A Landmark of Eroticism & Grief
Bernardo Bertolucci's 1972 film redefined cinematic boundaries, stripping away names and histories to find a raw, primal connection. Today, it remains a complex artifact of artistic genius and ethical controversy.
"Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris was presented for the first time on the closing night of the New York Film Festival, October 14, 1972: that date should become a landmark in movie history comparable to May 29, 1913—the night Le Sacre du Printemps was first performed—in music history. There was no riot, and no one threw anything at the screen, but I think it’s fair to say that the audience was in a state of shock, because Last Tango in Paris has the same kind of hypnotic excitement as the Sacre, the same primitive force, and the same thrusting, jabbing eroticism."
The film begins when Paul (Brando) and Jeanne (Maria Schneider) meet in a Paris apartment they are both considering renting. Paul, we will learn, is planning a move from his dead wife's hotel. Jeanne is planning marriage with Tom (Jean-Pierre Leaud), an insipid young director. Within moments after they meet, Paul forces sudden, needful sex upon her. It would be rape were it not that Jeanne does not object or resist, makes her body available almost with detachment.
Indeed, it is rape in Paul's mind, Paul's sexual release seems real, here and throughout the film, but we are never sure what Jeanne feels during their sex. Although she cries during the famous "butter scene," she is not crying about the sex and indeed doesn't seem to be thinking about it.
Bertolucci said he and Brando conspired to surprise the then-teenager by adding the butter without her knowledge.
“We were having, with Marlon, breakfast on the floor of the flat where I was shooting. There was a baguette, there was butter and we looked at each other and, without saying anything, we knew what we wanted,” Bertolucci said.
Reviewing "Last Tango in Paris" in 1972, I wrote that it was one of the great emotional experiences of our time, adding: "It's a movie that exists so resolutely on the level of emotion, indeed, that possibly only Marlon Brando, of all living actors, could have played its lead. Who else can act so brutally and imply such vulnerability and need?"
Paul insists on "no names," no personal histories. Their meetings in the apartment are not dates but occasions for sex, which he defines and she accepts. The pairing of the 20-year old girl and the unkempt 45-year-old man seems unlikely, but Bertolucci enriches it through their dialogue.
What happens in the apartment between Paul and Jeanne is what the movie is about: How sex fulfills two completely different needs. Paul needs to lose himself to mourning and anger, to force his manhood on this stranger because he failed with his wife. Jeanne responds to a man who, despite his pose of detachment, is focused on her, who desperately needs her (if for reasons she does not understand). Jeanne senses that Paul needs her as she may never be needed again in all of her life. Her despair at the end is not because of lost romance, but because Paul no longer seems to need her.
The history of "Last Tango in Paris" (1972) has and always will be dominated by Pauline Kael. "The movie breakthrough has finally come," she wrote, in what may be the most famous movie review ever published. "Bertolucci and Brando have altered the face of an art form." She said the film's premiere was an event comparable to the night in 1913 when Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" was first performed and ushered in modern music. As it has turned out, "Last Tango" was not a breakthrough but more of an elegy for the kind of film she championed. In the years since, mass Hollywood entertainments have all but crushed art films, which were much more successful then than now.
"The physical menace of sexuality that is emotionally charged is such a departure from everything we’ve come to expect at the movies that there was something almost like fear in the atmosphere of the party in the lobby that followed the screening [...] Realism with the terror of actual experience still alive on the screen — that’s what Bertolucci and Brando achieve."--Pauline Kael
Bernardo Bertolucci (1941–2018) stands as one of the most visually daring and politically provocative titans of world cinema. Emerging in the wake of Italian Neorealism and deeply influenced by the radicalism of the French New Wave, Bertolucci carved out a singular trajectory: he successfully bridged the gap between intimate, subversive arthouse philosophy and sweeping, operatic Hollywood scale.
The Visual Language: The Bertolucci-Storaro Partnership
To understand Bertolucci's cinema is to understand his decades-long collaboration with legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. Together, they revolutionized the psychological use of color theory and fluid camera movement. Instead of treating lighting and color as mere decoration, they used them to map the ideological struggles of their characters.
In The Conformist (1970), Storaro used striking visual contrasts to depict a man trying to submerge his identity into the conformity of Fascism. The image above showcases their masterful use of color mixing—the cold, dominating blue light of the exterior world slicing through the warm, deceptive comfort of the dance hall. Their camera didn't just record action; it glided, tracked, and tilted, making the architecture itself feel complicit in the characters' fates.
Key Thematic Motifs
Bertolucci’s narratives constantly wrestled with the twin intellectual currents of mid-20th-century Europe: Marxism and Psychoanalysis.
The Weight of History: His films look at how individual lives are crushed or molded by massive political shifts—whether it's the rise of totalitarianism (The Conformist), the multi-generational class struggles of rural Italy (1900), or the isolation of dynastic collapse (The Last Emperor).
Sexual Identity as Subversion: He frequently deployed sexuality as a disruptive weapon against bourgeois norms. Characters often retreat into private, claustrophobic spaces (Last Tango in Paris, The Dreamers) to construct their own realities, attempting to shut out a turbulent outside world.
Career Milestones
| Year | Film | Cultural & Cinematic Impact |
| 1964 | Before the Revolution | A deeply personal look at youth, Marxism, and middle-class guilt; heavily inspired by Godard and early French New Wave style. |
| 1970 | The Conformist | Widely considered a masterpiece of cinematography; profoundly influenced New Hollywood directors like Coppola, Scorsese, and Spielberg. |
| 1972 | Last Tango in Paris | Triggered massive international controversy and censorship battles for its raw, explicit exploration of grief and emotional isolation. |
| 1976 | 1900 | A massive, five-hour historical epic tracking the parallel lives of a peasant and a landowner through the political evolution of 20th-century Italy. |
| 1987 | The Last Emperor | A historic production granted unprecedented access to Beijing’s Forbidden City. It swept the Academy Awards, winning all 9 Oscars for which it was nominated. |
| 2003 | The Dreamers | A nostalgic, cinephilic tribute to the Paris student riots of May 1968, exploring the intersection of youth culture, film obsession, and sexual freedom. |
Bertolucci's enduring legacy rests on his ability to maintain an uncompromisingly poetic, highly personal auteur voice even when operating the largest machinery of global filmmaking.
The story follows Paul (Marlon Brando), a middle-aged American expatriate living in Paris who is reeling from the recent, unexplained suicide of his wife. While viewing an empty apartment for rent, he meets Jeanne (Maria Schneider), a young, vibrant Frenchwoman who is also interested in the flat.
Driven by a sudden, desperate impulse, the two engage in a passionate sexual encounter. Paul proposes a pact: they will continue to meet in the apartment for sex, but they must remain entirely anonymous. They are not to share names, backgrounds, or any details of their outside lives.
The Dual Narratives:
The Apartment: Inside the flat, the relationship becomes increasingly intense and occasionally degrading. Paul uses the anonymity to vent his rage, grief, and contempt for social conventions.
The Outside World: Outside, their lives contrast sharply. Jeanne is engaged to Tom (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a frantic young filmmaker who is making a documentary about her life, constantly filming her every move. Paul struggles with the sordid reality of his late wife’s life and the hotel she owned.
The Conclusion:
Eventually, Paul breaks the pact by following Jeanne into the "real world." He pursues her to a tango hall, reveals his name, and confesses his feelings. Jeanne, disillusioned by the loss of the "pure" anonymous fantasy and frightened by Paul's increasingly erratic behavior, attempts to flee. The film ends in a violent confrontation at her family's apartment, where Jeanne shoots Paul, later telling the police he was a stranger who tried to attack her.
Critical Reception and "Succès de Scandale"
Upon its release, the film was an international sensation.
Pauline Kael's Review: The famous New Yorker critic compared the film's premiere to the 1913 debut of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, calling it a "breakthrough" that changed the face of art.
Censorship: The film was banned in several countries, including Italy, where Bertolucci was even stripped of his civil rights for five years and the film's prints were ordered to be destroyed.
The Lasting Controversy
In recent years, the legacy of the film has been heavily reassessed due to the treatment of Maria Schneider.
The "Butter Scene": A notorious scene involving sexual humiliation was conceived by Bertolucci and Brando on the morning of filming without informing Schneider.
Schneider’s Perspective: In later interviews, Schneider stated that she felt "a little bit raped" by both Brando and Bertolucci during the scene. She noted that while the act was simulated, the tears and humiliation she displayed on screen were real.
Legacy: This revelation has led to a major shift in how the film is viewed today, moving from being seen as a "liberating" masterpiece of the sexual revolution to a cautionary example of power imbalances and lack of consent on film sets.
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