Ultimo tango a Parigi (Last Tango in Paris)

[pro-bassoonist]

Coming soon to Gallic markets: Bernardo Bertolucci's Ultimo tango a Parigi a.k.a Last Tango in Paris (1972). Specs and release date will be added up later on.

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Richard Dewes:

Maybe not the first art-house film with explicit sex, but certainly the most famous. Marion Brando and Maria Schneider play the couple who, meeting accidently in a vacant Paris flat, agree at his instigation to see each other regularly for sex, divulging nothing of their identities or personal lives. This they do for a while until the pressure of expectation from both sides unleashes a murderous catharsis.

The film broke new ground, primarily because this kind of violent, thrusting, uninhibited passion had never before been shown so clearly. It's the emotional oppoaite of the soft-focus couplings we see in most other films; the extreme frankness here makes faintly uncomfortable viewing. Partly this is because the film is framed by Francis Bacon paintings on the credits, suggesting the exaggerated corporeality of the protagonists: denied emotional connections, their union is reduced to the thunderous collision of a couple of slabs of meat. But partly it's because it's never really clear what motivates Jeanne (Schneider). Paul (Brando) says he's "taking a flying flick at a rolling doughnut" after his wife's suicide - but what's in it for Jeanne, beyond the dubious fulfillment of a hoary male fantasy? Count how many times you see her naked, and compare it to how much screen time his bits get.

We're toying with exploitation here, but then maybe that's inevitable in a film dealing with this kind of subject. Even more than In the Realm of the SensesLast Tango is the sex-film in extremis, and the voyeuristic portrayal of women may just go with the territory. But the lasting power of the film, reprehensible though it possibly is, is in its ability to force us to think about it.

Pro-B

[adamhopelies]

Amazing news. Any thoughts on forced subs?

[McCrutchy]

For whatever reason, I have never seen this film in its entirety--I started it and never finished it. I will import if there are English subs or audio for the non-English dialog.

[Bruce Morrison]

IIRC, some of the dialogue is in French (the scenes involving Jean-Pierre Leaud). So we would need English subs for the French dialogue and non-forced French subs for the rest of the film. Hmmm... might be a tall order for a French BD.

[discking]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Coming soon to Gallic markets: Bernardo Bertolucci's Ultimo tango a Parigi a.k.a Last Tango in Paris (1972). Specs and release date will be added up later on.

Pro-B

Any info on if this is a new telecine from best elements or just a BD release of the same old master used for the very poor DVDs out there?

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by discking

Any info on if this is a new telecine from best elements or just a BD release of the same old master used for the very poor DVDs out there?

Discking,

All I could tell you at the moment is that this release will not be exclusive. There will be other European releases in 2011.

Pro-B

[pro-bassoonist]

Tragic news. Rest in Peace, Maria.

http://blog.movies.yahoo.com/blog/54...er-has-died?nc

'Last Tango in Paris' Actress Maria Schneider Has Died

When you're a young, beautiful and largely unknown actress, one of the biggest decisions you'll have to face is whether or not you're willing to appear nude in a movie that could launch your career. There's no right or wrong answer to that question -- each actress has to decide that for herself -- but in the case of Maria Schneider, who died this morning in Paris at the age of 58, she said yes. The film was "Last Tango in Paris." And it changed her life -- for better and for worse.

The French actress was only 19 when Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci cast her in the movie opposite the much more experienced and acclaimed Marlon Brando. (He was also much older: 48.) Released at the end of 1972, "Last Tango in Paris" was an instant scandal, telling the unlikely story of two strangers -- an American widower (Brando) and an engaged French woman (Schneider) -- who meet in Paris and decide to have anonymous sexual trysts with each other in an empty apartment. (How anonymous? The widower insists that they not reveal their names or anything about themselves.) Catching the film at its premiere at the New York Film Festival, New Yorker critic Pauline Kael memorably rhapsodized in her review, declaring that "Last Tango" had "altered the face of an art form ... This is a movie people will be arguing about, I think, for as long as there are movies." Sexually explicit in a way movies never were before and have only rarely been since, "Last Tango in Paris" was really about alienation and the disconnect between sex and love, but its legacy has ended up being that it was banned throughout the world and that, yes, it contains one of the most shocking love scenes of all time. We won't show you that, but the film's original trailer gives a decent hint of the movie's libidinous, artsy trappings.

Instantly, Schneider was a star, and from all accounts she handled it very badly. For one thing, she had to contend with producers and directors who just wanted her to be nude in their projects. "Marlon was shy about his body, but nudity wasn't a problem for me in those days as I thought it was beautiful," she said in 2007. Still, "I never went naked in a movie again after 'Last Tango,' even though I was offered many such roles."

She also wasn't ready for the media attention that would come with such a naked (both physically and emotionally) part. She got into drugs, overdosing a few times. She tried to kill herself at least once.

But her fame brought her to the attention of another revered Italian director, Michelangelo Antonioni, who cast her alongside another iconic American actor, Jack Nicholson, for "The Passenger." And while some of the sexual politics of "Last Tango" haven't aged well, Antonioni's 1975 film remains pretty stunning. In it, Nicholson plays an emotionally lost journalist who assumes the identity of a dead man and starts a new life, with Schneider being the young woman he meets along the way for a journey that's as much about geography as it is about mental distance from his past.

But despite landing a major role that would help people forget about "Last Tango" some, Schneider was still very uncomfortable with celebrity, although she did move to Los Angeles around that time to find work in Hollywood. In an interview with Roger Ebert after the release of "The Passenger," she talked about her feelings regarding Southern California: "It's hard to talk to the people here. They're very shallow. All they talk about is their look, their hair and their screwing. But I love to act, and here is the place to come for the movies."

Very little came from it, however, and soon she was making European movies again. But though she kept working, her career never was the same again. Perhaps that was for the best. Even four years ago, she sounded like someone still reeling from the experience of her infamous first role. For the 35th anniversary of "Last Tango," she told a writer, "It's amazing. I've made 50 films in my career and 'Last Tango' is 35 years old, but it's still the one that everyone asks me about." She didn't seem particularly pleased with that fact -- in the same interview, she badmouthed Bertolucci. "I think Bertolucci is overrated and he never really made anything after 'Last Tango' that had the same impact," she said. "He was fat and sweaty and very manipulative ... and would do certain things to get a reaction from me."

But if she was somewhat bitter about parts of her past, she was nonetheless in a better place. She had kicked drugs. She had found love, presumably with a woman she'd been with for decades. "I was very lucky," she said in 2007. "I lost many friends to drugs, but I met someone in 1980 who helped me stop. I call this person my angel and we've been together ever since. I don't say if it's a man or a woman. That's my secret garden. I like to keep it a mystery."

For an actress who learned early in the career the dangers of leaving yourself bare, it was probably a great comfort at the end of her life to actually have some mysteries to call her own.

"Last Tango in Paris" star Schneider dies

PARIS (Reuters) – French actress Maria Schneider, whose role as Marlon Brando's lover in "Last Tango in Paris" won her lifelong fame but also an image that she found difficult to shake off, has died. She was 58.

French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterand called Schneider "a great artist" and saluted her ability to convey ambiguity on the screen, at once seductive and enigmatic, when working with directors like Rene Clement and Bernardo Bertolucci.

"She remains the singular image of today's woman, one of those living conduits of female liberty who is eternally reconquering a new generation," he said in a statement.

Le Figaro newspaper quoted her family as saying she had died on Thursday morning in Paris after a long illness.

The daughter of French actor Daniel Gelin and a Parisian bookshop owner, Schneider was 19 when she was cast opposite Brando, who was 48.

Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris was controversial at the time of its release in 1972 for its sexual content, and Schneider later struggled with her image as a sex symbol, refusing to appear in a nude scene ever again.

In a 2007 interview with Britain's Daily Mail newspaper, she said the Italian director was "over-rated".

"He was fat and sweaty and very manipulative, both of Marlon and myself," she said.

"I was too young to know better. Marlon later said that he felt manipulated, and he was Marlon Brando, so you can imagine how I felt. People thought I was like the girl in the movie, but that wasn't me.

"I felt very sad because I was treated like a sex symbol - I wanted to be recognized as an actress and the whole scandal and aftermath of the film turned me a little crazy and I had a breakdown."

According to online biographies, Schneider struggled with drug abuse in the 1970s, but turned her life around with the help of a long-term partner. She deliberately did not say whether it was a man or a woman.

Although Schneider appeared opposite Jack Nicholson in "The Passenger" in 1975, her subsequent acting career consisted mostly of undistinguished, low-budget European films such as "Memoirs of a French *****" (1979) and "Mama Dracula" (1980).

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White and Nick Vinocur, editing by Paul Casciato)

Pro-B

[discking]

Really looking forward to the Blu-Ray.Com review of this title...

[duggie walker]

I just got the US release of this and I can tell you the various screenshots around don't do it justice.

I've seen TANGO projected and, in motion, this BD does it proud. It's not pin-sharp (TANGO never was) but this is one of the most beautiful, film-like transfers I've seen. In motion, it's terrific.

I'm disappointed in the lack of extras, given how important the film is, but the quality of the image is good enough to make this a must-own. Full marks to Fox/MGM for not applying any nasty DNR or artificial sharpening.

[discking]

Is "Last Tango..." on the "to do" list for any of the Blu-Ray.Com reviewers? There seem to be some mixed feelings out there. I was pretty skeptical when I saw the DVD Beaver screen shots -- they looked awful. But having seen the disc itself now I have to say it's not all that bad. Still very noisy in the blacks, and probably the same old transfer that's been used in the past DVD editions. But it was sort of acceptable, although I would have preferred a pristine new restored transfer of course...

[pro-bassoonist]

Yes. The U.S. disc will be covered by one of my colleagues shortly.

Don't judge anything by screencapture posted at DVDBEAVER. They are heavily compressed and never representative of what is stored on the disc.

Pro-B

[nitin]

but you can click on screencaptures for a non-copressed version I thought?

[discking]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Yes. The U.S. disc will be covered by one of my colleagues shortly. Pro-B

That's unfortunate. I was really looking forward to one of your high end Euro perspective reviews of the disc. Maybe you could have a go at the probably identical FR release when time permits.

[duggie walker]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Yes. The U.S. disc will be covered by one of my colleagues shortly.

Don't judge anything by screencapture posted at DVDBEAVER. They are heavily compressed and never representative of what is stored on the disc.

Pro-B

Actually, in this instance, I'd say the "beaver shots" are reasonably representative of how the film would look if you freeze-framed it. It's not a pin-sharp image. What no screenshot can ever capture is the film in motion and this is where the Blu-ray scores highly. Like I said, I watched it on a 65" screen and it was almost like watching a projected image; a great deal of texture.

The soundtrack is a little thin - there's not much bass frequency - but 'twas ever thus.

Much as I'm disappointed by the lack of bells and whistles, I really don't see how the film transfer itself could be much-improved upon, without deploying the techniques we profess to disapprove of here i.e dnr, ee, reconstructed foleys etc

This is the best this has ever looked. If one embraces the limitations of the original stock, you can buy with confidence.

[discking]

Originally Posted by duggie walker

This is the best this has ever looked. If one embraces the limitations of the original stock, you can buy with confidence.

I agree, it looks fairly good, although a new transfer/restoration still would have helped. It's almost impossible -- no, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE -- for a younger viewer in today's world to comprehend what a sensation and scandal this film was when it was released. It's a mistake to fixate on the nudity. It was the idea of the film and the exotic nature of the relationship, in a post-1960s world, and the directness with which certain subjects were portrayed, that was jarring and exciting to audiences at the time. Much of the approach was common in the Euro cinema of the era, but this was a major international film with a then huge star, not some art house flic that only a few students or people far away from your own life had seen.

I saw it in a theater in London, on its original theatrical run, and the theater was packed elbow to elbow, the audience waiting for the film to begin with keyed up anticipation, people queued up for every show.

There just had ever been anything like it. At that time the availability of "erotic" materials was still a shady business, and public use of erotic imagery and stories was still highly censored and, if done at all, done with discretion and more by allusion. To have a major star like Brando in a film like this was a sensation. And you can't forget this was all pre-video tape, pre DVD, pre Internet, pre everything we take for granted in media availability today.

There was NO REPEATABLE FILM MEDIA other than going to a theater to watch the film again. People were just fixated on the film, talked about it all over, and were highly agitated about it. When the lights went up you really felt like you had been through something, and seen something important. Today you just put the disc in and say, "Oh that's nice, sort of interesting, blah blah blah...".

It's just impossible, in today's world, for a film, any film, to ever have that sort of impact again.

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by duggie walker

This is the best this has ever looked. If one embraces the limitations of the original stock, you can buy with confidence.

There is no argument here, you are absolutely correct, and I completely agree with you. But the screencaptures posted there are always filtered (compressed); they do not replicate the actual grain structure and detail of the transfer. With DVD screencaptures the situation is even worse.

Originally Posted by discking

Maybe you could have a go at the probably identical FR release when time permits.

OK, I will do my best to cover the French release perhaps next month (for the next week to 10 days I am completely booked ).

Pro-B

[discking]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

OK, I will do my best to cover the French release perhaps next month (for the next week to 10 days I am completely booked ).

Pro-B

But that's why they pay you the big bucks... (or not...)))

We look forward to your fine comments on the BD...

I'd also be curious to know if the DVD included in that release shows any improvement over past DVDs, which were pretty awful...

Merci mil fois.