Last Tango In Paris - 1972
Director(s)
Bernardo Bertolucci
Writer(s)
Bernardo Bertolucci (story)
Bernardo Bertolucci (screenplay) and
Franco Arcalli (screenplay)
Agnès Varda (additional dialogue)
Producer(s)
Alberto Grimaldi producer
Cast
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)
Review by Gary F Taylor
Last Tango In Paris (1972)
Brilliant Performances But Over-Rated As A Whole,
Brando is a middle-aged American whose wife has committed suicide; Schneider is a young European beauty seeking a sense of personal identity. The two meet by chance in an empty apartment--and immediately embark upon an anonymous affair in which Brando seeks to both purge and renew himself through Schneider.
Both stars offer intense performances, and director Bertolucci invests the film with numerous poetic and symbolic flourishes. The cinematography is elegant; the score is quite interesting. But when everything is said and done, LAST TANGO IN Paris is extremely thin stuff that relies on sexual shock to generate tension--and what was once shocking is now passe. At the time TANGO was made, it was unthinkable that a major Hollywood star would appear in such a film... Yet by today's standards, the nudity involved is quite mild, the sex scenes are surprisingly discreet, and the script is oddly naive. It all seems very tame.
Moreover, the film's subplots slow the action to a crawl and the film as a whole has a self-conscious, faintly pretentious tone. Brando and Schneider, both separately and together, offer quite a few impressive moments, but you have to wade through a lot to get to them. Is it worth it? Difficult to say. Although I don't regret having watched the film, I flatly state that I would not bother to watch it again. My recommendation: see it before you buy it, because one viewing may be quite enough.
Review by Jack Gattanella
Last Tango In Paris 1972)
Mysterious, provocative, masterful
Bernardo Bertolucci's best film Last Tango in Paris is a film that is possibly the only X rated art film, unless you count out Midnight Cowboy and Clockwork Orange (I wouldn't). It is a movie where even if you might know some of the cliches invented in the film (get the butter, for example), it is still thought provoking.
Marlon Brando, who is undoubtedly an excellent actor, shows off his stuff here and is so good it can be argued if he deserved the Oscar for the Godfather or this because both performances are extraordinary. He plays a man who's wife had just commited suicide and decides to have a sexual binging in Paris with a young girl. The encounters aren't a prostitutional type of thing, but rather a weird escape for the two of them from they're lives (which is what they need).
Some might say the movie has aged with time and that the film's sexuality might have depleted. Unless you are watching this film along side Black Throat, this film will seem like Porn (even if it's a tad mild), for both generations. But if you can take it (the butter scene, for example, is actually more disturbing than sexually exciting), it makes the movie all the more better. Featuring classic scenes, with a classic actor, a classic director, and a classic motion picture. A++
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