Last Tango in Paris

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Last Tango in Paris (Italian: Ultimo Tango a Parigi) is a 1973 film directed by italian Bernardo Bertolucci, which tells the story of an American widower who is drawn into a sexual relationship with a young, soon-to-be-married parisian woman. It stars Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider and Jean-Pierre Léaud. The film was given an X rating by the MPAA upon initial release. After revisions were made to the MPAA ratings code, it was classified as an NC-17, in 1997. MGM released an R-rated cut in 1981.

The main stars should have been Dominique Sanda, who developed the original idea with Bertolucci, and Jean-Louis Trintignant, but Trintignant refused to do it, and when Brando accepted Sanda was pregnant, and decided not to do it.

The movie was written by Bernardo Bertolucci, Franco Arcalli and Agnès Varda (additional dialogue) and was novelized by Robert Alley. It was directed by Bertolucci and cinematography by Vittorio Storaro. Agnès Varda also based the last scenes on the death of Jim Morrison in Paris that occurred the previous year.

The orchestral jazz soundtrack was composed by Gato Barbieri, and arranged and conducted by Oliver Nelson.

The film caused a tremendous scandal for an anal sex scene featuring the use of butter as a lubricant. The scene is not explicit by contemporary standards — no penetration or ejaculation was shown.

It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Marlon Brando) and Best Director (Bernardo Bertolucci).

In reference to the anal-sex scene, Ms. Schneider was quoted in the July 23, 2007, issue of the New York Post (which in turn got the quote from London's Daily Mail) as saying: "That scene wasn't in the original script. The truth is it was Marlon who came up with the idea . . . I should have called my agent or had my lawyer come to the set because you can't force someone to do something that isn't in the script." As they shot the scene, "I was crying real tears. I felt humiliated and, to be honest, I felt a little raped . . . Thankfully, there was just one take." Ms. Schneider was 19 years old when she appeared in the film.

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Last updated on Thursday March 13, 2008 at 11:32:12 PDT (GMT -0700)
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