"Ultimo tango a Parigi”, the troubled and controversial film of 1972 of Bernard Bertolucci, that performs 50 years, marked the career of Maria Schneider and maybe even that of Marlon Brando, who played only two leading roles after that film.
La Italian Court of Cassation, with a ruling dated January 29, 1976, ordered the destruction of all the copy of Bertolucci's film, including the master, for obscenity and for "exaggerated pansexualism as an end in itself".
The sentence also included the revocation of civil rights a Bernardo Bertolucci for five years and the sentence of two months' imprisonment with the conditional for the director, for the producer Alberto Grimaldi and for Marlon Brando.
The vision of the film remained banned in Italy until 1987, the year in which he was exonerated and returned to the cinemas. With 15,5 million viewers, “Last Tango in Paris” is the sixth most viewed film ever in Italy.
It is interesting to report the motivation with which the three experts called by the Court of Rome finally they acquitted the most discussed scene of the opera, that of the knob of butter.
“The same scene of maximum violence, that of Jeanne's sodomy, is not dramatic for the fact itself, for the sexual contact, but because it constitutes the ritual ceremony of a naked violence that contrasts with civil violence, family repression, property relations”.
A superb imagination that of the judges and experts of the court who, however, were not aware of the fact, because it was not revealed, that that scene were non-consensual by Maria Schneider.
An extreme case
Even the world of cinema, with its complex personal interactions, strong competition and incessant market pressure, presents, like other demanding jobs, its fair share of challenges. diseases Professional.
The subjects most at risk are those who have to interpret different roles and impersonate various identities distant from their own, in multiple and extremely variable emotional and psychological contexts.
Identifying with characters far from one's own nature, even for prolonged periods, can give rise to phenomena of dissociation, such as boundary blurring, or the thinning of the boundary between one's self and one's work role.
We saw in the series “Severance” that the dynamics between “hymn” (the awareness of work) and “outie” (the awareness of private life) causes such traumas that a definitive split would almost seem possible.
Today we will analyze an extreme, almost “clinical” case of the “interpreter's malaise”, that of Maria Schneider after having been Jeanne in “Last Tango in Paris” by Bernardo Bertolucci.
The film “Being Maria”, directed by Jessica Plaud, presented at Cannes in 2024 and soon available, reinterprets the film through the eyes of Maria Schneider: that role represented a traumatic turning point in her existence.
Maria Schneider
In March 1972, when filming began on “Last Tango in Paris,” Maria Schneider (not to be confused with Romy) had just turned twenty and had only appeared in small roles in French films.
instead Marlon Brando, fresh from the unparalleled interpretation of Vito Corleone in the contemporary "The Godfather" by Francis Ford Coppola, was 48, more than double the young actress's age.
Bernardo Bertolucci was looking for a young face, with a simple and genuine appearance, to play Jeanne, a figure that would contrast with the tormented and mature character of Marlon Brando.
For the young actress, the opportunity to work with two names of such caliber presented itself as an extremely tempting opportunity. Her career could take off and achieve definitive fame. As it did.
However, as she later said, she was not fully aware of what she was getting into. She did not know the script in detail nor the type of erotic scenes she was asked to perform.
In the film, the girl's body is exhibited explicitly or with particular cuts. Brando always remains dressed except for a very "chaste" sequence and in an artistic pose, together with the girl, which recalls the Matisse figures.
Marlon Brando
Although he is almost fifty, the American actor still retains a remarkable charm and physique. Although he is attractive, he seems reluctant to show himself without clothes on the set.
We see him constantly wearing it, even in erotic scenes, a turtleneck sweater, trousers and, often, a camel-coloured coat, probably a wool blend, very fashionable at the time.
In a conversation, the wife's lover (Massimo girotti) reciprocates Brando's appreciation of his appearance. However, he is doubtful: he is tormented by the comparison with the lean physique of Girotti who trains on the bar.
It is plausible that the fear of exposing his belly pushed Brando to ask Bertolucci to shoot the erotic scenes with him dressed. A way that denies the naturalness of those moments. Perhaps this was precisely the director's aim.
A destructive experience
“Being Maria” by Jessica Plaud, an author who worked with Bertolucci, has as protagonists the Romanian actress Anamaria Vartolomei such as Schneider, Matt Dillon like Brando and Joseph May like Bertolucci.
The film forcefully asserts the thesis that “Last Tango in Paris” irremediably marked not only Maria Schneider’s career, but her entire existence from that moment on.
In fact, the conclusion of Bertolucci’s film already prefigured this development. In that ending there is a clue to the trauma: “He wanted to rape me… he was crazy,” these are the words the girl says to herself to justify her action.
In light of subsequent revelations, that line in the script was not just a cinematic fiction, but rather reflected a painfully experienced reality, as the actress later said.
Maria Schneider, disappeared in 2011 at the age of 58 from breast cancer, she said of the butternut scene: “I felt humiliated and I felt a little violated, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci.”
The primary intent of the director of “Being Maria”, in re-proposing that sequence, was precisely to show Maria Schneider's perspective, the way she lived that moment. Here's how Jessica Plaud motivates it: “I didn't mean to replicate Bertolucci's scene, it's not a remake. I changed perspective by showing Maria while she observes the crew. Her 'no' and tears are authentic, not recited, while everyone is waiting for the director's 'cut'”.
Being Maria
Consulting the original script in the archives of the French Cinematheque the director was able to verify that the scene was not present in the script, thus confirming Schneider's version.
The film draws inspiration from My Cousin Maria Schneider, the book that retraces Maria's tragic existence: her childhood with a father who recognized her late, the trauma of "Last Tango", drugs and illness.
“The moralistic public labeled her as a loose woman who did pornography,” said author Vanessa Schneider, “but she was modest, reserved and even conservative – a stark contrast to the public image that was imposed on her.”
After “Last Tango,” Vanessa says, Maria turned down almost all the scripts with nudity. “This gave her a reputation as being difficult to work with and, with the arrival of drugs, unreliable.”
The reconstruction of the butternut scene in “Being Maria”, reinterpreted from the point of view of Maria Schneider. It was not in the script of “Last Tango” and took the actress by surprise, who endured it screaming and crying.
Reporter profession
"Profession reporter” (The Passenger, 1975) by michelangelo antonioni It represents Maria Schneider's favorite film among those she has played in during her career.
Antonioni called her to play “the girl” that the protagonist, Jack Nicholson, meets, who can be considered in all respects the artistic heir of Marlon Brando.
Yet, Antonioni's film could have presented several opportunities for scenes similar to those in “Last Tango”. Nicholson he's like Marlon Brando, older than the girl, charming and running away from himself.
There is a lot of attraction between the two, as in “Last Tango,” and, as Paul/Brando wanted, the girl has no name and David/Nicholson has one that doesn’t belong to him. Both films share a similar epilogue.
However, in “The Profession Reporter” only one appears nude scene, very modest, moreover. The girl and the man are shot from afar, lying on the bed, with their figures composing a sculpture à la Rodin. Then nothing.
Just as Brando had required Bertolucci to be filmed fully dressed, Schneider had asked Antonioni, despite not being averse to certain scenes, to eliminate any trace of nude sequences.
Those of “Last Tango in Paris” were the last. Last tango, last nude.
Other cases
We could continue with other emblematic cases of the discomfort linked to interpretation, such as that of the young protagonists of "Zabriskie Point” which became the youth symbol of the counterculture.
Mark Frechette, who plays himself, robbed a bank and died mysteriously in prison, while Daria Halprin, also playing herself, left the cinema to devote herself to dance therapy in a commune in Boston.
And we could dwell on the sensational “clinical case” of the Swedish actor Bjorn Andresen, "the most beautiful boy in the world” who played the role of Tadzio in “Morte a Venezia"of luchino Visconti.
And the list could be further extended with other names: Heath Ledger, Olivia hussey, Shelley duvall, Buckskin Adjani and so on. Interpreters do not always sparkle with stardust. Often, they descend into obscurity.
