Last Tango in Paris

Theatrical Release Date: 1973 02 01 (USA)

UPC: 883904230373

Studio: MGM

MPAA Rating: NC17   Contains:[Strong Sexual Content, Not For Children]

Summary: In Bernardo Bertolucci's art-house classic, Marlon Brando delivers one of his characteristically idiosyncratic performances as Paul, a middle-aged American in "emotional exile" who comes to Paris when his estranged wife commits suicide. Chancing to meet young Frenchwoman Jeanne (Maria Schneider), Paul enters into a sadomasochistic, carnal relationship with her, indirectly attacking the hypocrisy all around him through his raw, outrageous sexual behavior. Paul also hopes to purge himself of his own feelings of guilt, brilliantly (and profanely) articulated in a largely ad-libbed monologue at his wife's coffin. If the sexual content in Last Tango is uncomfortably explicit (once seen, the infamous "butter scene" is never forgotten), the combination of Brando's acting, Bertolucci's direction, Vittorio Storaro's cinematography, and Gato Barbieri's music is unbeatable, creating one of the classic European art movies of the 1970s, albeit one that is not for all viewers. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Best Director – Directors Guild of America Best Picture - Drama – null Best Director – null Best Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Actor – New York Film Critics Circle Best Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Director – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Actor – National Society of Film Critics

Last Tango in Paris

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 02/15/2011

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DD1 Dolby Digital Mono, DHMA null

Runtime: 129 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French,Spanish

Subtitles: French

Region: Blu-ray region A (North America, Central America, South America, Japan, Taiwan, North Korea, South Korea, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia)

Dan Jardine

Ironically, the film that heralded the arrival of a mainstream adult cinema, with its frank and often brutal depiction of impersonal (and often nearly fully clothed) sex, was actually one of the last films to give such raw and uncompromising treatment to the subject matter. Last Tango in Paris certainly ranks among Marlon Brando's greatest acting achievements (he improvised a significant portion of his part), as he makes us care about his distraught, damaged, misogynistic character. Director Bernardo Bertolucci's favorite cameraman, Vittorio Storaro, provides cadaverous color that moves through a half-lit space as evocatively as it travels through the character's emotions. The characters of Paul and Jeanne (Maria Schneider, in an often overlooked but remarkably vulnerable performance) spend the film enveloped in a sexual cocoon, engaging in animalistic acts of passion in order to escape or ignore their lives on the "outside." Such subject matter has rarely (if ever) been treated with such emotional and intellectual seriousness; while one may question the film's conclusions (Paul's declaration of love leads to his death), it is an inescapably bold film, untempered by a fear of public disgust or outrage -- much of which it in fact received at the time, despite (and partly because of) the equally strong favorable views of such critics as Pauline Kael, who called it "a landmark in movie history" comparable to Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring in music. ~ Dan Jardine, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Dan Diament  Actor 
Laura Betti  Actor 
Catherine Breillat  Actor 
Jean-Marc Bory  Actor 
Darling Legitimus  Actor 
Peter Schommer  Actor 
Marie-Helene Breillat  Actor 
Gitt Magrini  Actor 
Michel Delahaye  Actor 
Giovanna Galletti  Actor 
Catherine Sola  Actor 
Jean-Luc Bideau  Actor 
Veronica Lazar  Actor 
Mauro Marchetti  Actor 
Bernardo Bertolucci  Director 
Bernardo Bertolucci  Screenwriter 
Alberto Grimaldi  Producer 
Franco Arcalli  Screenwriter 
Dory Previn  Composer (Music Score) 
Gato Barbieri  Composer (Music Score) 
Marlon Brando  Actor 
Maria Schneider  Actor 
Maria Michi  Actor 
Jean-Pierre Léaud  Actor 
Massimo Girotti  Actor 
Catherine Allegret  Actor 

Country: France,Italy