Sightlines · reception
How Last Tango in Paris was received
1972 · Bernardo Bertolucci · Last Tango in Paris on Sightlines
The arc
In 1972 it was the scandal-succès of the decade — X-rated, banned in Italy, and hailed by Pauline Kael as a breakthrough comparable to the premiere of 'The Rite of Spring'. Today it's discussed less as an erotic landmark than as a case study in what was done to Maria Schneider, and the reappraisal has run almost entirely in reverse.
What’s debated
The permanent debate: can you still rate the filmmaking when Schneider herself said she felt humiliated on set and Bertolucci later admitted springing the infamous scene's details on her — the ultimate 'separate the art from how it was made' test.
Its footprint
'The butter' became instant cultural shorthand — parodied, punchlined, and referenced for fifty years — and Kael's rave ('the most powerfully erotic movie ever made') is one of the most quoted reviews in criticism history.
Where it stands
A former canon centerpiece now viewed with an asterisk — still a 'you have to reckon with this' title for cinephiles, but one people increasingly log with an essay-length caveat rather than a star rating.
Did you know? An Italian court found the film obscene, ordered all copies destroyed, and gave Bertolucci a suspended sentence plus the loss of his civil rights for five years — the film wasn't legally rehabilitated in Italy until 1987.
Named by the director
- Francis Bacon — Bertolucci said the painter's contorted figures were the visual key to the film — Bacon's paintings open the credits, and he took Brando to a Bacon exhibition in Paris to show him the anguish he wanted on screen.