"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." —Maria Schneider

 

Will there ever be another motion picture experience like LAST TANGO IN PARIS (1973; directed by Bernardo Bertolucci) featuring a major American actor, and wowing the leading U.S. film critic Pauline Kael into bestowing the greatest review of her influential career? "Tango has altered the face of an art form," Kael wrote. "It's a movie people will be arguing about for as long as there are movies."

To say nothing of unqualified praised coming from the most respected U.S. independent filmmaker paralyzed into a permanent state of awe—Robert Altman. "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."

The story based on Epilogue by Agnès Varda , director Bernardo Bertolucci's sexual fantasy, and the death of Jim Morrison would seem to sum up the plot:

Paul, a middle-aged American in Paris mourns the suicide of his wife by raping a young Parisian coquette named Jeanne in an apartment they both will later rent where they tryst in sexual encounters, sharing no personal information including their names—until one day Jeanne finds that Paul has left the apartment for good, only to later to meet her on the street now desiring to restart their relationship at a tango bar, telling her all about himself.

Disillusioned, Jeanne finally rejects Paul entirely. At this point, unable to let her go, he chases Jeanne back to her apartment where Paul confesses his love. She shoots Paul point-blank with a gun. He falls dead, and Jeanne rehearses her confession before the police are called ...how Paul tried to rape her and that she did not know who he was.

The Motion Picture Association of America rated the movie "X" under its early 1970s rating system, later changed to NC-17 before the studio cut the film to gain an "R" rating.

Ban in Brazil and censored in Great Britain, the movie's director was convicted of pornography in his native Italy. But what's most memorable about LAST TANGO IN PARIS beyond the shock value of its unadulterated sexuality is that the film boasts the last worthwhile screen performance by actor Marlon Brando.

No, there can never be another run at cinema that takes on the meat and weight of TANGO to equal or compete with Bertolucci's brilliant magnum opus or the naivete of co-star Maria Schneider, both on screen and behind the scenes.

In this new era of Hollywood filmmaking that relies increasingly upon remakes, sequels, prequels, take-offs, ripoffs and downright theft of intellectual property ...after more than three and a half decades, LAST TANGO IN PARIS defies a reboot.

Frederick Louis Richardson

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