Maria Schneider, actress broken by simulated rape in Last Tango in Parishas become the emblem of violence against women in cinema. 50 years later, the canceled screening of the film at the Cinémathèque rekindles his trauma and our indignation.
Last Tango in Paris was born from a fantasy of the Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci. He had dreamed of meeting a stranger in the street and having sex with her without ever knowing her identity. This idea served as the basis for the screenplay that he developed with his friend Franco Arcalli.
The initial project called for a casting with Dominique Sanda in the lead female role, alongside Jean-Louis Trintignant. But Trintignant refused the role and Sanda, then pregnant, had to give up. Bertolucci then set his sights on a more surprising duo: Marlon Brando, a sacred Hollywood monster, and Maria Schneider, a young, almost unknown 19-year-old French actress.
The director admired Brando’s wild expressiveness and saw him as the ideal partner to play this mysterious and tortured lover. As for Maria Schneider, he was seduced by her rebellious and impetuous nature which fit perfectly with the character of Jeanne, this liberated but flayed woman. Bertolucci wanted to capture their chemistry on screen.
Brando, then 48 years old, had just gone through a difficult period. Depressed since the assassination of his partner Dorothy Killgallen, he had not filmed for several years. He accepted the role for a huge fee and a percentage of the takings. Schneider was a revelation of French cinema, spotted in Things in life by Claude Sautet. His fiery temperament and his instinctive play convinced Bertolucci.
The two actors only met the day before filming and the tension was palpable. Brando, uncomfortable with the dialogues, constantly improvised, destabilizing his young partner. Bertolucci encouraged this electric atmosphere and deliberately left doubt on the border between fiction and reality. He wanted to push his actors to their limits to obtain a raw and unfiltered result.
This climate of ambiguity reached its climax during the filming of the famous “butter scene“. In this incredibly violent sexual encounter, Paul’s character sodomizes Jeanne using butter as lubricant. Bertolucci and Brando had planned this scene without Schneider’s knowledge. When Brando imposed this forced relationship on him, his reaction of astonishment and disgust was authentic.
A shattered career and life
For years, Maria Schneider will carry the trauma of this sequence alone. Repeating to anyone who would listen that she had felt “humiliated“ et “a little violated“both by his partner and by the director who had orchestrated this sordid trap. Brando himself would later describe the filming as“horrible“ and of “pornographic“. At the time, no one really understood the seriousness of this abuse of power.
Because, beyond the physical violence of the scene, it is the entire ethics of the filming that raises questions. By breaking the boundary between play and reality, by betraying the trust of his actress, Bertolucci crossed a red line. He maintained the confusion between simulated rape and real rape, trampling on Schneider’s consent and dignity in the process. A symbolic crime of which she will forever bear the stigma.
Even today, Maria Schneider appears as a victim sacrificed on the altar of “genius“ and the “transgression“. Crushed by an industry dominated by men, her tragic journey highlights the latent misogyny of the industry and its contempt for the integrity of actresses. In a sense, Schneider’s fate prefigures that of other broken actresses like Adèle Haenel.
And The Last Tango made Maria Schneider internationally famous, it also started her descent into hell. Deeply bruised by this experience, the actress never really recovered. Associated in spite of herself with this sulphurous image, she played the roles of tortured and unstable young women, without ever finding the opportunity to shine.
Worse, the film has become a real curse. Schneider sank into drugs and depression, making multiple suicide attempts. His psychological fragility seriously jeopardized his career. Considered as “unmanageable“ by the producers, it became “non assurable“ and found herself blacklisted in Hollywood after having slammed the door on several shoots.
Until the end of her life in 2011, Maria Schneider struggled to free herself from this burden. Walled in silence for a long time, she ended up recounting her ordeal, with the hope of changing mentalities in cinema. Through her story, she wanted to warn young actresses and denounce the omnipotence of directors ready to do anything to achieve their ends. His testimony takes on a particular resonance today.
50 years later, the controversy continues
Half a century after its release, Last Tango in Paris continues to divide. Long adored by critics as a peak of transgression and audacity, the film has now been overtaken by its toxic past. Very recently, in December 2024, the screening planned at the Cinémathèque française revived the debate. Feminists and acting unions have called for a boycott, demanding that a “clear warning“ be given before broadcast.
For them, it is urgent to remember the abusive conditions of filming and the distress of Maria Schneider. Even if it means passing for “censors“they refuse to support the glamorization of a work which carries within it the trace of a rape. Faced with the outcry, the Cinémathèque ended up canceling the screening. An implicit admission of the urgency of re-examining the history of cinema in the light of women’s voices.
Because by blindly celebrating this misogynistic “masterpiece” without critical perspective, we perpetuate the culture of silence and omerta which has long reigned in the 7th Art. We continue to avoid uncomfortable questions about consent and abuse of power, in favor of the myth of “the all-powerful artist-tyrant“. A system running out of steam that is finally starting to crack.
More than a film, The Last Tango in Paris is the symbol of a bygone era when the desire of directors prevailed over the dignity of actresses. By making Maria Schneider collateral damage in his work, Bertolucci revealed his true face and that of a cinema built on male domination. An archaic and toxic model that urgently needs to be deconstructed. Maria Schneider’s last fight will not have been in vain!
