threw everything. And nobody can force someone to do something not in the script. But I didn't know that. I was too young."[9] In 2007, Schneider recounted feelings of sexual humiliation pertaining to the rape scene:
They only told me about it before we had to film the scene and I was so angry. I should have called my agent or had my lawyer come to the set because you can't force someone to do something that isn't in the script, but at the time, I didn't know that. Marlon said to me: 'Maria, don't worry, it's just a movie', but during the scene, even though what Marlon was doing wasn't real, I was crying real tears. I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci. After the scene, Marlon didn't console me or apologize. Thankfully, there was just one take.[10]
But in the same interview she also joked about it, laughingly, mentioning that her pleasures those days were very simple:
I like to see friends and go to the market and cook. But I never use butter to cook any more. Only olive oil.[11]
In 2011, Bertolucci denied that he "stole her youth" (she was 19 at the time of filming), and commented, "The girl wasn't mature enough to understand what was going on."[12] Schneider remained friends with Brando until his death in 2004, but never made up with Bertolucci.[13] She claimed that Brando and Bertolucci "made a fortune" from the film while she made very little money.[14] She also acknowledged that:
"I felt very sad because I was treated like a sex symbol - I wanted to be recognised as an actress and the whole scandal and aftermath of the film turned me a little crazy and I had a breakdown.[15]
Schneider died in 2011. In February 2013, Bertolucci spoke about the film's effect on Schneider in an interview on the Dutch television showCollege Tour, saying that although the rape scene was in the script, the detail of using butter as a lubricant was improvised the day of shooting and Schneider did not know about the use of the butter beforehand. Bertolucci said that "I feel guilty, but I don't regret it."[16][17] In September 2013, Bertolucci spoke again about the scene at a retrospective at theCinémathèque Française, claiming that the scene was in the script but the use of butter was not. Bertolucci said that he and Brando "decided not to say anything to Maria to get a more realistic response".[18]
In November 2016, a slightly different version of the 2013College Tour interview was uploaded toYouTube[19] by the Spanish non-profitEl Mundo de Alycia on theInternational Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women,[20] accompanied by a statement concluding that the scene "abused [Schneider] psychologically and, who knows if also, physically..."[21] This gained attention whenYahoo! Movies writer Tom Butler wrote an article about it,[22] prompting several celebrities to condemn the film and Bertolucci,[23] and a number of newspapers picked up on the story, reporting that Bertolucci had confessed to Schneider being raped on set, prompting Bertolucci to release a statement, clarifying that a simulation and not an actual intercourse took place.[24][20]
Bertolucci also shot a scene which showed Brando's genitals, but in 1973 explained, "I had so identified myself with Brando that I cut it out of shame for myself. To show him naked would have been like showing me naked."[25] Schneider declared in an interview that "Marlon said he felt raped and manipulated by it and he was 48. And he was Marlon Brando!"[25] Like Schneider, Brando confirmed that the sex was simulated.[20] Brando refused to speak to Bertolucci for 15 years after the production was completed. Bertolucci said:
I was thinking that it was like a dialogue where he was really answering my questions in a way. When at the end of the movie, when he saw it, I discovered that he realized what we were doing, that he was delivering so much of his own experience. And he was very upset with me, and I told him, "Listen, you are a grown-up. Older than me. Didn't you realize what you were doing?" And he didn't talk to me for years.[26][27]
The film's opening credits include two paintings byFrancis Bacon:Double Portrait ofLucian Freud andFrank Auerbach andStudy for a Portrait of Isabel Rawsthorne. The hues used in the film were inspired by the paintings of Bacon.[28] During pre-production, Bertolucci frequently visited an exhibit of Bacon's paintings at theGrand Palais in Paris; he said that the light and colour in Bacon's paintings reminded him of Paris in the winter, when
the lights of the stores are on, and there is a very beautiful contrast between the leaden gray of the wintry sky and the warmth of the show windows...the light in the paintings was the major source of inspiration for the style we were looking for.[29]
Bacon's painting style often depicted human skin like raw meat and the painter's inspiration included meat hanging in a butcher shops window and human skin diseases.[29]
Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro had previously worked with Bertolucci onThe Conformist and often used an azure hue in the film. Storaro later told a reporter that
afterThe Conformist I had a moment of crisis; I was asking myself: what can come after azure?...I did not have the slightest idea that an orange film could be born. We needed another kind of emotion...It was the case ofLast Tango.[29]
ForLast Tango in Paris, Bertolucci and Storaro took inspiration from Bacon's paintings by using "rich oranges, light and cool grays, icy whites, and occasional reds combine[d] with Bertolucci's own tasteful choices of soft browns, blond browns, and delicate whites with bluish and pink shadings".[30]
Bertolucci took Marlon Brando to the Bacon exhibit and told Brando that he "wanted him to compare himself with Bacon's human figures because I felt that, like them, Marlon's face and body were characterized by a strange and infernal plasticity. I wanted Paul to be like the figures that obsessively return in Bacon: faces eaten by something coming from the inside."[29]
As was his practice in previous films, Brando refused to memorize his lines for many of the scenes. Instead, he wrote his lines oncue cards and posted them around the set, leaving Bertolucci with the problem of keeping them out of the picture frame. During his long monologue over the body of his wife, for example, Brando's dramatic lifting of his eyes upward is not spontaneous dramatic acting but a search for his next cue card.[31] Brando asked Bertolucci if he could "write lines on Maria's rear end", which the director rejected.[25]
| Last Tango in Paris | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | 1973 | |||
| Recorded | 20–25 November 1972 Rome Italy | |||
| Genre | Film score | |||
| Label | United Artists UA-LA-045-F | |||
| Producer | Alberto Grimaldi | |||
| Gato Barbieri chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  [32] |
Thefilm score was composed byGato Barbieri, arranged and conducted byOliver Nelson, and thesoundtrack album was released on theUnited Artists label.[33][34]AllMusic'sRichie Unterberger noted "Although some of the smoky sax solos get a little uncomfortably close to 1970s fusion cliché, Gato Barbieri's score to Bertolucci's 1972 classic is an overall triumph. Suspenseful jazz, melancholy orchestration, and actual tangos fit the film's air of erotic longing, melancholy despair, and doomed fate".[32] The soundtrack includes "Six Penny Ride" by Trevor Duncan (1924-2005).
All compositions by Gato Barbieri.
The film premiered as the closing film at theNew York Film Festival on 14 October 1972, with high demand and enormous public controversy. The film did not have any press screenings due to concerns that the film was being shown against Italian law after the Italian censors had not passed the film. The lack of screenings increased demand for the film with some offering $100 to buy a ticket.[35]
The film opened in late 1972 in France, where filmgoers stood in two-hour queues for the first month of its run at the seven cinemas where it was screened.[31] It gained unanimous positive reviews in every major French publication.[36] To circumvent Spanish state censorship, thousands of Spaniards travelled hundreds of kilometers to reach French cinemas inBiarritz andPerpignan whereTango was playing.[37] Following that, it was released in the United States, United Kingdom, and other venues.
The film generated considerable controversy because of its subject and graphic portrayal of sex. Schneider provided frank interviews in the wake ofTango's controversy, claiming she had slept with 50 men and 20 women, that she was "bisexual completely", and that she had usedheroin,cocaine, andmarijuana. She also said of Bertolucci, "He's quite clever and more free and very young. Everybody was digging what he was doing, and we were all very close."[38]
During the publicity for the film's release, Bertolucci said Schneider developed an "Oedipal [sic] fixation with Brando".[25] Schneider said Brando sent her flowers after they first met, and "from then on he was like a daddy".[31] In a later interview, Schneider denied this, saying, "Brando tried to be very paternalistic with me, but it really wasn't any father-daughter relationship."[25] However, in 2007, she said that "for me, he was more like a father figure and I a daughter."[39]
In Italy, the film was released on 15 December 1972, grossing an unprecedented $100,000 in six days.[40] One week later, however, police seized all copies on the order of a prosecutor, who defined the film as "self-serving pornography", and its director was put on trial for "obscenity". Following first degree and appeal trials, the fate of the film was sealed on 26 January 1976 by theItalian Supreme Court, which sentenced all copies to bedestroyed (though some were preserved by the National Film Library). Bertolucci was served with a four-month suspended sentence in prison and had his civil rights revoked for five years, depriving him of voting rights.[41] It grossed 7 billion lire ($3.9 million) in its initial release in Italy. It was re-released in 1987 where it grossed an additional 5 billion lire ($2.7 million). In 2000, it was listed as thesecond-highest grossing Italian film in Italy adjusted for inflation.[42]
October 14, 1972... should become a landmark in movie history comparable to May 29, 1913—the nightLe Sacre du Printemps was first performed—in music history...Last Tango in Paris has the same kind of hypnotic excitement as theSacre, the same primitive force, and the same thrusting, jabbing eroticism. The movie breakthrough has finally come.
The film opened February 1, 1973 at the Trans-Lux East in New York City with a $5 ticket price and advance sales of $100,000,[44][45] grossing $41,280 in its first week.[46] The media frenzy surrounding the film generated intense popular interest as well as moral condemnation, and the film was featured in cover stories in bothTime andNewsweek[25] magazines.Playboy published a photo spread of Brando and Schneider "cavorting in the nude".[25]Time wrote,
Any moviegoers who are not shocked, titillated, disgusted, fascinated, delighted or angered by this early scene in Bernardo Bertolucci's new movie,Last Tango in Paris, should be patient. There is more to come. Much more.[31]
TheVillage Voice reported walkouts by board members and "vomiting by well-dressed wives".[47] ColumnistWilliam F. Buckley and ABC'sHarry Reasoner denounced the film as "pornography disguised as art".[25]
After local government officials failed to ban the film inMontclair, New Jersey, theatergoers had to push through a mob of 200 outraged residents, who hurled epithets like "perverts" and "homos" at the attendees. Later, abomb threat temporarily halted the showing.[48] The New York City chapter of theNational Organization for Women denounced the film as a tool of "male domination".[49]
The film's scandal centred mostly on an anal rape scene, featuring Paul's use of butter as alubricant.[50] According to Schneider, the scene was not in the original script, but was Brando's idea.[9] Other critics focused on when the character Paul asks Jeanne to insert her fingers in his anus, then asks her to prove her devotion to him by, among other things, having sex with a pig.Vincent Canby ofThe New York Times described the film's sexual content as the artistic expression of the "era ofNorman Mailer andGermaine Greer"[51] and was upset about the high ticket price.[44]
Film criticPauline Kael endorsed the film,[52] writing that "Tango has altered the face of an art form. This is a movie people will be arguing about for as long as there are movies."[31] She called it "the most powerfully erotic movie ever made, and it may turn out to be the most liberating movie ever made."[53]United Artists reprinted the whole of Kael's rave as a double-page advertisement in the SundayNew York Times. Kael's review ofLast Tango in Paris is regarded as the most influential piece of her career.[54]
Many feminist film critics disliked the film. In a 1974 review inJump Cut,E. Ann Kaplan criticized it for featuring "a one-sided relationship seen mostly through Paul's eyes."[55] InWomen and Their Sexuality in the New Film, (1974) one of the first explicitly feminist books on film,Joan Mellen complains about a similar issue, that Jeanne constantly gives way to Paul, "the man who is made more interesting in every way."[56] However, a few did enjoy it, such asMolly Haskell, who responded to feminist criticism inFrom Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies (1974) by noting that women more than men seemed to respond to the film, and that female sexual fantasies can include "rape, sadism, submission, liberation, and anonymous sex."[57]
The American criticRoger Ebert repeatedly described Kael's review as "the most famous movie review ever published", and he added the film to his "Great Movies" collection.[58] American directorRobert Altman expressed unqualified praise: "I walked out of the screening and said to myself, 'How dare I make another film?' My personal and artistic life will never be the same."[25]
Review aggregation websiteRotten Tomatoes retrospectively collected 44 reviews and gave the film an approval rating of 82%, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Naturalistic but evocative,Last Tango in Paris is a vivid exploration of pain, love, and sex featuring a typically towering Marlon Brando performance."[59]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 77 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[60]
In 2004, directorMartin Scorsese compared this "towering Brando performance" to the actor's turn as Terry Malloy inOn the Waterfront (1954) and noted that "[w]hen you watch his work in ...Last Tango in Paris, you're watching the purest poetry imaginable, in dynamic motion".[61]
Ethan Hawke considered Brando's work a seminal moment in the movement of performance. Praising both the star and the director of the film, Hawke toldRichard Linklater andLouis Black that, "Brando upped [On the Waterfront] withLast Tango."[62]Pauline Kael, in her aforementioned review, had echoed the same sentiments by saying, "On the screen Brando is our genius as[Norman] Mailer is our genius in literature … Paul feels so 'real' and the character is brought so close that a new dimension in screen acting has been reached."
Richard Brody ofThe New Yorker praised the personal nature of Brando's role, commenting in his review ofListen to Me Marlon (2015) that,
"When Brando said what he himself had to say, it was indeed of a unique value. That's why the best of Brando is when he's closest to himself, as in ... Bernardo Bertolucci'sLast Tango in Paris, from 1972. It isn't only his words that are better than those of the screenwriters; his persona, his character, is greater than those that are scripted."[63]
In 2019, actorBrad Pitt said the film from the past he'd most like to have starred in isLast Tango in Paris, "Brando. That one hurts."[64]Premiere had named Brando's performance the 27th-greatest film performance of all time in April 2006.[65]
The film was given a nationwide release on February 7, 1973, and grossed $36 million in the United States and Canada,[2]the seventh highest-grossing film of 1973.
British censors reduced the duration of thesodomy sequence before permitting the film to be released in the United Kingdom,[66] though it is not cut in later releases.Mary Whitehouse, a Christian morality campaigner, expressed outrage that the film had been certified "X" rather than banned outright, and Labour MPMaurice Edelman denounced the classification as "a licence to degrade".[67]
The film was censored in Spain during theFranco regime and was not released until December 1977.[68]Chile banned the film entirely for nearly thirty years under its military government,[69] and the film was similarly suppressed inPortugal, until theCarnation Revolution in 1974, when its première became an example of the freedom democracy allows.[70] The same happened inBrazil during the period ofmilitary dictatorship when the film was censored, until it was finally released in 1979.[71] Other countries that banned it includeArgentina,[72]South Korea,[73]Singapore,[70][74] andVenezuela.[75][76]
In Australia, the film was released uncut with an R certificate by theAustralian Classification Board on 1 February 1973. It received a VHS release byWarner Home Video with the same classification on 1 January 1987, forbidding sale or hire to anyone under the age of 18.[77]
In Canada, the film was banned by theNova Scotia Board of Censors, leading to the landmark 1978Supreme Court of Canada split decision inNova Scotia (Board of Censors) v McNeil, which upheld the provinces' right to censor films.[78]
Being Maria, a film based on Maria Schneider's experiences working onLast Tango in Paris, was released in 2024, having its premiere at the77th Cannes Film Festival.[79][80] The film was directed byJessica Palud and adapted fromVanessa Schneider's 2018 memoirMy Cousin Maria Schneider.[81]
Also released in 2024, the biopicWaltzing with Brando depicts the period between 1969 and 1974 in which Brando was preparing to star inThe Godfather andLast Tango in Paris.[82][83]
In December 2024, a planned screening ofLast Tango in Paris at the Parisian theaterCinémathèque française was cancelled after women's rights groups protested the showing due to the film's infamous rape scene. French actressJudith Godrèche also protested the theater's decision to show the film without context given to the rape scene, writing onInstagram: "It’s time to wake up, dear Cinémathèque, and restore humanity to a 19-year-old actor by behaving humanely." The cinema's director, Frédéric Bonnaud, stated that the decision to pull the film was because "We are a cinema, not a fortress. We cannot take risks with the safety of our staff and audience," and stated that "Violent individuals were beginning to make threats and holding this screening and debate posed an entirely disproportionate risk."[84] His statements led to further criticism from feminist groups, who accused him as posing as a victim, and stating he should have instead apologized for wanting to screen the film to begin with. The 50/50 Collective, another women's rights group, had called on the Cinématheque to provide "thoughtful and respectful" place for Schneider’s testimony and experience alongside the screening.[85] Other feminists stated they would have approved of the screening had a discussion been had after the screening and a note handed to the viewers describing the non-consensual background of the scene.[86]
In 2002, the film ranked #48 onAFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions.[87]
| Organization | Year | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | 1974 | Best Director | Bernardo Bertolucci | Nominated | |
| Best Actor | Marlon Brando | Nominated | |||
| British Academy Film Awards | 1974 | Best Actor in a Leading Role | Nominated | ||
| David di Donatello Awards | 1973 | Special David | Maria Schneider | Won | |
| Directors Guild of America Awards | 1974 | Outstanding Directing in a Feature Film | Bernardo Bertolucci | Nominated | |
| Golden Globe Awards | 1974 | Best Motion Picture – Drama | Last Tango in Paris | Nominated | |
| Best Director | Bernardo Bertolucci | Nominated | |||
| Grammy Awards | 1974 | Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media | Gato Barbieri | Nominated | |
| Best Instrumental Composition | Gato Barbieri(for "Theme fromLast Tango in Paris") | Won | |||
| Nastro d'Argento Awards | 1973 | Best Director | Bernardo Bertolucci | Won | |
| National Society of Film Critics Awards | 1974 | Best Actor | Marlon Brando | Won | |
| New York Film Critics Circle Awards | 1974 | Best Actor | Won |
Media related toUltimo tango a Parigi at Wikimedia Commons
Quotations related toLast Tango in Paris at Wikiquote
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