Product: Last Tango in Paris (1973)
Rating: 5.0
Love, Not Romance, Or Is It The Other Way Round?
One can certainly love this film for its superb acting. Certainly the cinematography couldn't be excelled. The Gato Barbieri musical soundtrack is great, if you like jazz, and the reproductions of the great paintings by Francis Bacon establish the mood of the piece as the opening credits roll. It's all very artful. The film's soul, however, is not upbeat, the ending is a downer, as we say, and the relationship is a joyful, but confining dead end. The American bohemian played by Brando is seeking to achieve a love that is pure and free, but in the end his lover cares very much about status and class and will not be possessed by a nobody. The film either speaks to you or it doesn't. I have felt moved and affected in one showing, and then turned off in another. The relationship of an large, sexually cruel man with a young 'chick' has far less appeal these days, so one may find the film dated for its sexual dynamic. It is not so much that such relationships no longer exist, but that one may no longer find them exhilarating. On the other hand, it is the director's masterpiece of personal connections and his only successful film of intimacy. His other great works tend to be epics, where the films encompass a grander scale.