Last Tango in Paris

by David Thompson

" Last Tango left me depleted and exhausted. Some of the pain I was experiencing was my very own. Thereafter I decided to make my living in a way that was less devastating emotionally." Thus Marlon Brando recalled, in his autobiography, making Last Tango in Paris .
Bernardo Bertolucci's graphic and harrowing account of sexual obsession, grief, psychic breakdown, and murder premiered in 1972 at the New York Film Festival. The print was escorted to the screening by armed guards. On the film's subsequent release in Italy, Bertolucci, Brando, co-star Maria Schneider, and producer Alberto Grimaldi were indicted on obscenity charges and found guilty. Controversy and censorship dogged the film, but it was a great commercial and critical success. Venerated New Yorker critic Pauline Kael called Last Tango "the most powerfully erotic movie ever made."
David Thompson's fluent account of Last Tango in Paris details the conception, production, and fortunes of the film. Drawing on a new and extensive interview with Bertolucci, Thompson shows how the film crystallized Bertolucci's interest in art, literature, and psychoanalysis, and how it was realized through the consummate skills of cast and crew. Ending with a discussion of how important this film is for an understanding of Brando, Schneider, and Jean-Pierre Leaud, Thompson unravels the brilliance of Last Tango in Paris' depiction of human behavior and emotion.

Genres: Film

96 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1998

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Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scene 1 – Concierge's office, 15 Rue Jules Verne

Marlon : I've come about the flat.

Concierge : There's someone already looking at it.

Marlon: (mumbles incomprehensibly)

Scene 2 : The Flat

Maria : Oo are you?

Marlon: (mumbles incomprehensibly)

Maria : Are you gonna 'ave this apartement or what?

Marlon: (mumbles incomprehensibly)

(They come face to face. He snaps her underwear. They coagulate farmistically. )

Scene 3: The Flat

Maria : My name is –

Marlon : No. No names. No name for me, no name for you. Nothing exists except what's here in this shitty encrusted existential flat do you understand nothing nothing everything before is gone there is only this nothing nothing pigs elephants boll weavils

Maria : I –

Marlon : No, there is no I in here, no me no you nothing nothing we didn't come from anywhere we're just here nothing nothing pigs farm animals

Scene 4 : The Station

Jean-Pierre accompanied by a film crew is making a film about Maria's life

Jean-Pierre : What is your attitude to life, God, politics, psychoanalysis, the myth of the French Resistance, pre-Copernican cosmology, les Beatles, Cahiers du Cinema, le G spot and Roland Barthes?

Maria : I am not going to marry you.

Jean-Pierre : What? Pourquoi?

Scene 5 : The Flat

Marlon: (mumbles incomprehensibly)

Maria: What? I can't understand you.

Marlon : I said bring me the butter.

Maria : We don't ave any butter, we ave Pont l'Evèque

Marlon : Uh? Whassat?

Maria : It ees a cheese. Fromage.

Marlon : Is it a pressed cheese or a soft cheese?

Maria : It ees a soft cheese.

Marlon: Bring me the Pont l'Eveque

(He utilises the soft cheese to ingratiate himself.)

Marlon: Despair! Hubris! Other important words!

Maria : At least take your trousers off.

Marlon : No! No names, nothing. Pig, farm animal, God. I hate several things a lot.


Scene 6 : streets of Paris and the balcony

Marlon pursues Maria through the streets of Paris

Marlon : I remembered my name! It's –

Marie : I don't wanna ecoute it – bugger off…

Marlon : But I'm okay now – no more cheese!

Maria : I have a pistolet you mad fuckeur.

Marlon : Aw baby (yells incoherently)

(Maria flees to her house. Marlon pursues. Up the apples and pears they go. At last, on thebalcony, there is a confrontation between despair and optimism, youth and age, pigs and turkeys. Maria shoots him with her father's Colt 45. He falls over the balcony and we see him on the pavement in a fetal position. There is no blood.)

Marlon: (mumbles incomprehensibly)

(Dies)

[Desi Martiana Putri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beli novel ini karena tertarik baca sinopsisnya di majalah cosmopolitan. Selain ceritanya kontroversial, cara pengarang menulis cerita juga enak bacanya. Nggak berbelit-belit dan yang pasti full of drama. Diem-diem jadi bayangin gimana sosok machonya si Paul yang diceritakan udah lumayan umur tapi masih mampu menarik hati Jeanne dari petemuan yang nggak di sengaja. Menarik.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

what did I learn from this book? That Marlon Brando is a skeezy perv who likes Grandpa sweaters and well shaped breasts. Well, there was also a lot of useful information about the release/making of this film.

[Hoda hm · Rating 5 out of 5]

nakhoondamesh ama filmesh mahshare!this film is very absorb!

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very informative book about the film and the circumstances in which it was made and the aftermath.

[Dessy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The power of love story is always fabulous...

[Sean Nolan · Rating 2 out of 5]

good li'l story

[Kasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Racy... but powerful.