the tendentious defense of the directors of the Cinémathèque in the National Assembly

Four leaders of the French Cinematheque (Paris, 12th) were summoned, Thursday January 16, 2025, by the National Assembly commission on violence committed in the artistic and media sectors.

They are accused of having wanted to screen “Last Tango in Paris”; a film marked by a rape scene shot without the consent of the actress; without having planned the slightest contextualization.

A rape scene filmed without the consent of the actress

The institution of cinephilia, with its international influence, has been in turmoil since December 2024. And for good reason, the Cinémathèque française had planned to screen “Last Tango in Paris” last month… without putting it in context. A film by Bernardo Bertolucci, dating from 1972, which includes a scene depicting a rape committed by Marlon Brando's character, filmed without the consent of the actress Maria Schneider.

Faced with the outcry that this had caused, the programming had logically been canceled 24 hours before the screening. The reason, then, officially given? Security reasons.

A file which finally landed, Thursday January 16, at the National Assembly commission on violence committed in the artistic and media sectors, during which four leaders of the institution were summoned.

A film with serious consequences

The programming of this film without context “has provoked a considerable number of reactions”, first recognized the filmmaker and president of the Costa-Gavras Cinematheque, in front of the president of the commission, the ecologist Sandrine Rousseau, and her MoDem rapporteur, Erwan Balanant. Before adding: “Our desire was far from provocation, it was to present an important work with a legendary actor, Marlon Brando”.

And to finally admit: “The film should have been the subject of a very detailed screening presentation and thorough because (it had) serious consequences, indisputably, on the life of Maria Schneider.”

“I take my responsibility in this refusal” to contextualize, he concluded. “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 ».

A mea culpa… which is not one

For his part, the general director of the Cinémathèque, Frédéric Bonnaud, assured that the board of directors of the Cinémathèque had just decided to “ take more into account during the presentation of certain films of the retrospective light that the passage of time, the evolution of society and the respect due to the victims ».

However, he defended at length, alongside the programmer, Jean-François Rauger, the Cinémathèque's desire to screen films that belong to “the history of cinema”, despite their filming conditions or the actions of their directors. Bertolucci, on “The Last Tango in Paris”, “for the sake of false realism and by using manipulation to filming Maria Schneider's unperformed surprisemade him undergo, against his will, a situation of extreme violence,” said Frédéric Bonnaud.

And to continue: “Nevertheless, the film belongs to the history of cinema because it knew capture a piece of the past the spirit of the times and the evolution of society”. Then to estimate, regarding the directors accused of violence: “we are on a narrow path, a difficult crest line […] On the one hand there is (their) artistic importance and the duty to show them, and on the other hand there are the facts and the evolution of society.”

The overwhelming liabilities of leaders

As a reminder, Frédéric Bonnaud had described, in 2018, on Mediapart, as “half-crazy” feminists who opposed the programming of a retrospective of the filmmaker Jean-Claude Brisseau, while Jean-François Rauger declared “can [-on] make good films without violatingthe actresses”.

The second, questioned on Thursday about this statement, explained that the verb rape had to be taken in the… “symbolic” sense. The commission, which has been conducting public hearings for months with dozens of officials or players in the sector, and giving voice to numerous victims, has notdidn't seem convinced. Its president said she was “very circumspect”.

“You have to understand that cinema is changing, because society is changing. […] The resistance of which you are one of the pillarsobviously, will not last very long because society is well ahead of you,” she also said. The hearings are due to end at the end of January, beginning of February, and its report is expected at the beginning of April 2025.

With AFP

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