Last Tango in Paris

All you want to know about Last Tango in Paris

Last Tango in Paris

Directed by	Bernardo Bertolucci
Produced by	Alberto Grimaldi
Written by	Story: Bernardo Bertolucci Screenplay Bernardo Bertolucci Franco Arcalli Additional dialogue: Agnès Varda
Starring	Marlon Brando Maria Schneider Jean-Pierre Léaud
Music by	Gato Barbieri
Cinematography	Vittorio Storaro
Editing by	Franco Arcalli Roberto Perpignani
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	February 7, 1973
Running time	136 Min Australia 129 Min USA 127 Min R-Rated USA 129 Min NC-17 Italy 250 Min Director's Cut
Language	French English
Budget	$1,250,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

Last Tango in Paris (Italian: Ultimo Tango a Parigi) is a 1973 film directed by Italian Bernardo Bertolucci which tells the story of an American widower who is drawn into a sexual relationship with a young, soon-to-be-married Parisian woman. It stars Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider and Jean-Pierre Léaud. The film was given an X rating by the MPAA upon initial release. After revisions were made to the MPAA ratings code, it was classified as an NC-17 in 1997. MGM released a censored R-rated cut in 1981.

1 Production
2 Plot
3 Cast and roles
4 Reception
5 External links

Production

The idea of this movie grew from Bernardo Bertolucci's own sexual fantasies, stating that "he once dreamed of seeing a beautiful nameless woman on the street and having sex with her without ever knowing who she was". An alternative, but similar idea for this film was to revolve around a passionate, homosexual relationship. It was ultimately scrapped when the French actor for whom the idea was conceived backed out of the film.

The screenplay was written by Bernardo Bertolucci, Franco Arcalli and Agnès Varda (additional dialogue) and was novelized by Robert Alley. It was directed by Bertolucci and cinematography by Vittorio Storaro. Agnès Varda also based the last scenes on the death of Jim Morrison in Paris that occurred the previous year.^{[citation needed]}

The main stars were originally intended to be Dominique Sanda, who developed the original idea with Bertolucci, and Jean-Louis Trintignant, but Trintignant refused to do it, and, when Brando accepted, Sanda was pregnant and decided not to do it.

The orchestral jazz soundtrack was composed by Gato Barbieri, and arranged and conducted by Oliver Nelson.

Plot

Crazed with grief after his wife commits suicide, Paul, an American expatriate, roams the streets of Paris until, while apartment hunting, he faces Jeanne, an unknown girl across an empty room. Brutally, without a word, he rapes the soon-compliant stranger. Paul stays at the scene after the rape. While arranging his wife's funeral, Paul leases the apartment where he is to meet the puzzled girl for a series of frenzied afternoons. "No names here," he roughly tells her, setting up the rules of the game. They are to shut out the world outside, forfeit their pasts and their identities. Paul degrades Jeanne in every possible way, leveling all her inhibitions with sheer brutality. Paul is soon dissatisfied with mere possession of her body; he must also have her mind. When she rejects his mad love to enter a comfortable marriage with her dull fiancé, Paul finally confesses: "I love you, you dummy."

Cast and roles

Marlon Brando - Paul
Maria Schneider - Jeanne
Maria Michi - Rosa's Mother
Giovanna Galletti - Prostitute
Gitt Magrini - Jeanne's Mother
Catherine Allégret - Catherine
Luce Marquand - Olympia
Marie-Hélène Breillat - Monique
Catherine Breillat - Mouchette
Dan Diament - TV Sound Engineer
Catherine Sola - TV Script Girl
Mauro Marchetti - TV Cameraman
Jean-Pierre Léaud - Tom
Massimo Girotti - Marcel
Peter Schommer - TV Assistant Cameraman
Veronica Lazar - Rosa
Rachel Kesterber - Christine
Ramón Mendizábal - Tango Orchestra Leader
Mimi Pinson - President of Tango Jury
Darling Légitimus - Concierge
Gérard Lepennec - Dancer
Stéphane Koziak - Dancer
Armand Abplanalp - Prostitute's Client
Laura Betti - Miss Blandish (scenes deleted)
Jean-Luc Bideau - Le capitaine de la péniche (scenes deleted)
Michel Delahaye - Bible Salesman (scenes deleted)
Gianni Pulone (scenes deleted)
Franca Sciutto (scenes deleted)

Reception

The film caused a tremendous scandal for an anal sex scene featuring the use of butter as a lubricant.^[1] ^[2] The scene was not explicit by contemporary standards — no penetration or ejaculation was shown.

It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Marlon Brando) and Best Director (Bernardo Bertolucci).

The film had its first public showing in New York on October 14, 1972, and it proved itself very controversial since then.

In Italy the movie was released in theaters the following December 15th, but just one week later police seized all copies on the order of a prosecutor, who defined the movie as "self-serving pornography", and subsequently its director was put to trial for "obscenity". Following first degree and appeal trials, the fate of the movie in Italy was sealed on January 26th, 1976, by a ruling from the Italian Supreme Court who sentenced all the copies of the movie to be destroyed, (some copies were however preserved by the National Film Library). Bertolucci himself was sentenced to four months in jail (suspended) and deprived of his voting rights for five years.

Fifteen years later (in 1987) a new ruling allowed the movie to be re-released in Italian theaters to public acclaim.