Posted 2016/12/04
Last Tango In Paris director Bernardo Bertolucci has just confirmed what co-star Maria Schneider has long said about the film’s most controversial moment: the brutal rape scene was shot without her full consent.
In a Q&A filmed at La Cinémathèque française in Paris, Bertolucci, 73, admitted that he and legendary actor Marlon Brando, who was 48 at the time, came up with the idea to use a stick of butter to rape Maria Schneider onscreen the morning of the shoot because he wanted her reaction "as a girl, not as an actress." He said that he and Schneider, who died in 2011, never saw one another after the film because she hated him.
“I think she hated me and also Marlon because we didn’t tell her that there was that detail of the butter used as lubricant,” he said.
Although he admitted that not telling her the plan was “horrible”, Bertolucci said he didn’t regret how he decided to direct the scene.
The veteran director went on to explain how the idea came to light after breakfast with the then 48-year-old Brando.
"We were having, with Marlon [Brando], breakfast on the floor of the flat where I was shooting," he said.
"There was a baguette, there was butter and we looked at each other and, without saying anything, we knew what we wanted."
Schneider, 19 at the time of filming, told Das she “felt a little raped both by Brando and Bertolucci,” and described how the scene came to be:
That scene wasn’t in the original script. The truth is it was Marlon who came up with the idea. … They only told me about it before we had to film the scene and I was so angry. I should have called my agent or had my lawyer come to the set because you can’t force someone to do something that isn't in the script, but at the time, I didn’t know that. Marlon said to me, “Maria, don't worry, it’s just a movie,” but during the scene, even though what Marlon was doing wasn't real, I was crying real tears. I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci. After the scene, Marlon didn't console me or apologize. Thankfully, there was just one take.
Last Tango in Paris, which was made in 1972 and tells the story of a man who enters into an anonymous affair after his wife takes her own life, shocked audiences when it was released due to its graphic depictions of sex and rape and is still considered to be controversial. The film's director was put on trial for obscenity in Italy after the release of the film. Copies of the film were destroyed at the time and Bertolucci was served with a four-month suspended sentence in prison and denied his civil (including voting) rights for five years.
'Last Tango in Paris' earned Brando a best actor Oscar nomination and Bertolucci a best director nomination.
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