Maybe at the time this movie came out it was considered an arty, deep movie that examined the sexual relationship of its two stars but I think it has not aged well. I considered the movie rather pretentious and the leads, Brando and Maria Schneider, were not really that appealing enough to care about. Maria Schneider played the sex object and admittingly she was a hot babe with a wonderful body but that was all she was. She seemed a rather confused, spoiled young girl that got involved in an, at times brutal, sexual relationship with a man who would be called, in today's parlance, abusive. Brando was a bully in this movie almost raping Maria Schneider in the beginning and verbally abusing an older woman later. The mother of his dead wife came to bury her daughter and Brando was so cruel to her that she raised her arms in defense to ward off a blow. She may have been a pain in the butt to Brando but I think his character's treatment of her was unjustifiably mean. He was also a bully towards Maria Schneider's character. Maybe this tone was acceptable at the time but I found it distasteful. Possibly the ending was justified given this tone. Brando did give some fine performances is some scenes especially during his talk with his wife's corpse. Unfortunately overall the movie failed for me because I never really developed any empathy for the leads. Brando did elicited some sympathy for his grief but his character was too cruel to really care about. Maria Schneider is not that great an actress and her character was too dippy and immature to care about. I only wanted her to disrobe. For that she was cast perfectly.
Review of Last Tango in Paris
