A young Parisian woman meets a middle-aged American businessman who demands their clandestine relationship be based only on sex.A young Parisian woman meets a middle-aged American businessman who demands their clandestine relationship be based only on sex.A young Parisian woman meets a middle-aged American businessman who demands their clandestine relationship be based only on sex.
- Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 7 wins & 12 nominations total
Catherine Allégret
- Catherine
- (as Catherine Allegret)
Marie-Hélène Breillat
- Monique
- (as Marie-Helene Breillat)
Jean-Pierre Léaud
- Tom - un cinéaste, le fiancé de Jeanne
- (as Jean-Pierre Leaud)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaBoth Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider admitted that they felt raped by "Last Tango in Paris" (1972) and refused to speak with director Bernardo Bertolucci ever again. Yet in his autobiography, Brando says that Bertolucci was one of the three best directors he ever worked with.
- GoofsIn the final scene, as the camera pulls away from the balcony, you can clearly see a crew member and a lighting array reflected in the glass panel of the right balcony door.
- Alternate versionsFor its original UK cinema release the BBFC suggested cuts to dialogue during the scissors scene and a heavy reduction of the infamous sodomy scene, though the former was rescinded when it was decided that the cuts would be difficult to make without ruining the scene. Instead a proposed cut of 20 secs was required to the sodomy scene to remove shots of Paul smearing butter on Jeanne's buttocks and some overhead shots of sexual thrusting. The latter was also waived following an appeal from the director and instead a mere 10 sec cut was made to the butter smearing. When the OPA (Obscene Publications Act) was extended to cover films a few years later BBFC censor James Ferman waived the cinema cut, and all post-1978 releases (including TV showings) have been the fully uncut version.
- ConnectionsEdited into Destricted (2006)
Featured review
Butter or Margarine
I'm thinking of "Last Tango in Paris" today because Neznaia, a kind IMDb user, asked me to write about it and I promised I would. Now a dilemma. Shall I write as I remember the experience or shall I watch it again? Well I'm already here so I seem to have taken a decision. Butter, that was the key word that pushed crowds to line up outside the theaters all over the world. Over the years the film has been vilified as utter euro trash or acclaimed as one of the best films ever made. I think that the truth falls somewhere in the middle. Bertolucci was coming out of at least two certified masterpieces of political, social and cinematic achievement "Before the Revolution" and "The Conformist". Tango is something else altogether, cinema veritè photographed by Vittorio Storaro, a revolutionary artistic genius, Gato Barbieri's music and Marlon Brando giving himself totally in one of the most brilliant pieces of self indulgence ever put on film. Within the intellectual coldness of its intentions breaths a stunning melodrama of operatic proportions. As a side note let me tell you that legend has it that in the original script, the Maria Schnaider's character, was a boy. At the time an idea of the sort was too outrageous to even consider. Everybody was very sophisticated but not that sophisticated. Apparently the movie went on with a girl in the part but not even a coma was changed from the original. Now, look at the film again with that in mind and you will notice that everything, as if by magic, makes perfect sense. We are ask to justify Brando's first wild approach to Schnaider was an irrational reaction to the pain, the anger and confusion by his wife death. Well yes, but he is a man, she is a woman, they may be braking a few rules but the basics remain intact, unless, of course she wasn't a she. If they are a man and a girl above the age of consent why the charade of secrecy? Why she's never really dressed like a girl, always jackets and open neck shirts and why they never make love like a man and a woman, usually, do? A lot of fingers and butter and,talk. When they get to the tango scene Brando dances with a real woman while Maria Schnaider monkeys around them. And finally look at the end and tell me if doesn't make much more sense if she was a he. She could have explained everything, embarrassing perhaps I don't know, but perfectly normal. If she was a he, the son of a military man, the thing had an entirely different color. Impossible to admit or to explain for a boy. Their affair is not between two gay man but between two heterosexuals. That's the key, that's at the center of it all. A breaking of rules in the most intimate way. To go against what you have come to accept as your own nature. I may be wrong of course, but I don't think so. I will see it again as soon as I can and if I feel that this memory of the film is merely a product of what I may have been smoking at the time I will let you know. But, somehow, I don't think I will have to.
helpful•231111
- arichmondfwc
- Jan 31, 2005
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Der letzte Tango in Paris
- Filming locations
- 1 Rue de l'Alboni, Passy, Paris 16, Paris, France(apartment: tryst)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $1,250,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $36,144,000
- Gross worldwide
- $36,182,181
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