Last Tango in Paris

Infobox_Film
name = Last Tango in Paris

| image_size= 250px
imdb_id = 0070849
writer = Story:
Bernardo Bertolucci
Screenplay
Bernardo Bertolucci
Franco Arcalli
Additional dialogue:
Agnès Varda
starring = Marlon Brando
Maria Schneider
Jean-Pierre Léaud
director = Bernardo Bertolucci
editing = Franco Arcalli
Roberto Perpignani | producer = Alberto Grimaldi
distributor = United Artists
released = February 7, 1973
runtime = 136 Min
Australia 129 Min
USA 127 Min R-Rated
USA 129 Min NC-17
Italy 250 Min
Director's Cut
language = French
English
music = Gato Barbieri
cinematography = Vittorio Storaro
budget = $1,250,000 (estimated) |

"Last Tango in Paris" ( _it. 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.

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.Fact|date=August 2008

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. [ [http://www.nypost.com/seven/07232007/gossip/pagesix/sick_stick_pagesix_.htm SICK STICK - New York Post ] ] [ [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/28388/Last-Tango-in-Paris/overview Last Tango in Paris - Trailer - Cast - Showtimes - New York Times ] ] 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.

References

External links

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