A scene from Bertolucci's film screened on Sunday at the Cinémathèque in Paris shows a rape filmed without the consent of the actress, in 1972. Several personalities spoke out to denounce this choice.
Published on 14/12/2024 09:15
Reading time: 2min
Personalities, authors and journalists are raising their voices. The Cinémathèque in Paris is organizing a screening of the Last Tango in Parisa film by Bernardo Bertolucci released in 1972, which has always been controversial. It includes a rape scene by Marlon Brando, unwritten and suffered by actress Maria Schneider.
On social networks, the author and journalist Chloé Thibaud, who notably wrote Desiring Violence, recently sounded the alarm. “It is a duty for society to no longer present these films without any context.” Showing this film, a symbol of male domination, is a “sputum” like Maria Schneider, who died in 2011, whose young career was turned upside down with this scene, continues Chloé Thibaud: “She spoke several times, she explained how immensely painful it was for her to see that the film continued to be shown, to see that she continued to be associated with this film. But that, the Cinémathèque refuses to do so.”
On X, the president of the commission of inquiry into sexist and sexual violence in cinema, audiovisual and performing arts Sandrine Rousseau “summons the Cinémathèque on this delusional choice of screening the film and the rape to which it was the occasion.”
The Cinémathèque, already targeted in 2018 for having organized a retrospective of the work of Roman Polanski, did not respond to franceinfo's requests. But on Instagram, the establishment specifies that the projection of Last Tango in Paris will be preceded by a “time for discussion with the public”.
In an email sent to Chloé Thibaud, programmer Jean-François Rauger defends a film “important”and refuses to give in to what he considers to be “menaces”. A mobilization could well disrupt the session on Sunday evening.
