Last Tango in Paris [DVD] [1973] [2000]

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I've revised this review three times over successive days since watching it - gradually raising my rating of it each time. It certainly leaves its memory with you - a haunting quality leaving you still thinking about it and not yet quite knowing what more you want to know. Additionally, it excellently captures the genre of French films and the mood of its time. Indeed, it's easy to understand why at the time of its release people raved about it - in its era it was provocative and highly liberal in its attitudes to sex and especially casual sex (and an era, too, when many didn't criticise it for fear of being labelled puritanical) - and there's something magical about it. But, at the same time, it's louche and depressing and at times depraved -- and at times cruel - all an important part of the narrative of course but leaving a cold lingering feeling .As far as the acting, Marlon Brando is brilliant - the role certainly suited him as much as he suited it - even though he mumbles in French in the same way he often mumbles in English, and Maria Schneider excellently captures the spirit of a lost ingénue in liberated times. Additionally the direction is wonderfully done.Would I recommend it? Yes, to most of my friends, not necessarily all.

I can't remember when I first saw Last Tango but it's a long time ago, It was, naturally, banned in Ireland when it came out in the early 70s but I saw it at a film club and have loved it ever since. For me it's not just Brando's best performance it's my favourite by anybody. He's incredibly natural in it and I can't imagine anyone else in the role. I'm not surprised (but eternally grateful)that no one has tried to do a remake. There are lots of stories about the making of the film, with Brando feeling he had revealed too much of himself in what was clearly a much-improvised role, but he should thank Bertolucci for bringing out an amazing performance. How he didn't win the Oscar is another example of the Academy getting it spectacularly wrong.I always felt that Maria Schneider, who tragically died very recently, never got enough credit. Here she was, 19/20 years old in her first film, opposite the greatest actor in history, a world-famous director and what was obviously going to be a controversial film, and she puts in a great performance. Looks pretty great too. Unfortunately for her she's still best remembered for the "butter" scene but that does her a disservice. As regards the Blu-ray version I couldn't resist it when I saw it had been released. It was always a beautiful looking film and looks even better now. I've no idea how many times I've watched Last Tango but I think it's one of those films, like the first two Godfather movies, that I'll continue to watch until it's time to go to the big sleep.

The notorious scenes in Last Tango in Paris suggest that Bertolucci is here trying to show us the real sexual crux of the matter, once you strip away the bourgeois veneer. But it would be a more trenchant critique if the characters didn't fall so easily into cliches. Paul is overblown, sleazy, and not very likeable. To react as he does to his wife's suicide, with so little courtesy towards the wife's mother, yelling at her when she says she wants a Catholic burial - all this suggests someone ungenerous, and his relationship with Jeanne is entirely on his terms, for his gratification and self-exploration. The basic premise seems to be the idea of two people coming together well away from the bourgeois structures of romance and marriage, symbolised by his insistence that they know nothing about each other's lives, not even their names. This is an interesting idea, but wouldn't it have been so much more radical, in fact, if Paul had been a likeable character, to see him live out his sexuality like this and explore whether it is actually compatible? Eric Rohmer floats this idea in a key scene in My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, where the two main characters both confess to a fantasy of meeting a total stranger in a clearing in the woods, of making love, and then going their separate ways. The unbridled sexual impulse is surely something good to think about, even more so in the renewed anti-sex values of our own era. But Bertolucci takes a ragbag of pornographic cliches; in the much-cited rape scene from the rear it surely is more laughable than anything, with him babbling on about the Church and repression. Such talk cannot possibly be a turn-on; it is just thrown in to sound envelope-pushing. It is capped later when he comes out with some disgusting stuff about pigs and vomit while ordering her to put two fingers up his bottom. Again, it has neither rhyme nor reason, although it is meant to be in the realm of the erotic. The acts are not sexy, or even convincing, they are just wanton.The characters are pretty uninteresting, and Brando fails to compel attention through charisma alone. Maria Schneider's hair looks nice once she's had a perm quite early on. It has an attractive fullness, slightly lamb-like. But really, it is all too understandable that interest on both sides falters once the banality of their actual personalities comes into view, especially his. The acting-out of angst is just laid on so thick by him. In a scene with his wife's corpse, it was absolutely to be expected that he would start in with a load of misogynist claptrap, using all the dirty words the sceenwriters could come up with - because that sounds oh so daring, doesn't it? - before managing a few tears amid professions of love. One is left with a feeling of dreariness.This coldness seems to be a recurrent theme in Bertolucci - allied to people coming from posh backgrounds. They're always very bourgeois. But never shown from a balanced perspective as you get in Malle, say. There's something totally alienating about Jeanne's mother, the stupid notions about owning a gun, the colonel father seeming to stand for everything that is good. Jeanne's fiance totally misfires, for all that Jean-Pierre Leaud plays similar characters with a great deal of charm in Truffaut. The scene where he proposes to her is a typical example of attempted humour falling flat. It also shows the rather ugly visuals that seem to anticipate the Euro-pudding style of later decades, as epitomised by international co-productions like Immortal Beloved. A lot of money seems to be lavished on visual effects that are not really communicative at all - they may be impressive, but again, the coldness is uninvolving. Many might say Last Tango in Paris has a lot of style, but for this viewer, there is no poetry, no love in a single one of its images. It uses supposedly stylish shots with as much feeling as it spouts Sadeian pornographic tropes.

A must watch. Much more than the scene with the butter. About the nature of loss. I think best thing he did. Mr Brando that is...

Not for the faint-hearted. Marlon Brando's strongly masculine character is complemented by Maria Schneider's compliant but demanding one. It is hard to predict which will come out ontop until the last moments.

Scratched disk didnt play properly

This is a classic and you should see it. It is quite erotic - the female lead is suitably sexy. It is a fairly bleak film and perhaps a little silly, but it is a film of high quality and for me it acted as an introduction to Marlon Brando, whom I have seen since as Mark Anthony in Julius Caesar. You certainly couldn't call this a pleasant film, but if you don't see it you'll always wonder what everyone else is talking about! I'm glad that I've seen it, but a romantic film it certainly isn't!

Marlon Brando shows here a masterful lesson of life. That love can still exist amidst the ashes of disaster…Beautifully shot, the movie is both sensual and mildly erotic with enchanting Paris as a background…It’s a last tango indeed and one we can never forget.

100% OK Goede verzending en besteld item beantwoorde volledig aan de beschrijvingvan de verkoper ( uiterst tevreden ):-):-):-)

Obra maestra que me hace ilusión sumar a mi colección. La entrega, perfecta y en plazo.

Porque Brando interpreta el mejor papel de su vida por encima de El Padrino. Sus monólogos han hecho historia y son recordados como una amalgama de guión e improvisación como solo Brando sabía hacer. Bertolucci no quería problemas con el divo y le dejó a su aire, lo que fue un gran acierto para todos los que consideramos a Brando uno de los mejores de todos los tiempos.

Un film che mi ha davvero appassionato, consigliatissimo!! Un Dvd che chi é appassionato di cinema, a mio parere, deve avere!