Product: Last Tango in Paris (1973)
Rating: 5.0
Time has not diminished the impact of this artistic experiment in filmaking
When this film first came out in 1972 it caused a sensation. Some of this was because of explicit intimate scenes which had never before been portrayed on a conventional movie screen . But it was also because it was an experimental art film which showcased incredibly fine acting and the unique and the exceptional viewpoint of Bernardo Bertolucci, the writer and director. I vaguely remember seeing in when it first came out but it is only now, almost 40 years later, that I can appreciate the artistic endeavor of the filmmakers. This was a unique film in its day. It was expected to usher in a new kind of dark and explicit filmmaking but it never did. So it now it stands alone as an historical memory of an art film that upset and confused the public but never won their hearts and minds.The film is set in Paris and the language is mostly French. Marlon Brando, a middle-aged American man is grieving for his wife who has just committed suicide. Maria Schneider, then just 19 years old with the kind of fresh young beauty that pulls in the viewer in every scene she's in, first encounters Brando in a empty apartment when she is apartment hunting for her forthcoming marriage. What follows is a torrid affair with the most explicit romantic scenes ever seen in a mainstream movie at the time. Schneider is often nude and the object of Brando's rather perverted needs and these scenes are more sordid than titillating.The acting is over-the-top excellent, especially in a scene where Brando has a long monologue over the corpse of his dead wife. The script is tight and there is not a wasted word even though it is hard to see exactly where it is going. The atmosphere is melancholy, the intimate scenes strong, explicit and somewhat upsetting as Brando dominates and the willing Schneider accepts this. I was completely absorbed in it all, kept my eyes glued to the screen and quickly realized that this film is a small work of art that has been misunderstood. Time has not diminished it and it stands alone as an experiment which provoked emotions that the public was not able to handle then and probably cannot handle now.