Last Word on the Last Tango
The death of actress Maria Scheider at 58, after a long illness, has revealed the tragic story surrounding one of the most iconic films of the 1970's. Last Tango in Paris featured an unknown 19-year old Schneider and the magnetic Marlon Bramdo in a torrid romance that director Bernardo Bertolucci later admitted was simply the enactment of his own sexual fantasies.
Schneider said that she felt 'raped' by the film. She had a breakdown shortly afterwards and never fully recovered, battling for years with drug addiction and moving through serial broken relationships. Brando also claimed that the movie 'raped, humilaited and violated' him, and refused for 15 years to even speak to its director. Both actors said that they wished the film had never been made. And even Bertolucci, speaking after Schneider's death, expressed regret that he had never found occasion to apologise to her. "Maria accused me of having robbed her of her youth" he said, "and only today am I wondering whether there wasn't some truth to that."
What is fascinating about these comments is what they reveal about perspective. In 1972 the film was seen as 'sensational'. It was received as 'art'. It pushed the boundaries of cinema for audiences across the world. It broke the mould. It entered the consciousness of millions. But 38 years later all the key people involved express regret, and the actors who gave their minds and bodies to the screen use the language of rape. What does this mean for us? That no piece of art or culture can ever be evaluated in the moment of its creation. That sensation is not art. That even artists who believe themselves, in the moment, to be honest and authentic and true to themselves may later say otherwise. Strangely the many people who refused to see the film; who avoided it like the plague and may even have complained about it, have had no cause to regret their actions.
Culture is not created in a moral vacuum. Art is not above reproach. In all the stories we tell about ourselves, we need a narrative big enough and wide enough to save us from such folly. The tragedy of Schneider is that, at 19, she didn't have a story strong enough to speak a different truth about herself. The tragedy of the last Tango is that a director's grubby fantasy was the best narrative that anyone could come up with. 38 years is time enough to show it - we need a story that is bigger than ourselves.
