Wednesday June 19 is released in cinemas, the film Mariathe biopic of actress Maria Schneider who became famous by starring in the film Last Tango in Paris. The opportunity to explain to you why this film caused scandal twice, 45 years apart. Released in 1972, this cult film tells the story of Paul, a widowed forty-year-old, played by Marlon Brandoand Jeanne, a young woman about to get engaged, played by Maria Schneider.
The two of them meet by chance while visiting an apartment for rent in Paris where, overcome by sexual urges, they will secretly indulge in erotic frolics without taboos. With this famous scene at the unforgettable line “Pass me the butter”. But this scene wasn’t really planned.
This is the crux of the problem and the double scandal. The first is that upon release, the film is prohibited for under-18s in Francerated And to see all the copies of the film condemned by the courts to be destroyed. This will not be the case but Italians will have to wait until 1988 to see the film in cinemas. As for Marlon Brando, faced with the outcry at the release, he disavowed this film.
A non-consensual sexual scene by Maria Schneider
However, Marlon Brando was not initially supposed to star in this production. His role was first offered to Jean-Louis Trintignant, Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo. But Marlon Brando, on set, quickly becomes unmanageableimposing things on Bernardo Bertolucci, unable to oppose him.
This is precisely the source of the second scandal in 2016. A few months before the appearance of the MeToo hashtag, an interview with the Italian director resurfaced. Given three years earlier, he admits that this famous sodomy scene, which did not appear in the script, he decided that very morning to shoot it. At breakfast while with Marlon Brando, he buttered his toast.
But Maria Schneider didn’t know about it. Bernardo Bertolucci wanted to take her by surprise to get the most realistic reaction possible from her. And her tears in the film during this scene are real.
Afterwards, Maria Schneider said she had the “feeling of rape”. The producers will subsequently only offer her libertine roles, she will endure stupid jokes for life and will end up falling into depression, drugs and suicide attempts. Before dying in 2011, at age 58.
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