This is both a brilliant and baffling movie. I spent much time after this movie trying to figure out what it was all about. This is not one of the movies that is easy to explain or understand initially. But for those who are not easily offended, it is worth a viewing to discover brave artists working at the peak of their talents, Marlon Brando and Bernardo Bertolucci. Their collaboration together on the 1972 classic “Last Tango In Paris” produced a shocking portrait of sexual excesses and overwhelming emotional needs. Many may have been put off by the sex and probably would consider this a porno more than anything else, but to dismiss it as such would be insulting to the director and actors who were insanely brave to do this type of movie.
Apparently, the idea for this movie rose out of Bertolucci’s sexual fantasies, and he stated that he “dreamed of seeing a beautiful nameless woman on the street and having sex with her without ever knowing who she was.” I wonder if his fantasies included sex and emotions that are as raw as they are displayed here in the movie. There’s certainly no holding back Brando here, and this may stand as the last truly brilliant performance he ever gave in a movie before he passed away. Then again, I guess you can count his performance in “The Freshman” as his brilliant one. It’s up to you.
“Last Tango In Paris” stars Brando as Paul, an American whose has been living with his wife in a decrepit hotel in Paris for 5 years. As the movie begins, we find that his wife has committed suicide, and we see him looking as morose as a human can get. Paul is in a wilderness of pain, and it has completely numbed him to any sort of enjoyment he can get out of life. We then meet up with Jeanne who is played by Maria Schneider in a part that no one has ever let her live down. She is currently enduring the passions of her boyfriend who wants to make a film of her life, and it gets to where she is not sure what is real and what is not. Both Paul and Maria end up meeting by chance in an apartment that Maria is thinking of renting, and the both of them end up having sex right there with no real explanation. It is said that Paul rapes Maria in this scene, but Maria never does say no or stop and doesn’t appear to resist his sudden advances.
From then on, the two of them agree to meet in that same apartment that Paul ends up renting on a regular basis. Paul sets up rules that define their relationship; they will not tell each other their real names, and that nothing outside of that apartment is real compared to what is going in this room right hear and right now. Inexplicably, Jeanne agrees to this even while trying to maintain a relationship with her filmmaker boyfriend who continues to drive her crazy. What goes on between these two people cannot easily be described as love, but more of a longing to feel something real, or something to take them away from the suffocating world they feel stuck in.
What drives this movie is not so much the sex in it, but the raw emotion that powers it from start to finish. What Paul is doing is not only degrading Jeanne, but really is degrading himself. Paul has such a hatred of himself that in the end, he is punishing himself more than he is punishing the women in his life. The sexual release he has with Jeanne represents the only sort of feeling he can generate for himself, and as a result, each encounter they have takes their sexual escapades to another level that is more dangerous than before. By the last half of the movie, they start to break the rules and want to get to know each other more intimately. They have spent their time before this having sex and then telling things about themselves to each other which may or may not be true.
With this movie, Bernardo Bertolucci bravely took a sexual fantasy of his and turned it into a movie which looked at relationships with and without complications. The result is an unforgettable movie dealing with naked emotions that becoming more and more apparent as the movie goes on. This relationship changes both of the main characters, and they later find themselves breaking the confines of it either to escape it, or to get more personal with each other. It is impossible to not have a passive reaction to this movie as it will enthrall and maybe even anger you. These two people are not involved in the healthiest of relationships.
I’m serious when I say that this is probably the last truly brilliant performance that Marlon Brando ever gave on film. His character of Paul is not exactly a likable person, and he does end up doing vicious things to both Jeanne and to himself, but Brando never hides away from any of those aspects. There are scenes where the camera lingers on Brando’s face for a couple of minutes as he tells a story to Jeanne that may or may not be true. You can visualize everything that he says so vividly, and that makes his performance all the more amazing. Brando paints pictures with the words that he says, and I can’t think of another actor that did that so effectively.
There is also an astonishing scene in the film where Brando looks over the body of his dead wife whose body is surrounded by flowers. He says so hateful things to her, but then he cries over her body with apologies she will never be able to hear. It is a scene of great emotional power, and it is further proof that he is one of the brilliant (not to mention one of the bravest) actors who has ever been onscreen. A lot of things have been said about him as a person, but you can never take away from his stature as an actor.
Maria Schneider is also great, although her performance is based more on her reactions to what Brando and Bertolucci do to her. Maria’s reactions to what she goes through onscreen are very real, and it does make for an uncomfortable experience at times. She bares all both physically and emotionally, and while it may never seem totally understandable why she would be consummating with Brando’s character, she seems to have justified it in her own mind.
The really interesting dynamic of their relationship in the film is that Brando’s character has had a long life and has been deeply wounded by it in many ways to the point where it seems like he can’t feel anything at all. The only way he can is if he hurts himself or hurts somebody else. Schneider’s character on the other hand is still young, and she has yet to fully understand how much life can hurt. These two are so different from each other, and they come from different stages in life, and yet somehow they are drawn to each other.
When I think of this movie, I immediately think of that Nine Inch Nails song that Johnny Cash did a brilliant cover of. The first set of lyrics of the song “Hurt” have always stayed in my mind:
“I hurt myself today to see if I still feel. I focus on the pain, the only thing that’s real.”
I guess that’s what these two characters have in common; they feel more alive when they hurt. It shakes them out of their normal lives outside of that apartment they stay in, and nothing else seems to exist when the two of them are there.
Bertolucci dealt with this sexual fantasy of people in an apartment and locked off from the rest of the world several decades later in “The Dreamers,” so this seems to be a strong theme for him. This is probably a common theme in a lot of his other movies as well. I’m not sure if any of them are as brilliant and as emotionally affecting as “Last Tango In Paris.” It is another in a long line of movies that prove that the 1970’s was one of the greatest decades for films ever.
**** out of ****
Apparently, the idea for this movie rose out of Bertolucci’s sexual fantasies, and he stated that he “dreamed of seeing a beautiful nameless woman on the street and having sex with her without ever knowing who she was.” I wonder if his fantasies included sex and emotions that are as raw as they are displayed here in the movie. There’s certainly no holding back Brando here, and this may stand as the last truly brilliant performance he ever gave in a movie before he passed away. Then again, I guess you can count his performance in “The Freshman” as his brilliant one. It’s up to you.
“Last Tango In Paris” stars Brando as Paul, an American whose has been living with his wife in a decrepit hotel in Paris for 5 years. As the movie begins, we find that his wife has committed suicide, and we see him looking as morose as a human can get. Paul is in a wilderness of pain, and it has completely numbed him to any sort of enjoyment he can get out of life. We then meet up with Jeanne who is played by Maria Schneider in a part that no one has ever let her live down. She is currently enduring the passions of her boyfriend who wants to make a film of her life, and it gets to where she is not sure what is real and what is not. Both Paul and Maria end up meeting by chance in an apartment that Maria is thinking of renting, and the both of them end up having sex right there with no real explanation. It is said that Paul rapes Maria in this scene, but Maria never does say no or stop and doesn’t appear to resist his sudden advances.
From then on, the two of them agree to meet in that same apartment that Paul ends up renting on a regular basis. Paul sets up rules that define their relationship; they will not tell each other their real names, and that nothing outside of that apartment is real compared to what is going in this room right hear and right now. Inexplicably, Jeanne agrees to this even while trying to maintain a relationship with her filmmaker boyfriend who continues to drive her crazy. What goes on between these two people cannot easily be described as love, but more of a longing to feel something real, or something to take them away from the suffocating world they feel stuck in.
What drives this movie is not so much the sex in it, but the raw emotion that powers it from start to finish. What Paul is doing is not only degrading Jeanne, but really is degrading himself. Paul has such a hatred of himself that in the end, he is punishing himself more than he is punishing the women in his life. The sexual release he has with Jeanne represents the only sort of feeling he can generate for himself, and as a result, each encounter they have takes their sexual escapades to another level that is more dangerous than before. By the last half of the movie, they start to break the rules and want to get to know each other more intimately. They have spent their time before this having sex and then telling things about themselves to each other which may or may not be true.
With this movie, Bernardo Bertolucci bravely took a sexual fantasy of his and turned it into a movie which looked at relationships with and without complications. The result is an unforgettable movie dealing with naked emotions that becoming more and more apparent as the movie goes on. This relationship changes both of the main characters, and they later find themselves breaking the confines of it either to escape it, or to get more personal with each other. It is impossible to not have a passive reaction to this movie as it will enthrall and maybe even anger you. These two people are not involved in the healthiest of relationships.
I’m serious when I say that this is probably the last truly brilliant performance that Marlon Brando ever gave on film. His character of Paul is not exactly a likable person, and he does end up doing vicious things to both Jeanne and to himself, but Brando never hides away from any of those aspects. There are scenes where the camera lingers on Brando’s face for a couple of minutes as he tells a story to Jeanne that may or may not be true. You can visualize everything that he says so vividly, and that makes his performance all the more amazing. Brando paints pictures with the words that he says, and I can’t think of another actor that did that so effectively.
There is also an astonishing scene in the film where Brando looks over the body of his dead wife whose body is surrounded by flowers. He says so hateful things to her, but then he cries over her body with apologies she will never be able to hear. It is a scene of great emotional power, and it is further proof that he is one of the brilliant (not to mention one of the bravest) actors who has ever been onscreen. A lot of things have been said about him as a person, but you can never take away from his stature as an actor.
Maria Schneider is also great, although her performance is based more on her reactions to what Brando and Bertolucci do to her. Maria’s reactions to what she goes through onscreen are very real, and it does make for an uncomfortable experience at times. She bares all both physically and emotionally, and while it may never seem totally understandable why she would be consummating with Brando’s character, she seems to have justified it in her own mind.
The really interesting dynamic of their relationship in the film is that Brando’s character has had a long life and has been deeply wounded by it in many ways to the point where it seems like he can’t feel anything at all. The only way he can is if he hurts himself or hurts somebody else. Schneider’s character on the other hand is still young, and she has yet to fully understand how much life can hurt. These two are so different from each other, and they come from different stages in life, and yet somehow they are drawn to each other.
When I think of this movie, I immediately think of that Nine Inch Nails song that Johnny Cash did a brilliant cover of. The first set of lyrics of the song “Hurt” have always stayed in my mind:
“I hurt myself today to see if I still feel. I focus on the pain, the only thing that’s real.”
I guess that’s what these two characters have in common; they feel more alive when they hurt. It shakes them out of their normal lives outside of that apartment they stay in, and nothing else seems to exist when the two of them are there.
Bertolucci dealt with this sexual fantasy of people in an apartment and locked off from the rest of the world several decades later in “The Dreamers,” so this seems to be a strong theme for him. This is probably a common theme in a lot of his other movies as well. I’m not sure if any of them are as brilliant and as emotionally affecting as “Last Tango In Paris.” It is another in a long line of movies that prove that the 1970’s was one of the greatest decades for films ever.
**** out of ****
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