ANATOMY OF A SEX SCENE
The Controversy of Last Tango in Paris
We are back with another installment of Anatomy of a Sex Scene, and our first entry of 2022, and we’re starting off with a real controversial movie: Last Tango in Paris. Before we get any further, I want to take a moment to provide a content warning. This entry of Anatomy of a Sex Scene will discuss depictions of on-screen sexual violence and issues of consent surrounding the filming of said scene. Please only keep reading if you feel equipped to do so.
Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1972 famous erotic drama follows the anonymous sexual relationship between American hotelier Paul (Marlon Brando), and young French woman Jeanne (Maria Schneider). The film premiered at the New York FiIm Festival and went on to be the 7th-highest grossing film of 1973, despite being smacked with an X-rating by the MPAA. The film, which features extensive nudity and sex scenes garnered shock, interest, and condemnation from many cinema-goers.
Now, I am not here to malign a movie for having oodles of sexual content. As I have probably made clear time and again in this column, and in my own writing about my experiences filming intimate scenes as an actor, I believe in the importance of exploring intimacy through cinema. I also believe in doing it right. And Last Tango in Paris is a glaring example of a film that did it very, very wrong. In fact, it is so famously wrong that you probably know the scene I am talking about. Part way through the movie Paul anally rapes Jeanne using butter as a lubricant.
I do want to take a moment right now to clarify that I am not opposed to depictions of rape or assault in film. It is important to use film to highlight, dissect, process, and discuss real-world problems, and intimate violence is a very real problem. I think there are lots of instances where such scenes are used for shock value or titillation, which is a problem. But, just as there are proper ways to write an assault scene, there are also proper ways to film them. According to intimacy coordinator Acacia: all actors involved in such scenes, and any sexual scene for that matter, must be given notice of the contents of the scene at least 48 hours prior to filming, that way they can reasonably decide what their comfort level is and isn’t. Ideally, the scene in question has been blocked out well in advance. By the time filming starts, everyone involved knows what is happening, and has given full consent.
According to Schneider, the scene we are discussing was not in the script and she was not informed of it until the day of filming. She was quoted as saying “They only told me about it before we had to film the scene and I was so angry. I should have called my agent or had my lawyer come to the set because you can’t force someone to do something that isn’t in the script, but at the time, I didn’t know that. Marlon said to me: ‘Maria, don’t worry, it’s just a movie’, but during the scene, even though what Marlon was doing wasn’t real, I was crying real tears. I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci. After the scene, Marlon didn’t console me or apologize. Thankfully, there was just one take.” Bertolucci did not deny keeping the contents of the scene from Schneider, while he claimed the scene to some extent was in the script, the use of butter was not, but that he and Brando “decided not to say anything to Maria to get a more realistic response.”
Here’s the thing about acting, it’s make believe, pretend. An actor should not have to be put in psychological or mortal danger to do their job. No one should be assaulted in the name of art. Because of how Bertolucci and Brando approached this scene, Schneider was left traumatized. Had she been given proper warning and allowed to collaborate on how best to film the scene in a way with which she was comfortable, guess what, she still would have given a believable performance because she was an actor.
