Last Tango in Paris

Steyn On-line ^ | December 1, 2018 | Mark Steyn

[Twotone]

Bernardo Bertolucci made many films, but only once in a long career was his art perfectly in tune with the cultural moment. The early Seventies was the heyday of cinema porn. Not porn films, which is (or was) a specialized genre. But films about sex and with extensive nudity that played your local fleapit as if they were no different from Herbie Gets Rear-Ended or whatever Disney was making back then. The breakout title was the Swedish hit I Am Curious (Yellow), in the wake of which came more films for the curious - Deep Throat, The Devil in Miss Jones - until it all more or less petered away in an Emmanuelle sequel too far: Emmanuelle, Emmanuelle 2, Emmanuelle In Paris, Emmanuelle In Bangkok, Emmanuelle In Shawinigan, etc. And suddenly cinematic sex, like so much real sex, was over almost as soon as it had begun, and the suburban porn movie was as obsolete a genre as silent comedy or singing-cowboy flicks. Now, instead of the good old days of community porn on Main Street, it's a participation sport on the Internet. A decade ago, Larry Flynt was reduced to applying to Washington for a federal bailout for the "adult entertainment industry": like the banks and auto-makers, it was supposed to be too big to fail, but then came the massive downturn, which is one thing you don't want to see in an "adult" film.

[Twotone]

This movie came out when I was a teenager, & to this day I've never seen it. Interesting that the death of the director now plays into the #MeToo movement. The left eats its own.

[Artemis Webb]

Go get the butter.

[BenLurkin]

It is a boring movie. And unless a person likes Brando, his voice is very soon annoying.

[Larry Lucido]

Rochelle Rochelle was much better than this, what did you say. Emmanuelle?

[dp0622]

LOL

I spent HOURS trying to get a GLIMPSE of the Emmanuelle movies on the station we didn’t get when I was a kid :)

Remember, with the shaking screen and the black and white lines in the middle of the TV :)

We had 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13.

I can’t remember what station was showing “incredibly distorted” Emanuelle.

[miss marmelstein]

I saw it on the recommendation of a good female friend who adored Marlon Brando (as I did and still do in many ways). I don't remember it being pornographic but then it was the 70s and we were a lot more liberal in those days. When I saw Annie Hall again several months ago in Manhattan, several of the female snowflakes walked out on that hilarious and seriously pointed film. We keep waxing and waning between puritanical and licentious in America in a degree I can no longer understand.

[Huskrrrr]

Maria Schneider was hot. Didn’t care much for Brando or the butter scene.

[Trump_the_Evil_Left]

Never saw it.... from the first I heard something of it LTIP seemed like glorified highly pretentious low brow porn claiming to be “high art”.....

[Williams]

The story itself is tragic and depressing. I think it’s meant to be a pathetic look at American males.

[wetgundog]

He raped her on film.

[newfreep]

"Rochelle Rochelle"...wasn't that the Broadway play that starred Bette Midler who was replaced when she was injured in a softball game?

[SMGFan]

Bertolucci introduced Eva Green in “The Dreamers” , what a fine introduction

[miss marmelstein]

I have the dvd which I’ve never opened. I don’t remember much about it.

[Huskrrrr]

Yes, I realize that. As a twenty-one year-old liberal, when I saw the film, I still considered that “art” in films. But I was really fascinated by Schneider. My perspective has changed drastically.

[miss marmelstein]

Oh, what bull. She was a wild child of the 60s & 70s who finally found some solace in being a victim. She signed the contract and gave a pretty wild audition as I remember. Brando had many, many faults but being a rapist was not one of them.

[bankwalker]

The one I remember was Carmen Baby.

[wetgundog]

If its OK with you, Its OK with me.

[PLMerite]

“We had 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13.”

So did I, between the DC and Baltimore stations.

[Big Red Badger]

Annie Hall!?!,
Perhaps Taxidriver.

[CaptainK]

Gato Barbieri’s soundtrack is one of the best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8dPNHriiZA