Also interviewed, the general director of the institution, Frédéric Bonnaud, and its programmer, Jean-François Roger, shared this mea-culpa, but also sought to defend the position of the Cinémathèque, much criticized by feminists on these subjects.
France Télévisions – Culture Editorial
Published on 16/01/2025 17:47
Reading time: 2min
The directors of the Cinémathèque française made a mea-culpa on Thursday January 16 before the parliamentary commission on sexual violence, for not having put in context a screening of the Last Tango in Parisfinally canceled.
In December 2024, a screening of this 1972 film by Bernardo Bertolucci, including a scene depicting a rape shot without the consent of its actress Maria Schneider, was canceled 24 hours before, officially for security reasons, in the face of an outcry from associations feminists. The programming of this film without context “aroused a considerable number of reactions”recognized the filmmaker and president of the Costa-Gavras Cinematheque at the National Assembly, before the commission on violence committed in the artistic and media sectors.
“Our desire was far from provocation, it was to present an important work with a legendary actor”Marlon Brando, he added. “The film should have been the subject of a very detailed and in-depth screening presentation because (it had) serious consequences, indisputably, on the life of Maria Schneider”continued Costa-Gavras.
“I take responsibility for this refusal” to contextualize, he added. “I deeply regret that we did not plan to accompany the presentation of the film with a specialist. (…) It is a lesson for the future.”
Frédéric Bonnaud announced that the Board of Directors of the Cinémathèque had just decided to “take greater account when presenting certain films of the retrospective light cast on these works by the passage of time, the evolution of society and the respect due to the victims.”
