LAST TANGO IN PARIS (includes footage)
October 5th 2010 14:57
I first saw Last Tango in Paris as a teenager, making a positive impression on me at the time, the details had since become vague. Many years later I couldn't remember too much from the film. Last Tango in Paris was infamous during it's release on account of it's matter of fact approach to sexuality and it's on screen, no strings attached, animalistic intercourse. I remembered only two things from it.
I vaguely remembered someone getting butter smeared in their ass in preparation for some kind of sexual act (say no more), but more so I remembered Brando's stately natural performance. One monologue which he delivered, in particular, I could still recall in vivid detail. I could remember how the words that came out of Brando's mouth created vivid images in my mind. Whether it was good writing or good acting or both at once that caused this to stick firmly in my memory all lead me to revisiting this film once more.
Upon seeing it again, the years had not been kind to it. Clearly seeing Last Tango In Paris created far more intrigue for me previously than what it would do for me many years later upon a second viewing. The story is set on the streets of Paris:
While looking for an apartment, Jeanne, played by Maria Schneider (The Passenger, Scar Tissue), a young lively woman, encounters Paul, played by Marlon Brando (On The Waterfront, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather), a mysterious American, soaked in grief and tears over his wife's recent suicide. Jeanne and Paul have a carnal affair, doing things to each other that etiquette prohibits the mentioning of here. In the outside world, Paul grieves and Jeanne is romantically smothered by her boy friend, who is making a film about her, but when these two strangers meet in this apartment, they don't even tell each other their names and they are free from the rules and obligations of society and the claustrophobic weight of their own lives.
Last Tango In Paris was made at a time when art house films were in vogue. 1972 still had the scent of the French New Wave directors in the air and it seemed that Last Tango In Paris was immediately inspired by them. Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci (The Dreamers, 1900, Stealing Beauty), who also wrote this film with friend Franko Arcalli (Once Upon A Time In America, 1900, Django Kill - who also edited this film), has always created work that has been an acquired taste, a taste that hasn't been for me it seems (who could forget Burt Lancaster's final scene in 1900).
Back in the day Last Tango in Paris was hailed by influential film critic Pauline Kael as a masterpiece, but upon watching it almost forty years later, I felt like I was witnessing an emperor without clothes. I couldn't recall what I thought was good the first time I saw Last Tango In Paris, all I knew is that it was painfully self indulgent and horribly dated upon seeing it again. Perhaps I was finally able to see past the hype and sexual intruigue.
I appreciate the intentions of Last Tango In Paris and generally admire any film that pushes the boundaries of sexuality, and in it's year of release it did so rebelliously. Even to this day human sexuality in cinema remains a vague point, still never fully explored the way violence or human behaviour has been. Last Tango In Paris languors along as many of it's strengths are snuffed out by it's weaknesses.
The most memorable triumph in place here is Brando. It's not necessarily his best performance (although many would disagree with me) but it definitely is his most interesting. The rawness fuelling his naturalism is revealing, it feels as if we are getting one of the the most honest accounts of who he was underneath this character. Brando appears like an open wound here, similar to Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, this is a fascinating display of an actor tearing down all his layers of technique, removing all the barriers between us and him and appearing startlingly naked before us (emotionally and physically). He's fascinating to watch, at times his words become hypnotic. Bertolucci and his Oscar winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (Reds, Apocalypse Now, Bulworth) hold back on their trademark visuals, using Brando's commanding presence to define the film's essence. There still remains a sense of the majestic, visually, but Brando uses the dialogue to elicit Last Tango In Paris's real imagery in the mind of the audience, his hypnotic delivery is engaging but everything around him seems dull.
Aside from Brando, Last Tango, through out it's general duration fails to explore it's own material, missing the high brow mark and instead hitting the pompous one. I have two main problems with this film, the first being it's very premise. Brando is very convincing in his mourning, so then doesn't it seem unconvincing that he is even having sex with Jeanne if he is such a wounded animal? Give me any reason you want about what his motivation is, I'll try to entertain it but the whole premise of the film seems incongruous to me.
The second and most irritating part of the film is it's self indulgence (embodied in particular by the character of Jeanna's boyfriend, played by Jean-Pierre Leaud). I have a pet peeve with films that burn through bundles of scenes discussing art and cinema, I can do that in my own time. A film who's characters go on about cinema, to me, seems hollow and pointless and making Jeanna's boyfriend a film maker is a loathsomely transparent concept used to entertain Bertolucci's preoccupations. These scenes between Jeanne and her boyfriend Tom are insufferable and boring, they have absolutely nothing interesting to say about life or even the themes of the film. This was not meant to be a film about the creative process, so why does it have these meandering scenes containing lengthy discussion about art, the lack of discipline on display here completely undermines what is actually meant to be ground breaking about this film.
Jeanne's boy friend smothers her, constantly overwhelming her emotionally. I thoroughly enjoyed the concept of how Jeanne can escape to her lustful rendezvous with Paul, straight to the arms of a man who makes no demands on her what so ever - and I thought Schneider gave a good performance with her fresh faced passion and curiosity for everything around her, but this is also exactly where the film feels dated, it's once startling impact has grown pale and the point of the film has lost focus as a result. All that remains are those lengthy scenes of self indulgence which are irritating to an exhaustible point.
I imagine that this all initially worked well in 1972, to create a contrast between Jeanne's numb, mundane existence and her intense encounters with Paul, unfortunately time has not been kind to Last Tango in Paris and it purely serves as a curiosity of past cinema that provoked and at it's best, a noteworthy performance from Marlon Brando.
Here is the monologue from Marlon Brando that orignally made such an impact on me. In it's original context I would remember it for years to come.
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Comment by Matt Shea
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Bryn - you continue to crack me up - hell of a bush indeed, strange that Schneider wasnt in more well known films aside from this and the passenger. That boy friend character is a fuck wit and made me want turn the film off every time he was on screen and I'm sure Burtolucci cast him exactly because of his ressemblance to Truffaut. Why the monologue from Brando does it for me is firstly because of the strong memory it created for me in my mind which I really never forgot and it feels in that moment that Brando is taking off his actors studio mask.
David - indeed - would be curious to get your take on it again - thanks.
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Bryn - you continue to crack me up - hell of a bush indeed, strange that Schneider wasnt in more well known films aside from this and the passenger. That boy friend character is a fuck wit and made me want turn the film off every time he was on screen and I'm sure Burtolucci cast him exactly because of his ressemblance to Truffaut. Why the monologue from Brando does it for me is firstly because of the strong memory it created for me in my mind which I really never forgot and it feels in that moment that Brando is taking off his actors studio mask.
David - indeed - would be curious to get your take on it again - thanks.
Comment by Lovetrucker
Lovetrucker
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
I haven't seen this film in sometime but the last time I watched it I still found much that was compelling about it.
The raw, undiluted Brando performance is still obviously the main attraction. Beyond that though the melancholy mood worked for me. The frank sexuality still feels very true, not designed to shock but instead enhance themes. In the end it feels less like a scripted piece and more like a sincere attempt at exploring desire, emotional detachment and sexual politics. It avoids exploitation (not that i don't appreciate that from time to time) which I give it kudos for.
I agree with Bryn, The Conformist is Bertolucci's finest work.
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure