Here's the plot to The Last Tango in Paris - 1972
Paul, a middle-aged American hotel owner mourning his wife's suicide, meets a young, engaged Parisian woman named Jeanne in an apartment that both are interested in renting. They proceed to have an anonymous sexual relationship in the apartment, and Paul demands that neither of them share any personal information, not even their names. The affair goes on until one day Jeanne comes to the apartment to find that Paul has packed up and left without warning.
Paul later meets Jeanne on the street and says he wants to renew the relationship. He tells her of the recent tragedy with his wife, and the telling of his life story carries them to a tango bar, where he continues telling her about himself. The loss of anonymity disillusions Jeanne about their relationship, and she tells Paul she does not want to see him again. Paul, not wanting to let Jeanne go, chases her back to her apartment, where he tells her he loves her and wants to know her name.
Jeanne takes a gun from a drawer. She tells Paul her name and shoots him. Paul staggers out onto the balcony, mortally wounded, and collapses. As Paul dies, a dazed Jeanne mutters to herself that he was just a stranger who tried to rape her, that she did not know who he was, as if in a rehearsal, preparing herself for questioning by the police.
The film premiered in New York City on October 14, 1972, to enormous public controversy. The media frenzy surrounding the film generated intense popular interest as well as moral condemnation, landing cover stories in both Time and Newsweek magazines. Playboy published a photo spread of Brando and Schneider "cavorting in the nude. Time wrote, "Any moviegoers who are not shocked, titillated, disgusted, fascinated, delighted or angered by this early scene in Bernardo Bertolucci's new movie, Last Tango in Paris, should be patient. There is more to come. Much more. The Village Voice reported walkouts by board members and "vomiting by well-dressed wives. Columnist William F. Buckley and ABC's Harry Reasoner denounced the film as "pornography disguised as art.
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| Marlon Brando |
After local government officials failed to ban the film in Montclair, NJ, theatergoers had to push through a mob of 200 outraged residents, who hurled epithets like "perverts" and "homos" at the attendees. Later, a bomb threat temporarily halted the showing. The New York chapter of the National Organization for Women denounced the film as a tool of "male domination."
The film's scandal centred mostly on an anal sex scene featuring the use of butter as a lubricant. Other critics focussed on when the character Paul asks Jeanne to insert her fingers in his anus, then exacts a vow from her that she would prove her devotion to him by, among other things, having sex with a pig. Vincent Canby of The New York Times described the film's sexual content as the artistic expression of the "era of Norman Mailer and Germaine Greer."
Lead actress, Maria Schneider, a French actress who appeared in more than a dozen other films, will forever be remembered for igniting movie screens as a
19-year-old playing opposite Marlon Brando in this film.
Susan King of 24 Frames sums Schneider up this way:
"The word that Maria Schneider died Thursday in Paris
at the age of 58 resonates with baby boomers. For them she was a pivotal sexual
icon of their youth. In 1973, Schneider was the next big thing. The wildest of
wild childs who embraced the sexual revolution with open arms. She was the
female lead opposite Marlon Brando in Bernardo Bertolucci's X-rated Last Tango
in Paris. Schneider was so overtly sexual she made Brigitte Bardot look like a nun."
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Produced by: Alberto Grimaldi
Written by: Bernardo Bertolucci
Starring: Marlon Brando
Maria Schneider
Jean-Pierre Leaud
Music by: Gato Barbieri
And this my friends is an example of the coming of age for movies in the 70's
see excerpt of movie here
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