Paul’s admonition to Jeanne against using names with each other for instance, is an awkward scene, but with a rawness that captivates as much as it confounds. We can see Brando even struggling to find words to express his character’s feelings. Much of the dialogue between Brando and Schneider is improvised, and arguably, not even improvised very well. With very little traditional plot, Bertolucci achieves a heightened state of emotional transcendence, a flow of feelings and gestures fuelled by the energy of the two characters as well as the energy of the city of Paris. This is the energy which moves the film forward. Never had we seen sex on screen like that – so unromantic, so primal. He’s instantly attracted to her carefree innocence, and so when they meet coincidentally in an empty rental apartment the thick sexual energy hanging in the air cause them to break out into spontaneous fornication.Īs directed by Bertolucci, the sex is rough, dirty, sloppy, Paul barely even taking his clothes off, feebly fumbling to ‘stick it in her’, and then falling helplessly on the ground after climaxing. As he wanders aimlessly through the fabulous Parisian portico a spry young girl (Maria Schneider) skips on by. We’ll eventually come to learn that his wife had recently and inexplicably committed suicide. In the magnificent opening shot we see Bertolucci’s camera push in on Paul screaming in pain. Like Nicolas Cage’s drunken death wish character in ‘Leaving Las Vegas’, without saying those exact words, is on a collision course with death. The character of Paul is one of the most self-destructive characters in cinema history. And so his role as Paul, the grieving widower who strikes up a torrid affair with said young Parisian girl, Jeanne, he’s shattering his image and daring his audience to hate him.
Marlon Brando, as soon as he came to Hollywood, achieved an instant fame, virtually unrivalled in the history of cinema – a persona shaped as much by his phenomenal acting talent as his rebelliousness. After the butter is passed the scene then plays out with Brando’s character climbing on top of Jeanne and performing an act sodomy which would inexorably split these two voracious lovers.Ĭould you imagine Brad Pitt or Tom Hanks or Leonardo DiCaprio or Matt Damon playing this scene and the effect on their image? Marlon Brando, on the other hand, had disdain for image, his role in pop culture and most of all of his celebrity endeavours. Of course, it refers to the use of that smooth, spreadable substance used by Brando’s character to lubricate a certain orifice on the body of the character of Jeanne, as played by Maria Schneider. Starring: Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Massimo GirottiĪnyone familiar with ‘Last Tango in Paris’ can’t really say or hear ‘pass the butter’ without a least a slight pause, double-take, or smirk of recognition to the now infamous line of dialogue uttered by Marlon Brando near the midpoint of this film. If she’s reacting to this moment “as a girl, not as an actress,” just as Bertolucci wanted, then he should react as a human being and see these kinds of actions as inexcusable.Last Tango in Paris (1973) dir. Before her death in 2011 of cancer, she struggled with drug addiction, overdoses, depression, and suicide attempts. “We have an experience that was horrific for the woman involved, with some consent but not all, and a lot of people giving a million reasons why it was OK.Īfter the film, Schneider never did another nude scene. This article on Pajiba brings up another important question: Glad at least it will be taken seriously now.” How can someone watch Last Tango in Paris and justify what these two men did to her? How can you “separate art from the artist” when the woman on screen is crying real tears?Īnna Kendrick stated in a tweet that whenever she pointed out the true conditions of the rape scene, people would dismiss her, writing, “I used to get eye-rolls when I brought it up to people (aka dudes).” When Chris Evans said that they should be jailed, she responded, “It wasn’t treated like a big story then(shocker). It’s the same question we have asked about Alfred Hitchcock, when it’s a well known fact he assaulted and harassed Tippi Hedren. Unfortunately, many Hollywood actresses have shared similar stories in recent months. The question that we should ask now is why her prior confession wasn’t enough to change public attention to this film from one of critical acclaim to a horrifying story of assault.
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