Country: Italy
Year: 1972
Duration: 129'
An apartment in Paris is the setting for the passion between an aging American, Paul (Brando), and young Jeanne (Schneider), who is engaged to a director (Léaud). The man and the woman don’t reveal their names, they don’t talk about their respective lives, but they possess each other, they fall in love, they ravage each other, all the way to the inevitable final tragedy. The movie-scandal of the 1970s, rendered momentous by Brando’s diabolical performance, Schneider’s sensual aura, and sex scenes that had never before been so explicit in an art-house movie that was, in any case, meant for the general public. One of the highpoints of Bertolucci’s filmography (he was always interested in the relationship between pretense and staging, intimacy and sociality, responsibility and desire), over the years the movie was censured, seized, parodied, hated, and attacked, as well as rediscovered and recognized for the masterpiece it is.
Biography
film director
Bernardo Bertolucci
Parma, 1941-Rome, 2018), one of the greatest Italian and international filmmakers, matured artistically during the early 1960s. Born into an artistic family (his father was the famous poet Attilio), he was a pupil of Pasolini (he was the director’s assistant on Accattone in 1961) and a great admirer of the French Nouvelle Vague and, in particular, of Jean-Luc Godard. He linked his name to a type of cinema that was political and avant-garde (Before the Revolution, 1964); to a comparison between modern and classic cinema (The Conformist, 1970; 1900, 1976); and to a series of movies that were extraordinary box office and critical successes, such as Last Tango in Paris (1972), which at the time created a worldwide erotic scandal and was condemned in Italy for obscenity. He directed the international The Last Emperor, for which he won an Oscar for best director (as well as eight other Oscars), plus other movies that, although less important, were the expression of an extraordinary directing talent and clear-eyed historical vision (The Spider’s Stratagem, 1970; Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man, 1981; Stealing Beauty, 1996).
FILMOGRAFIA
La commare secca (1962), Prima della rivoluzione (1964), La via del petrolio (doc, 1967), La salute è malata (doc, 1971), Partner (1968), Agonia (ep. di Amore e rabbia, cm, 1969), Strategia del ragno (tv, 1970), Il conformista (1970), Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972), Novecento (1976), La luna (1979), La tragedia di un uomo ridicolo (1981), The Last Emperor (L'ultimo imperatore, 1987), The Sheltering Sky (Il tè nel deserto, 1990), Little Buddha (Piccolo Buddha, 1993), Io ballo da sola (1996), L'assedio (1998), The Dreamers (The Dreamers - I sognatori, 2003), Io e te (2012).
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR: Bernardo Bertolucci. SCREENPLAY: Bernardo Bertolucci, Franco Arcalli. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Vittorio Storaro. EDITING: Franco Arcalli, Roberto Perpignani. MUSIC: Gato Barbieri. PRODUCTION DESIGN: Ferdinando Scarfiotti. COSTUMES: Gitt Magrini. CAST: Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Massimo Girotti, Maria Michi, Giovanna Galletti, Catherine Allégret, Darling Légitimus, Marie-Hélène Breillat, Veronica Lazar, Luce Marquand, Gitt Magrini, Rachel Kesterber, Armand Ablanalp, Mimi Pinson, Catherine Breillat. PRODUCTION: Alberto Grimaldi per PEA, Artistes Associés per.
CSC - Cineteca Nazionale diffusioneculturale@fondazionecsc.it
