Last Tango in Paris
Short description
Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris centres on Paul, an American man living in Paris in the late 1960s, whose wife has died by suicide and who is left adrift in grief and guilt. During a winter morning visit to an empty apartment he meets Jeanne, a young Parisian woman, and the two begin meeting there for a purely physical affair. They keep their names and their lives from each other, and the arrangement holds for a time, until Paul's wish for something more than anonymous sex unsettles the balance between them. Marlon Brando plays Paul and Maria Schneider plays Jeanne, with Jean-Pierre Léaud among the supporting cast. Bertolucci directed and wrote the screenplay with Franco Arcalli, and Alberto Grimaldi produced.
The film came directly after The Conformist in Bertolucci's filmography and before 1900, and it was followed by Luna, Farewell to Enrico Berlinguer, The Last Emperor, The Sheltering Sky, Little Buddha, Stealing Beauty, Besieged, The Dreamers and Venice 70: Future Reloaded. Made for about 1 million dollars, it returned roughly 36 million dollars worldwide, a substantial multiple of its cost. On IMDb it holds 6.8/10 from 62,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 6.9/10 from 1,373 votes. A critics' rating of 8/10 from 43 reviews places it higher with reviewers than with the wider audiences on those two sites.
What's left behind the scenes
- After the film's release in Europe, Bernardo Bertolucci, Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider, and the film's producer, Alberto Grimaldi, were charged with distributing pornography in a Bologna court. All charges were soon dropped, and only Bernardo Bertolucci was punished, being deprived of his civil rights in Italy, including the right to vote in elections for five years.
- The film was banned from release in Italy (1972–1986), Portugal (1973–1974), as well as in Singapore, New Zealand, and South Korea.
- Interestingly, Bernardo Bertolucci deliberately created the image of Tom as a parody of one of the ideologues of the French New Wave, director François Truffaut.
- Many of Paul's lines were improvised by Marlon Brando, who disliked the phrases written for his character in the script.
- The film's most famous scene was an improvisation by Bertolucci and Brando, who decided to change the script at the last minute without informing Maria Schneider. She was in a state of shock after the shooting, and her tears in the scene were genuine.
- Jean-Pierre Léaud, who played the role of Tom, was so afraid of meeting Marlon Brando that all scenes involving him were shot on Saturdays, when Brando didn't work. Throughout the entire production of the film, Léaud never actually met the legendary actor.
- Bernardo Bertolucci created the image of Tom as a parody of one of the ideologues of the French New Wave – director François Truffaut.
- Swedish director Ingmar Bergman stated after watching the film that the entire story would have made sense if the main characters were two gay men. Bernardo Bertolucci replied that he considered this criticism justified. Interestingly, the option of homosexual relationships being at the center of the film could have actually happened. This idea was one of the alternative concepts for the main version of the film's script.
- Astor Piazzolla was originally supposed to compose the music and even wrote a version of an Argentine tango for Bertolucci. However, the director ultimately preferred jazz composer Gato Barbieri, finding his music more sensual.
- Jean-Louis Trintignant and Dominique Sanda were considered for the leading roles, but both declined.
- The initial director's cut of the film lasted over four hours.
- The full version of the film has a runtime of 136 minutes.
- The initial director's cut of the film lasted more than four hours, and the complete version has a runtime of 136 minutes.
- Marlon Brando did not speak to Bernardo Bertolucci for 20 years after this film.
- Jean-Louis Trintignant and actress Dominique Sanda were considered for the leading roles, but both actors declined to participate in the film.
- Ten years after the film's premiere, in 1982, United Artists released a new version of the film, which received an R rating, instead of the X rating that had been assigned to Bertolucci's film in 1972. Interestingly, the new version of "Last Tango in Paris" was only one minute shorter.
- According to director Bernardo Bertolucci, the idea for the film was born from his own sexual fantasy – to meet a beautiful stranger on the street and have sex with her without any obligations, and without even learning her name.
- The film premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 14, 1972.
- Many of Paul's lines were improvised by Marlon Brando, who disliked his character's phrases.
- After watching the film, director Ingmar Bergman stated that the story would have made sense if the main characters were two gay men. Bernardo Bertolucci replied that he considered this criticism justified. He had considered a scenario involving homosexual relationships as one of the options.
- In 1982, ten years after the film's premiere, United Artists released a new version of the film, which received an R rating instead of an X rating. The new version was only one minute shorter than the original.
- The most famous erotic scene in the film was an improvisation by Bertolucci and Brando, who decided to change the script at the last minute and did not warn her. Actress Maria Schneider admitted that after the shooting she was in a state of shock, and her tears in the scene were real.
- After filming, Marlon Brando did not speak to Bernardo Bertolucci for 20 years.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
