To simply violate a woman during the filming of this movie—an idea conceived by Marlon Brando and the director—is one of the most reprehensible acts imaginable. It does not matter if he is a talented artist or a skilled director; his actions essentially ruined the young woman's life. If you think this is trivial, let me see how you would feel if the same were done to you.

pretty good brando was great shocking ending on the waterfront and the godfather are good brando films too

A very immersive movie with a slow, voyeuristic vibe, but without any story complexity. Quite a bit of exposition. It was somewhat on the raw side with nude scenes and simulated sex. How the director could use such a young actress for that l have no idea. Its strongest points for me were the acting, which I couldn't fault, and the cinematography, which was often gorgeous.

A controversial film by Bertolucci in 1972. Brando at the peak of his career, and his performance looks terrifyingly realistic and improvised. Beautiful cinematography by Storaro as always. Story is mediocre but still worth watching.

Though it occasionally tries not to be, the film is incredibly humorous despite being a very sad film. Marlon Brando gives a truly remarkable performance here.

I don't think I have any idea what this was about or why I should like it….but I did like it and found Brandio and Schneider captivating and ridiculous simultaneously. Bought this one on DVD a long time ago and finally watched it.

10% rating ... I had troubles watching this. The romance was borderline creepy because Marlon Brando's character seemed very manipulative. A little off-putting in my opinion that made him an unlikeable character.

LTIP doesn't age well, and it exemplifies the problems I have with Bertolucci. Visually it is well made with great cinematography and camera movement, and the set pieces are beautiful. Brandon and Schneider give raw, unbridled performances, especially Brando. But it is muddled and overlong, and here in 2023 and knowing that this film and the director's behavior toward Schneider make it repulsive. I can't discount my knowledge of how this film ruined poor Maria's life and scarred her when still just a kid. This film, as is 1900, is abusive to its female characters and actors, and the sex and full nudity are often excessive and gratuitous. This is not because I'm prudish, but because I don't think his more egregious depictions were necessary to move the story forward, and they may have harmed the actors because of the director's actions. Film buffs should probably still see it, but it is distasteful IMO. One thing of note is that Bertolucci's treatment of Schneider is unwittingly referenced in the film through her scenes with her drippy director fiance, who uses her much as Bertolucci did IRL. This adds another layer, but doesn't make it easier to watch.

Half a star is too much.

Spoilers: Still a bombshell 50 years later. Self-absorbed American Brando is drifting, wounded by life, a dead wife who surprised him by her suicide. Angry, frustrated, sad. His soliloquy alone beside her dead body is a film classic moment. Angry at her, sadly with tears missing her, but feeling he never really knew her, and that she lied to him about who she was. A patron in the Paris hotel they ran together was also her lover, and Brando knew it.He has no family to lean on, no kids, except the wife's mother, whom he hates. So this existential reality is accompanied by the meet cute champion of all time, as he and Maria happened on one another as they separately were looking to rent the same apartment. He was seeking refuge in her, in sex, in familiarity, anything he could hold onto, and on the spot they screwed, with love not the issue. The nudity and some sex acts made this controversial half a century ago. He insisted they not exchange names and info on backgrounds. Her boyfriend, a pretentious filmmaker, sort of emphasizing the superficiality of what can sell in the world, didn't fulfill her, an actress, so she and Brando kept meeting and mating in the apartment that he rented. Maria was beautiful, sexy in an almost girlish face but the body of a real woman at age 20, and playful, funny, also searching for something, as Brando was playful and funny with her. When she finally said she would stay with Brando, 25 years her senior, he tested her, would she do what he told her all the time, and she said yes. But that introduced the angle of a sexist, patriarchal society, and finally it was enough for her to break from him and decide to marry her somewhat pathetic boyfriend. But they met again, as Brando sought and found her, and they went in a dancehall, where a real tango contest was on, ritualized tango partners not looking at one another, mimicking his insistence that he and she not really know one another. He had reformed, said he loved her and wanted to know her name, told her about himself, and wanted to be with her. She said it was over as they drank and danced, drunken, intrusively into the last dance, the one where the tango judges pick a winner and losers. She ran away from him to her home, he followed, grabbed her, she kept telling him to leave and grabbed a gun, and it took one shot to put Brando down. The final rejection by her was one too many, and he wouldn't take no for an answer, over the edge. I didn't know his name, he was trying to rape me, she repeated, lining up her story for the cops and the dead body. How do we face death, disappointment, betrayal, despair, pain and anger? This got way down to the bone, great acting. Do we think our partner doesn't love us but puts self first and takes instead of giving? We are shocked when he is shot, but not too surprised nor put off, as his narcissism won him this outcome. There was time for young Maria to right her ship after a flirt with raw, irresponsible, emotional behavior, but we didn't find out if she did.

Last Tango in Paris is a complex film, it's definitely not for the easily offended or those who are uneasy around sex and sexual behavior used in the form of artistic cinema. This is not pornography, for a number of reasons, the main being there is no sex scene in the film that is erotic for eroticism's sake. The sexual encounters and the apartment that they rendezvous at for said encounters, becomes a place outside of our all-seeing and social world, becoming a haven of sexual release and release as well as self-degradation. The film has some truly poetic and wonderfully filmed cinematography and great angles abound throughout. The music also lends itself wonderfully to the context and feel of the film creating a moody and eeriely secluded atmosphere. The film was lauded as the beginning to a new artistic emergence of sexual-freedom in cinema, not as a form of pornography but as a story with artistic value and deeper meaning, that simply used sexuality as a means to explore the inward battles and frustrations of it's characters. Marlon Brando is wonderfully animalistic and is clearly angry, frustrated, hurt and is overall an emotional wreck after his wife's suicide, due to unknown reasons, and his sexual exploits in the film are his way of releasing the pent-up anguish and frustration at his wife and those around him but mostly on himself. If you can deal with and/or accept the content and it's deeper meaning, you will find a lot to like here, however it is not for everyone.

Beautifully shot but not family picture. (Or first date.) (Blobbo find out hard way.)

Film di culto per l'elevato erotismo e per lo scandalo che fecero le scene più spinte in ambito sessuale. Quel che resta è proprio l'iconicità della depravazione sessuale e del coraggio di Bertolucci nel portare per la prima volta al cinema scene talmente esplicite da essere bannate dal cinema per diversi anni. La trama invecchia male, così come i suoi personaggi; molto teatrali e senza un vero sviluppo delle loro intenzioni e della loro personalità. i dialoghi durante le sequenze di sesso colpiscono per quanto sono diretti, anche in questo nelle restanti sequenze, questa peculiarità viene meno.

I'm kind of mixed on this one. It has its moments and potential, but ultimately ends up in an odd place. The movie literally begins with a rape, albeit with a somewhat willing participant. Jeanne is a young artist looking to experience the world, even the bizarre and decrepit, thus her reason for tolerating her sordid affair. But it all eventually breaks down as her more sober self rises to win the day. On the other hand, Paul is a distraught widow who's lost his wife to suicide. Is he to blame? Well, if you look at his relationship with Jeanne and how she's forced to exit the relationship, probably so. Brando allegedly gives a great performance, but if showing your ass and shouting vile epithets is a sign of greatness, I'll pass on that philosophy. In the end, it's just another hopeless, godless, self-indulgent film Hollywood loves to keep pushing out every year or two. The title and characters change, but the drudge remains the same.

I'll take, 'Movies That Have Become Controversial For Entirely Different Reasons Than They Started Out With' for 200, Alex. Originally drawing the ire of censors and conservative film critics alike for its graphic depictions of sex while receiving acclaim from more open-minded contemporaries for its depictions of characters that had been made subject to sincere emotional pain, Last Tango in Paris is now considered through the lens of Bertolucci's incredibly poorly aged tactics at eliciting responses from his leads (including what would today be considered sexual assault of lead actress Maria Schneider) and through the rather monstrous actions of Brando's Paul (which previously may have been considered off-color but not predatory like they may very well be today). Schneider's comments have made clear that the creative steps taken by the director (and perhaps her co-star as well) were completely unjustifiable, but I think that the declining interpretation of Paul's character actually helps the film, reinforcing the fact that the relationship between the two leads is an unhealthy reflex as a result of loss and pain. Late-career Brando, with his gruff voice, tendency to mumble, and lack of emotional intensity apart from shot outbursts actually fits the character quite well, embodying the volatility and depression that the character is coping with. There is clearly a vision here from the well-known writer-director (fresh off the success of two excellent films, The Conformist and The Spider's Stratagem), but controversy has haunted it since the day of release. It also has Brando talking about fucking dead rats and there is a lot of boring empty space (for emotion to fester, I guess?), so it's a toss up even if you gloss over the more controversial elements. Curiously, Bertolucci refused to show Brando's genitals given how much he claims to have identified with him despite filming a scene with them exposed, but had no issue doing the same when working with De Niro a few years later on 1900. I guess young Vito Corleone didn't command the same level of respect as old Vito Corleone. (3/5)

I recall some rave reviews decades ago when Bertolucci's "Last Tango in Paris" came out. Almost sorry I watched this film. What a wretched and sordid story.

For the uninitiated, anyone who plans on watching Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris with the expectation of it being a romance set in the city of love will be sorely disappointed. The film is an uneven combination of the profound and the profane. Paul (Marlon Brando) and Jeanne (Maria Schneider) meet when viewing an apartment for rent and immediately engage in a sexual relationship. However, sex in this film has little to do with love or romance – it is a weapon against rage, anger, frustration and a plethora of other negative emotions. At times, the movie is stylish and elegant under Bertolucci's direction, but can turn instantly into something crude and laughably pretentious.

Its themes are certainly controversial, and that has increased in today's politically correct climate. But it's an artistic haunting, gripping, vivid, provocative and shocking exploration on grief, pain, love, desire, romance, sex and human nature, anchored by excellent lead performances from Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider.

There's not much here besides the sex.

Not what I expected at all. It was more depressing and mentally disturbing than sexually stimulating. What an odd couple the two leads made. I was born in the 80's, so maybe I just don't understand the 70's much at all. I was also very confused by the plot with the lead girl's boyfriend/fiancé. It seemed extremely random and part of an entirely separate movie. Marlon Brando's acting was good, but I didn't even realize it was him until the movie was over.