Last Tango in Paris
This was by far my favorite Bertolucci movie (outclassing Before the Revolution, The Conformist, and The Dreamers), but that might be because either I wasn't watching it for class or that I had a good grasp of his auteurist themes.
In the other three movies I mentioned above, Bertolucci explores the relationship between sexuality and politics, and he does that here as well, although the politics are more cultural and personal than anything to do with governments or laws.
Jeanne (Maria Schneider) is the conflicted party here, struggling to choose between conformity (as embodied in marriage, the church, social expectations, etc.) and something radically new. Paul (Marlon Brando), who has been emotionally crushed by his late wife's suicide, wants to be finished with tradition and familiarity (he hates names, personal histories, and anything that would help him get to know Jeanne, with whom he is extremely physically intimate), while Tom (Jean-Pierre Leaud) appeals to Jeanne as the comfortably normal marriageable young male.
There was plenty of biting social commentary, but my favorite was when Leaud's character (who doesn't actually play that big a role) is talking about the "pop marriage," sold to young couples by the ad industry, and how spouses are supposed to play their roles and be happy plastic people. His fiance asks him where lovemaking fits into this act, and Leaud responds with something like, "They go off to a secret place where no one can find them and they act like themselves."
Brando's monologue to his dead wife is probably the dramatic high point, although the final scene beginning at the tango contest has a lot of clever parts. Apparently he ad-libbed most of it, which is even more incredible. I don't know that I've previously seen Brando in anything other than Apocalypse Now and The Godfather, neither of which foregrounds his acting ability as his role does here.
The symbolism of the uniform, such as Jeanne's dead father's military uniform as we see it in several scenes, the matching bathrobes worn by Paul and his ex-wife's kept man, and the call for the police at the end, all fit into what Bertolucci has to suggest about traditional societal roles, which is a lot.
Bertolucci also uses the portrayal of romance in movies as a way to comment on love and sex in society. Tom is actually making a movie about the relationship between himself and Jeanne during the preparations for their marriage. There is also a comment at the end about expressions of love having no place in civilized society, that that sort of stuff belongs in the movies, which relates to Tom's comment about sex for married couples I mentioned above.
From the quotes at iMDB, and the rating of 6.9, I'm guessing a lot of people didn't get much out of this movie other than explicit sex, which is kind of sad. I'm not sure what I'd have thought if I were not, say, a film student with a fairly good knowledge of the director from multiple classes, but I highly recommend Last Tango in Paris. And don't get bogged down in the NC-17 "content," which is well-done and necessary, but there is more to it than just that.
In the other three movies I mentioned above, Bertolucci explores the relationship between sexuality and politics, and he does that here as well, although the politics are more cultural and personal than anything to do with governments or laws.
Jeanne (Maria Schneider) is the conflicted party here, struggling to choose between conformity (as embodied in marriage, the church, social expectations, etc.) and something radically new. Paul (Marlon Brando), who has been emotionally crushed by his late wife's suicide, wants to be finished with tradition and familiarity (he hates names, personal histories, and anything that would help him get to know Jeanne, with whom he is extremely physically intimate), while Tom (Jean-Pierre Leaud) appeals to Jeanne as the comfortably normal marriageable young male.
There was plenty of biting social commentary, but my favorite was when Leaud's character (who doesn't actually play that big a role) is talking about the "pop marriage," sold to young couples by the ad industry, and how spouses are supposed to play their roles and be happy plastic people. His fiance asks him where lovemaking fits into this act, and Leaud responds with something like, "They go off to a secret place where no one can find them and they act like themselves."
Brando's monologue to his dead wife is probably the dramatic high point, although the final scene beginning at the tango contest has a lot of clever parts. Apparently he ad-libbed most of it, which is even more incredible. I don't know that I've previously seen Brando in anything other than Apocalypse Now and The Godfather, neither of which foregrounds his acting ability as his role does here.
The symbolism of the uniform, such as Jeanne's dead father's military uniform as we see it in several scenes, the matching bathrobes worn by Paul and his ex-wife's kept man, and the call for the police at the end, all fit into what Bertolucci has to suggest about traditional societal roles, which is a lot.
Bertolucci also uses the portrayal of romance in movies as a way to comment on love and sex in society. Tom is actually making a movie about the relationship between himself and Jeanne during the preparations for their marriage. There is also a comment at the end about expressions of love having no place in civilized society, that that sort of stuff belongs in the movies, which relates to Tom's comment about sex for married couples I mentioned above.
From the quotes at iMDB, and the rating of 6.9, I'm guessing a lot of people didn't get much out of this movie other than explicit sex, which is kind of sad. I'm not sure what I'd have thought if I were not, say, a film student with a fairly good knowledge of the director from multiple classes, but I highly recommend Last Tango in Paris. And don't get bogged down in the NC-17 "content," which is well-done and necessary, but there is more to it than just that.
Labels: Film
Posted on Saturday, February 12, 2005
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