Review of Last Tango in Paris (1972) by Chris B — 20 Jan 2014

Last Tango in Paris is a complex film, it's definitely not for the easily offended or those who are uneasy around sex and sexual behavior used in the form of artistic cinema. This is not pornography, for a number of reasons, the main being there is no sex scene in the film that is erotic for eroticism's sake.

The sexual encounters and the apartment that they rendevous at for said encounters, becomes a place outside of our all-seeing and social world, becoming a haven of sexual release and release as well as self-degradation.

The film has some truly poetic and wonderfully filmed cinematography and great angles abound throughout. The music also lends itself wonderfully to the context and feel of the film creating a moody and eeriely secluded atmosphere.

The film was lauded as the beginning to a new artistic emergence of sexual-freedom in cinema, not as a form of pornography but as a story with artistic value and deeper meaning, that simply used sexuality as a means to explore the inward battles and frustrations of it's characters.

Marlon Brando is wonderfully animalistic and is clearly angry, frustrated, hurt and is overall an emotional wreck after his wife's suicide, due to unknown reasons, and his sexual exploits in the film are his way of releasing the pent-up anguish and frustration at his wife and those around him but mostly on himself.

If you can deal with and/or accept the content and it's deeper meaning, you will find a lot to like here, however it is not for everyone.