This film is troubling yet in it's own way a masterpiece of cinema. Troubling because for some reason it feels as though the lead female character is being exploited. It's quite telling, in the film Jeanne yells about half way through "Last Tango In Paris" to her fiancé who is filming a cinema verite style film based on her "Find someone else for your film, I feel like im being exploited" this is telling, as years later maria Schneider who played Jeanne, told that she believed both the director Bertolucci and Brando were taking advantage of her, exploiting her. Not Brando in a sexual way, but in the way they used her for the film, she fell into drug abuse after, this film is like watching the taking of innocence, watching an older, male dominated, lecherous world take and use female youth, beauty and innocence for its own gain. The sleazy 1970's, the years of decadence and excess, hedonism, narcissism profoundly reverberate through this film. It's a character study alright, but not in the way its intended.
Review of Last Tango in Paris
