http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/main.jh...8/stmaria18.xml

ah the wisdom of age

sillage

Great article. Makes me sorry I missed The Passenger when it played at our local art house. I'll definitely check out the DVD.

Wonderful interview with a clearly thoughtful, complex person. I saw Last Tango in Paris when it first came out and didn't like it, though Pauline Kael at the time thought it was the greatest movie ever made (or close).

Her assessment of the seventies is very forgiving, thought-provoking and, I think, completely accurate: "It was the 1970s, we didn't have Aids, everybody was more free, people were less paranoid. You met someone in the street, you weren't afraid they were going to steal your money like today, it was, "Let's have tea and change the world." It was very tender. It was a nice period, apart from the drugs."

I'm glad things turned out well for her.

sillage, I don't know how you come up, with these threads . . . I too, saw Last Tango when it emerged. Couldn't make much of the movie, at that time . . . perhaps I should try watching it, again.

I missed Last Tango the first time around and saw it a few months ago courtesy of Netflix. I couldn't figure out what all the fuss had been even back then (well, there was the butter scene). I poked around online for info on Maria S and found that she had continued to make 40-some movies but couldn't find any more recent pics. She was certainly stunning in her youth.

Colonia, I remember LOTS of 'controversy,' when this movie made its debut. Mae West of all people, walked out of the premiere, and the reviews either were raves or somewhere out in left field . . . I'm going to have to see this one, again. Although I doubt it ANYTHING, could top . . . Butterfield 8.

Maybe Maria showed a bit too much (she had great boobs!) but this was, after all, a "foreign" film. Risque for its' time? Maybe. It's about anonymous sex. Lots of it. Plus some obsession. Was that all that big of a deal back then, especially in European cinema? I don't remember. Watch it, please, and comment. I just put the one with Jack Nicholson at the top of my Netflix queue, so I should see it sometime this week.

PS....I just added Butterfield in #2 position since I haven't seen that one in decades.

I'll get to 'Last Tango,' as soon as I can . . . PLEASE, watch BU 8, again . . . it is sooooooooo lurid!! Stylish, morose, and slightly deranged.

I too was impressed by the depth and intelligence of the article itself, as well as the noted interviewee. This article is really a cut above most celebrity interviews. Thanks for posting, sillage.

Thank you Sillage! Glad you are posting these gems.

I saw "Last Tango" when first released, which seems like so long ago.

I like this actress. She's real.

I never thought she was anything special. Reminds me of a cross between Janis Ian and Leslie Caron. I think it was shocking at the time because of the her full frontal nudity and Brando being naked (not a pretty sight).

I don't know why she's being coy with the reporter. I heard years ago that she was gay.

It was shocking at the time because there was anal sex and female masturbation. Mae West walked out on Last Tango.

It was also misogynistic to an extent I don't think had previously been seen in mainstream cinema.

Oh, yes . . . the butter scene . . . I just remembered what that was about . . . took me a while to feel 'secure' about using butter, after seeing Last Tango.

Thanks, sillage, for this interesting interview. Maria Schneider never struck me as being particularly charismatic, but I am looking forward to watching The Passenger which is playing at a theater near me later this month. I have only seen Last Tango once and thought it was just "eh."
I think Butterfield 8 is a more sexually depraved and entertaining movie.

Great interview - I wish I could see a picture of her as she looks now. Maybe I can find one online.

When I saw LTIP, I thought - what is the big deal? The nudity was not shocking, the butter scene was tame compared to later stuff (I only saw it a few years ago) and even if you're talking about a time when that kind of nudity and stuff had never been seen in movies before I still can't understand why everyone made such a fuss.

Re: Brando, I think some people love whatever he does just because he is Marlon Brando. In this case though, the emperor had no clothes on (literally and figuratively!). I thought both Brando and Maria S. gave substandard performances in terms of their acting in LTIP. Lots of people love this movie but I was disappointed.

btw: Marlon Brando's son, Christian, was closely involved with a great looking 'bad boy,' from my home town!! His name, was Bill Cable: centerfold model, assorted other odd jobs, collector of 'guns,' and also the 'dead, nude body,' in Basic Instinct. Guys from Gary, really got around . . .

And let's not forget the scene when Marlon asks of Maria boldly to trim her fingernail in order to...ahem....penetrate him.
The hint was more scandalous than if they really showed the act.
Don't know if the scene was cut for american audiences, although I doubt it was the practice back then.

Get da buttah!

I remember the hysteria when this film first debuted...can you imagine how tame it all seems now?

Christian Brando must have been bi. He was screwing Bonnie Lee Bakely, who Robert Blake killed. When she got pregnant, she told her friend that she hoped it was Christian's. She would have been better off if it had been!

Yes, helg, i also remember the 'cut-your-fingernails'-scene much better than the one with the butter... ;-)

I liked the movie a lot when i saw it first because it tells the story of a couple which is disturbed, devastated and depraved. Desperados.
I could literally feel the grief and the melancholy and the hunger between them.

I cannot see why she should worry about the film which was a milestone of modern day cinema.

I find it sad that she regrets making the movie: I would much prefer see her defiant and carefree, walking around laughing with her chin up and her middle finger raised way up high. She didn't do anything wrong, and noone, NOBODY was forced at gunpoint to go see that movie.
In fact many people saw it with the same twisted glee that compells drivers to watch the scene of a car crash, because they'd heard of the infamous scene.
Then they chose to judge her.
Amazing how crowds of holier than thou well intentionned people can get their kicks.

Well, don't forget what happened to Dag Drollet!

http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murd...n_brando/2.html

Helg~~

I'm smiling now that you've reminded us of the 'trimming' the fingernails scene...

I must have seen it again after it's initial debut --- because what I remember most -- are the scenes of the Brando character weeping and ranting hysterically at his wife's corpse --- intercut with the scenes of sodomizing the Schneider character in that empty Paris flat. I vaguely remember trying to puzzle out the characters' motivations and came to the conclusion (yes misogynistic indeed) that he was very emotionally abusive towards his wife, and the guilt or self-hate was acted out in his brutality (violent sex) toward the young female. Now, reading that the character was originally written to be a young male --- makes a little more sense --- maybe the Brando character lead a double life and that's what all the self-loathing was about. Anyway, I have to agree with all those who said it was rather out there for the times --- and that's what all the hoopla was about.


I just watched Osborne and Haskell discussing the 'suppressed sexuality' in the movie Black Narcissus --- Eric Pressburger director -- another one who loved over the top theatrics. . . . which also was considered scandalous for it's time -- 1947.

Does anyone know anything about the Brit actor -- David Farrar -- who was the male lead (beside Sabu) in that movie?

info on David


http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/...avidFarrar.html
sillage

Thanks Sillage !! That's the second time I've referred to Pressburger as Eric -- I always think it's Emil and that doesn't seem right and then I switch to Eric --- but it's actually Emeric (maybe if I think enema or emetic).

Having just seen him in Narcissus I have to say there are a couple of scenes in which he sings -- and his voice is just magnificent. He also had a beautiful speaking voice -- right up there with Alan Rickman. Gorgeous man in his prime.

Sad, his remarks.

I forgot to mention that he shares my husband's birthdate - Aug 21 -- cusp of Leo and Virgo. Funny that.