Review of Last Tango in Paris

I am happy I watched this movie before seeing all the reviews, so I didn't have this preconceived "sex" attitude. TO me "Last tango in Paris" is a special movie. I can watch it again and again and it will remain as powerful as it was when I had watched it for the first time. To me it is more that a movie. I saw it for the first time some 10 years ago as a teenager and I remember being mesmerized by the special mood that pervaded the whole movie. And those images. Grey Paris, city of loneliness, the lonely figure of Brando, the girl in a ridiculous hat. Then, the sex in the empty apartment devoid of all signs of normality, a strange relationship between two strangers, who have sex and still remain as separate and alienated as two people can be. She, young , curious, full of life, going to be married. Him, old, disillusioned, in the end of his life-journey, tormented by the pain of the loss of his wife who had brutally left him committing a suicide without explanation, without a note. And so they meet in this naked apartment, engage in the sex devoid of any tenderness, him, dominating her, setting the rules for the game where there is no names, no reality. And during those moments he escapes from the world around him, from the suicide of his wife, from the pain of the existence. She is strangely attracted to him, captivated by his power, lets herself be part of this game. She lets him do whatever he likes with her, but she knows she is free, she can leave this empty apartment at any moment.And she does. She is young and returns back to the normal life with her young fiancé. The last scenes of the dance and the chase are so powerful. The old man making a mickey of himself in front of the dancing crowd, playfully chasing the young girl who is visibly scared up into that empty apartment where everything had started. That last scene of him dying on the balcony like a stray dog is still haunting me. There is so much of the existentialist despair in the movie and the final release of that despair is so crude and powerful and beautiful in its bareness.

Altogether it is a piece of art so close to the existentialist writers and painters of the 20th century. It is about human condition, about the hell of existence, about no escape. and at the same time it is so full of emotions, of sadness and fear, of pain, and it is so beautiful.