by Julian Spivey

Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1972 film Last Tango in Paris is without a doubt one of the most controversial films in cinema history.

Marlon Brando portrays Paul, an American in Paris whose wife has just committed suicide. Filled with rage he seeks out a French woman played by Maria Schneider and enters a weird, strictly sexual relationship with her. Paul doesn’t even want to know the woman’s name.

Last Tango in Paris is a film that virtually changed the way sex was portrayed on the big screen. It’s explicitly filmed sex scenes (which at the time earned the film an X rating, before the MPAA changed its ratings system) where innovative and extremely provocative for its time. The scenes were so controversial that Bertolucci, Brando and Schneider were all indicted by a court in Italy as the film was deemed pornographic. Pornography is termed as something that’s purpose is to cause sexual arousal. The scenes in Last Tango in Paris are anything but arousing. Brando’s character is essentially using Schneider’s character and some of his antics (especially their first encounter) border on rape.

Despite its controversial topic and sexual intercourse the thing that ultimately makes Last Tango in Paris a classic is Brando’s off the wall visibly painful acting, this is easily seen in the scene where he is alone with his wife’s open casket. Brando was one of Hollywood’s premier actors and his resume includes The Godfather and On the Waterfront among many others, but it is this low-budget art house film that contains maybe his most emotional acting performance. His performance in the film garnered him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, an award he won twice in his illustrious career.

Last Tango in Paris ranges from sad and lonely to dark and scary and sometimes both at once. It is a film that is probably not for the weak hearted and definitely contains adult situations. For some viewers it could very well be a hard film to sit through as it runs 136 minutes and its dialogue is half English/half French with English subtitles, occasionally the film will be listed by its Italian title Ultimo tango a Parigi (director Bertolucci is Italian). Last Tango in Paris is really only a film for cinema history and movie buffs, casual film fans should probably pass it by.