Review of Last Tango in Paris (1972) by Tonypolito — 29 Oct 2011

The film's best recommendation toward today's viewer is actually Brando's delivery, not the sexual content. Two strangers meet while browsing an apartment-for-rent. After few words, 45-year-old Brando turns into a crude, brutish alpha-male and 'takes' 20-year-old Schneider without the least overt hint of her permission.

Afterward, Schneider's expression makes plain that 'being taken' was exactly what she needed, something that Brando had clearly sensed. The rest is the slow reveal of who these two people really are, how they got that way, and why they are willing to continue to tryst in this brutish manner, in this same apartment, while knowing little else about one another, not even one other's names.

Written and directed by the acclaimed Italian Bernardo Bertolucci, who stated the script's inspiration was born of his own sexual fantasy.When I read of Maria Schneider's passing a few weeks ago - and her negative recollections of the production of this film that was her sole claim to fame - I figured it was time to advance "Tango" to the top of my queue.

I had never seen it, despite the fact that it is such an infamous milestone in the history of cinema. When "Tango" released, I was working as a movie theatre usher. Remember those? I even carried a flashlight whilst I strolled up and down the aisles during the main feature, ensuring proper behavior of the patrons.

But the theatre manager wouldn't let me work "Tango." It was X-rated, and I was too young for that.Back then, there were only two opinions about "Tango," it was either cutting-edge art house cinema .

.. or it was blatant pornography being distributed under the pretense of art house cinema. Hindsight's 20-20, of course; it's really neither of these things. These days, Hollywood releases cinema every week with saucier content than this, and with an R rating.

Brando only once moons his (aging) bum and nothing more. There's several bits of full frontal delivered by Schneider, and they seem to involve serious merkin. The iconic "get me the butter" scene contains almost fully-clothed, and rather tepid, thrusting.

Rather, it is the mere SUGGESTION of dairy product for such lubricating purpose that earned the MPAA's scorn. (Scorn re-affirmed in 1997 with an NC-17 decision.) Any viewer shopping here for cheap titillation will be grandly disappointed.

So what of the cutting edge art-house? It's certainly true that no major studio release had ever used this degree of sexual content to actually advance/develop the plotline of a film. "Tango" viewers reach their understanding of Brando and Schneider's psyches through observation of their bedroom antics.

(Well, unfurnished-apartment-with-a-dirty-mattress-on-the-floor antics, actually.) The flip side is that, well, almost no other film has bothered to do so in the decades since. In fact, the only one that immediately comes to mind in this respect is "Lust, Caution" (2007).

Since no other auteurs ever followed Bertolucci's lead, it can't really be called cutting-edge. And the film's opening scene is a rather routine cinematic gambit; the behavior of the two leads is so inexplicable, that the viewer is on the hook for three full acts waiting for the explanation.

Accordingly, despite all the pretentious French chatter, the film is not nearly as art-house as it aspires to be. Still the film does a very interesting art-house-like job with the slow reveal; the viewer stays engaged for the entire two hours, putting the pieces together as to what makes Brando and Schneider psychologically tick.

But what's really relevant here is Brando's delivery. It's good, even for Brando, and it subtly and increasingly improves as the film progresses, taking total control of the film by Act III.

Plus Brando broaches quite the spectrum of roles as well: he's a cruel sadist, a bitter tormented soul, a worldly cynic, a thoughtful lover scrubbing the feet of his young mistress. And he switches from one to another as easily as though he were strolling across a row of rocks to cross a stream.

And then he ices all that cake by convincingly reverting to just an ordinary Joe. As said by many others, the Act III scene where Brando soliloquizes his wife's corpse is among the best dramatic acting ever put to celluloid.

No viewer will doubt the efficacy of 'method acting' after seeing this film. And it's Brando's swan song to boot; he openly admitted that he only accepted serious money gigs after Tango wore him out.

To be fair, Schneider does well here with what would be a challenging role for anyone, but her age and lack of experience is simply dwarfed by the mere screen-presence of Brando.I remember wondering back-then, in those usher days, why "The Godfather" would choose to be in "a dirty film.

" Now the answer is obvious: this film afforded Brando a tremendous opportunity to work his craft. And besides, the film just ain't that dirty. Original avant-garde jazz sax score from Gato Barbieri.

RECOMMENDATION: Required viewing for aspiring actors and true cinema buffs. Well spent time for others that revel in careful observation of serious acting.