Last Tango in Paris
Encyclopedia
Last Tango in Paris is a 1972 Italian romantic
Romance film
Romance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate involvement of the main characters and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus...

 drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 directed by Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci is an Italian film director and screenwriter, whose films include The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, The Last Emperor and The Dreamers...

 which portrays a recent American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 widower who takes up an anonymous sexual relationship with a young, soon-to-be-married Parisian woman. It stars Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...

, Maria Schneider
Maria Schneider (actress)
Maria Schneider was a French actress. She was best known for playing Jeanne, opposite Marlon Brando, in the 1972 film Last Tango in Paris.-Career:...

, and Jean-Pierre Léaud
Jean-Pierre Léaud
-Early years:Born in Paris, Léaud made his major debut as an actor at the age of 14 as Antoine Doinel, a semi-autobiographical character based on the life events of French film director François Truffaut, in The 400 Blows....

.

The film's raw portrayal of sexual violence and emotional turmoil led to international controversy and drew various levels of government censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...

. The MPAA gave the film an X rating upon release in the United States. After revisions were made to the MPAA ratings code, it was classified as an NC-17 in 1997. MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...

 released a censored R-rated cut in 1981. The film has its NC-17 rating for "some explicit sexual content."

Plot

Paul (Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...

), a middle-aged American hotel owner mourning the suicide of his wife, meets a young engaged Parisian woman named Jeanne (Maria Schneider
Maria Schneider (actress)
Maria Schneider was a French actress. She was best known for playing Jeanne, opposite Marlon Brando, in the 1972 film Last Tango in Paris.-Career:...

) in an apartment both are interested in renting. Paul and Jeanne proceed to have an anonymous sexual relationship in the apartment, and Paul demands that neither of them share any personal information, not even their names. The affair goes on until one day Jeanne comes to the apartment to find that Paul has, without warning, packed up and left.

Paul later meets Jeanne on the street and says that he wants to start anew with their relationship. He takes Jeanne to a tango bar and begins telling her about himself. This loss of anonymity disillusions Jeanne about the relationship and she tells Paul she doesn't want to see him again. Paul, not wanting to let Jeanne go, chases her back to her apartment and tells her that he loves her and wants to know her name.

Unbeknownst to Paul, Jeanne holds a gun she has taken from a drawer. She tells him her name and shoots him. Paul, mortally wounded, staggers out onto the balcony, sticks his chewing gum under the railing, collapses and dies. The audience then sees Jeanne dazed and muttering to herself that he was just a stranger who tried to rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

 her, reassuring herself that she did not know who he was in a rehearsal for questioning by the police.

Cast

  • Marlon Brando
    Marlon Brando
    Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...

     as Paul
  • Maria Schneider
    Maria Schneider (actress)
    Maria Schneider was a French actress. She was best known for playing Jeanne, opposite Marlon Brando, in the 1972 film Last Tango in Paris.-Career:...

     as Jeanne
  • Jean-Pierre Léaud
    Jean-Pierre Léaud
    -Early years:Born in Paris, Léaud made his major debut as an actor at the age of 14 as Antoine Doinel, a semi-autobiographical character based on the life events of French film director François Truffaut, in The 400 Blows....

     as Tom
  • Maria Michi
    Maria Michi
    Maria Michi was an Italian supporting actress who worked with Roberto Rossellini on his two early neorealism masterpieces: Rome, Open City and Paisà. In 1948, she worked with Christian-Jaque in La Chartreuse de Parme...

     as Rosa's mother
  • Giovanna Galletti as Prostitute
  • Gitt Magrini as Jeanne's mother
  • Catherine Allégret
    Catherine Allégret
    Catherine Allégret is a French actress. She is the daughter of Simone Signoret and Yves Allégret.In 2004, she published a book titled World Upside Down in which she contended that she had been sexually abused by her stepfather Yves Montand since the age of 5.In 2007, she portrayed Édith Piaf's...

     as Catherine
  • Luce Marquand as Olympia
  • Marie-Hélène Breillat as Monique
  • Catherine Breillat
    Catherine Breillat
    Catherine Breillat is a French filmmaker, novelist and Professor of Auteur Cinema at the European Graduate School.-Life and career:Breillat was born in Bressuire, Deux-Sèvres, but grew up in Niort...

     as Mouchette
  • Dan Diament as TV sound engineer
  • Catherine Sola as TV script girl
  • Mauro Marchetti as TV cameraman
  • Massimo Girotti
    Massimo Girotti
    Massimo Girotti was an Italian film actor whose career spanned seven decades.Born in Mogliano, in the province of Macerata, Girotti developed his athletic physique by swimming and polo...

     as Marcel
  • Peter Schommer as TV assistant cameraman
  • Veronica Lazar
    Veronica Lazar
    Veronica Lazar is an Italian actress.She made her debut in Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris , and also appeared in some of the director's subsequent films, La Luna , The Sheltering Sky , and Besieged . Lazar is probably best known for her role as the demonic Mater Tenebrarum in Dario...

     as Rosa
  • Rachel Kesterber as Christine
  • Ramón Mendizábal as Tango Orchestra Leader
  • Mimi Pinson as President of Tango Jury
  • Darling Légitimus
    Darling Légitimus
    Darling Légitimus, born Mathilda Paruta on 21 November 1907 at Le Carbet, who died on 7 December 1999 at the age of 92, at Kremlin-Bicetre, was a French actress originated from Carraibes black artistes...

     as Concierge
  • Gérard Lepennec as Dancer
  • Stéphane Koziak as Dancer
  • Armand Abplanalp as Prostitute's client
  • Jean-Luc Bideau
    Jean-Luc Bideau
    Jean-Luc Bideau is a Swiss film actor. He has appeared in over 125 films since 1965.-Selected filmography:* Les Bons Vivants * Mr...

     (deleted scenes
    Deleted Scenes
    A deleted scene is a scene removed from or replaced by another scene in the final version of a film or television series.It may also refer to:* "Deleted Scenes", an episode of the Adult Swim animated television series, Aqua Teen Hunger Force...

    ) as Le capitaine de la péniche
  • Laura Betti
    Laura Betti
    Laura Betti was an Italian actress.Born Laura Trombetti in Bologna, this blonde and flamboyant actress started her career as jazz singer. Betti made her film debut in Federico Fellini's La dolce vita. In 1963 she became a close friend of the poet and movie director Pier Paolo Pasolini, for whom...

     (deleted scenes) as Miss Blandish
  • Michel Delahaye (deleted scenes) as Bible salesman
  • Gianni Pulone (deleted scenes)
  • Franca Sciutto (deleted scenes)

Background

The idea grew from Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci is an Italian film director and screenwriter, whose films include The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, The Last Emperor and The Dreamers...

's sexual fantasies, stating "he once dreamed of seeing a beautiful nameless woman on the street and having sex with her without ever knowing who she was". The screenplay was by Bertolucci, Franco Arcalli, and Agnès Varda
Agnès Varda
Agnès Varda is a French film director and professor at the European Graduate School. Her movies, photographs, and art installations focus on documentary realism, feminist issues, and social commentary — with a distinct experimental style....

 (additional dialogue) and was novelized by Robert Alley. The film was directed by Bertolucci with cinematography by Vittorio Storaro
Vittorio Storaro
Vittorio Storaro, A.S.C., A.I.C. is an Italian cinematographer.In 2003, a survey conducted by the International Cinematographers Guild judged Storaro one of history's ten most influential cinematographers.-Biography:...

. Agnès Varda based the last scenes on the death of Jim Morrison
Jim Morrison
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison was an American musician, singer, and poet, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band The Doors...

 in Paris the previous year.

The stars were intended to be Dominique Sanda
Dominique Sanda
Dominique Sanda is a French actress and former fashion model.Sanda was born as Dominique Marie-Françoise Renée Varaigne in Paris to Lucienne and Gérard Varaigne...

, who developed the idea with Bertolucci, and Jean-Louis Trintignant
Jean-Louis Trintignant
Jean-Louis Trintignant is a French actor who has enjoyed an international acclaim. He won the Best Actor Award at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival.-Career:...

, but Trintignant refused and, when Brando accepted, Sanda was pregnant and decided not to do it.

An art lover, Bertolucci drew inspiration from Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...

 for the opening sequence of cast and crew credits.

Cue cards

As with previous films, Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...

 refused to memorize his lines for many scenes. Instead, he wrote his lines on cue cards and posted them around the set for easy reference, 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. Brando even asked Bertolucci if he could "write lines on Maria's rear end," which he refused to allow.

Post-production

Maria Schneider provided frank interviews in the wake of Tango's controversy, claiming she had slept with fifty men and twenty women, that she was "bisexual completely," and that she was a user of heroin, cocaine, and marijuana. 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."

During the publicity for the film's release, Bertolucci said that Schneider developed an "Oedipal fixation with Brando." Schneider herself said that Brando sent her flowers after they first met, and "from then on he was like a daddy." In a contemporaneous interview, Schneider denied this, saying, "Brando tried to be very paternalistic with me, but it really wasn't any father-daughter relationship." Years later, however, Schneider recounted feelings of sexual humiliation:
Schneider subsequently stated that making the film was her life's only regret, that it "ruined her life," and that she considers Bertolucci a "gangster and a pimp." In 2011, Bertolucci disavowed that he had "stole[n] her youth," and commented, "The girl wasn't mature enough to understand what was going on."

Much like Schneider, Brando "felt raped and manipulated" by the film, telling Bertolucci, "I was completely and utterly violated by you. I will never make another film like that." Brando refused to speak to Bertolucci for fifteen years after wrapping production. Bertolucci also shot a scene which shows Brando's genitals, but later 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."

Music

The music for the film was composed by Gato Barbieri
Gato Barbieri
Leandro Barbieri , better known as Gato Barbieri , is an Argentinean jazz tenor saxophonist and composer who rose to fame during the free jazz movement in the 1960s and from his latin jazz recordings in the 1970s.-Biography:Born to a family of musicians, Barbieri began playing music...

. Some instances of music appearing in the film however are not listed in the credits. For instance in the scene where Jeanne wants to play a record, and asks Paul to take a look at the record player because it does not seem to work: Jeanne: "I've got a surprise for you!" Paul: "That's good. I like surprises. What is it?" Jeanne: "Music. But I don't know how to work it." While getting the player to work Paul gets an electric shock. Paul: "Do you enjoy that?" Then the uncredited song is played.

Response in United States

The film premiered in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 on October 14, 1972 to enormous public controversy. The media frenzy surrounding the film generated intense popular interest as well as moral condemnation, landing cover stories in both Time and Newsweek magazines. Playboy published a photo spread of Brando and Schneider "cavorting in the nude." 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." The Village Voice reported walkouts by board members and "vomiting by well-dressed wives." Columnist William F. Buckley and ABC's Harry Reasoner
Harry Reasoner
Harry Truman Reasoner was an American journalist for ABC and CBS News, known for his inventive use of language as a television commentator, and as a founder of the 60 Minutes program.-Biography:...

 denounced the film as "pornography disguised as art."

After local government officials failed to ban the film in Montclair, NJ, theatergoers had to push through a mob of 200 outraged residents, who hurled epithets like "perverts" and "homos" at the attendees. Later, a bomb threat
Bomb threat
A bomb threat is generally defined as a threat, usually verbal or written, to detonate an explosive or incendiary device to cause property damage, death, or injuries, whether or not such a device actually exists...

 temporarily halted the showing. The New York chapter of the National Organization for Women
National Organization for Women
The National Organization for Women is the largest feminist organization in the United States. It was founded in 1966 and has a membership of 500,000 contributing members. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S...

 denounced the film as a tool of "male domination."

The film's scandal centered mostly on an anal rape scene featuring the use of butter
Butter
Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying...

 as a lubricant. Other critics focused on when he asks her to insert her fingers in his anus, then exacts a vow from her that she would prove her devotion to him by, among other things, having sex with a pig. Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...

 of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

described the film's sexual content as the artistic expression of the "era of Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...

 and Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....

."

Renowned film critic Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. Earlier in her career, her work appeared in City Lights, McCall's and The New Republic....

 bestowed the film with the most ecstatic endorsement of her career, writing, "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." United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....

 reprinted the whole of Kael's extraordinary rave as a double-page ad in the Sunday New York Times. Kael's review of Last Tango in Paris is regarded as the most influential piece of her career, and Roger Ebert has repeatedly described it as "the most famous movie review ever published" and added the film to his "Great Movies" collection.

American director Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...

 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." Although many of the original reviews are not included in its rating, the film currently holds an 81% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

.

Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...

 received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...

 and Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci is an Italian film director and screenwriter, whose films include The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, The Last Emperor and The Dreamers...

 was nominated for Best Director
Academy Award for Directing
The Academy Award for Achievement in Directing , usually known as the Best Director Oscar, is one of the Awards of Merit presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to directors working in the motion picture industry...

.

International response

In France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, moviegoers stood in two-hour lines for the first month of its run at the seven theaters where Tango played, spurred by unanimous positive reviews in every major French publication. In order to circumvent state censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...

, thousands of Spaniards traveled hundreds of miles to reach French theaters in Biarritz
Biarritz
Biarritz is a city which lies on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast, in south-western France. It is a luxurious seaside town and is popular with tourists and surfers....

 and Perpignan
Perpignan
-Sport:Perpignan is a rugby stronghold: their rugby union side, USA Perpignan, is a regular competitor in the Heineken Cup and seven times champion of the Top 14 , while their rugby league side plays in the engage Super League under the name Catalans Dragons.-Culture:Since 2004, every year in the...

 where Tango was playing.

British censors reduced the duration of the sodomy sequence before permitting it to open in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, though it is not cut in modern releases. Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse, CBE was a British campaigner against the permissive society particularly as the media portrayed and reflected it...

, a self-described champion of decency and morality, expressed outrage that the film had been certified "X" rather than banned outright, and Labour MP Maurice Edelman
Maurice Edelman
Maurice Edelman was a British Labour Party politician and novelist who represented Coventry constituencies in the House of Commons for over 30 years.- Early life :...

 denounced the classification as "a license to degrade." Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

 banned the film entirely for nearly thirty years, and the film was similarly suppressed in South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

 and Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

.

In Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, the film was released on December 15, 1972, grossing an unprecedented $100,000 in only six days. One week later, however, police seized all copies on the order of a prosecutor, who defined the movie as "self-serving pornography", and its director was put to trial for "obscenity". Following first degree and appeal trials, the fate of the film was sealed on January 26, 1976 by the Italian Supreme Court
Court of Cassation (Italy)
The Supreme Court of Cassation is the major court of last resort in Italy. It has its seat in the Rome Hall of Justice.The Court of Cassation exists also to “ensure the observation and the correct interpretation of law” by ensuring the same application of law in the inferior and appeal courts...

, which sentenced all copies to be destroyed, (though some were preserved by the National Film Library). Bernardo 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. In 1987, fifteen years after the film's release, a new ruling allowed the film to be released in Italy.

In Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, the film was banned by the Nova Scotia Board of Censors
Alcohol and Gaming Authority
The Alcohol and Gaming Authority is an agency of the government of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia that regulates gambling and alcoholic beverages in the province....

, leading to the landmark 1978 Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...

 split decision in Nova Scotia Board of Censors v. McNeil
Nova Scotia Board of Censors v. McNeil
Nova Scotia v. McNeil, [1978] 2 S.C.R. 662 is a famous pre-Charter decision from the Supreme Court of Canada on freedom of expression and the criminal law power under the Constitution Act, 1867...

, which upheld the provinces' right to censor films.

External links

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