France: La Cinémathèque cancels a screening of “Last Tango in Paris”

A screening of “Last Tango in Paris” (1972), a film including a rape scene shot without the consent of its actress Maria Schneider, was canceled 24 hours before by the Cinémathèque française, in the face of an outcry from feminist associations.

The institution took this decision “in a concern to appease minds and in view of the security risks incurred”, it said on Saturday in a tweet, a few days after the trial of director Christophe Ruggia, tried for sexual assault on actress Adèle Haenel when she was between 12 and 14 years old.

“We are a film library, not an entrenched camp. And we cannot take risks with the safety of staff and the public,” Frédéric Bonnaud, director of the Cinémathèque, responded to AFP. “Violent people were beginning to announce themselves and maintaining this projection preceded by a debate became a completely disproportionate risk. Too bad,” he said.

“It’s time to wake up dear Cinematheque”

The Cinémathèque had already canceled a retrospective dedicated to filmmaker Jean-Claude Brisseau at the end of 2017, convicted in 2005 for sexual harassment. “Last Tango in Paris” was to be screened on Sunday at 8:00 p.m. as part of a retrospective devoted to the American actor Marlon Brando.

A choice strongly denounced by actress Judith Godrèche, figure of the #MeToo movement in France, who deplored the lack of contextualization of the film and the lack of respect towards actress Maria Schneider who died in 2011, after a damaged life.

“It’s time to wake up, dear Cinémathèque, and give back to the 19-year-old actresses (Maria Schneider’s age at the time of filming, editor’s note) their humanity by behaving humanly,” she wrote on Instagram.

“The director planned the attack”

The film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci evokes the relationship between an American widower passing through Paris and a very young woman. This closed session, both sexual and morbid, reaches its climax in a scene of non-consensual sodomy.

This scene, which earned the X-rated film the wrath of the Vatican, entered the history of cinema before symbolizing sexual violence in the seventh art years later. Because, although simulated, the scene was imposed on the actress, without her knowing anything about it.

What Hollywood actresses like Jessica Chastain denounced during the emergence of the #MeToo movement in 2017. “To everyone who liked the movie, you are watching a 19 year old girl being raped by a 48 year old man. The director planned the attack. It makes me sick.”

“Filming and broadcasting rape remains reprehensible”

From the 1970s, Maria Schneider kept silent about this traumatic filming, evoking a double rape on the part of the actor and the director who had decided on the scene without talking to her. She will barely be heard, as shown in the film “Maria,” released in June.

The 50/50 collective, which fights for parity in cinema, also called on the Cinémathèque on

For its part, the SFA-CGT union recalled that “filming and broadcasting rape remains reprehensible”. “Today we know. We cannot pretend not to understand and see the scope of this rape scene,” wrote the union, while ensuring that it respects “freedom of expression.”

The Cinémathèque had promised on Friday “time for discussion with the public” before the screening, “about the questions” it raised. “This film will have succeeded in causing a scandal twice more than 50 years later,” estimates Frédéric Bonnaud, recalling that it was broadcast “without problem” at the Cinémathèque in 2017 “in homage to its cinematographer”.

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