Faced with protests, the Cinémathèque finally cancels the screening of “Last tango in Paris”

Many feminist voices were raised to deplore the fact that the film, which includes a rape scene shot without the consent of actress Maria Schneider, was programmed without any educational support.

La projection of Last tango in Pariswhich was to take place this evening at the Cinémathèque française in Paris, was finally canceled. For several days, feminist associations and cinema personalities have criticized the choice of the heritage institution to program without any educational support the film by Bernardo Bertolucci (1972) which includes a rape scene shot without the consent of its actress Maria Schneider.

The institution made this decision “in order to calm minds and in the face of the security risks involved”she said in a tweet on Saturday, 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”reacted to AFP Frédéric Bonnaud, the director of the Cinémathèque. “Violent people were beginning to announce themselves and maintaining this projection preceded by a debate became a completely disproportionate risk. Too bad “he clarified.

The Last Tango in Paris was to be screened 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. The film 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 (simulated) sodomy.

“It’s time to wake up, dear Cinematheque, 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. Recently, while an investigation targeted Benoît Jacquot accused of control and rape by Judith Godrèche, the heritage association had canceled two of the filmmaker's films under pressure from civil society. The Cinémathèque had already canceled a retrospective dedicated to filmmaker Jean-Claude Brisseau at the end of 2017, convicted in 2005 for sexual harassment.

A scene imposed on the actress, without her knowing anything about it

The rape scene Last tango in Pariswhich earned the X-rated film the wrath of the Vatican, entered the history of cinema before symbolizing sexual violence in the 7th 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 all those who liked the film, 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. » 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 Mariareleased in June.

The journalist Chloé Thibaud, author of Desiring violence: what pop culture teaches us to loverhad also denounced “like a shame” the broadcast of the film “without anything to put it in context.” The 50/50 collective, which fights for parity in cinema, had also called on “meditation thoughtful and respectful of the words of the victim, the actress Maria Schneider” to accompany this screening. 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 significance of this rape scene”wrote the union, while ensuring compliance with the “freedom of expression”.

While defending his choice – the institution’s programming director Jean-François Rauger spoke on Friday in Telerama “a masterpiece that explores the relationship between director and performer” – the Cinémathèque then promised, on Friday, “a time for discussion with the public” upstream of the projection, at “about the questions” which he lifted. She ultimately preferred to cancel the event. Frédéric Bonnaud, however, persists in specifying that the film had been broadcast “no problem” at the Cinémathèque in 2017 “in homage to his cinematographer”.