Despite being released over 40 years ago, the infamous butter scene in Last Tango in Paris is something that is still discussed to this day. But an interview that its director, Bernardo Bertolucci, gave two years ago resurfaced this week and it has caused the film to be seen in a completely different light.
In 2013, Bertolucci admitted that the rape scene involving butter was not consensual. Prior to filming, he and the movie’s star, Marlon Brando, came up with the idea and decided to keep it from lead actress Maria Schneider. The director felt that in doing so, Schneider would be humiliated, instead of acting humiliated. Celebrities, upon hearing this news, took to Twitter to express their disgust with the fact that a 48-year-old Marlon Brando violated 19-year-old Schneider onscreen.
After tweeting about the news, Oscar-nominated Jessica Chastain spoke to People magazine:
“So if that in fact is the case, I think that’s wrong and I think we need to reexamine how we look at that film and perhaps it needs to be defined as something else and not an excellent piece of film making because it’s a situation where a woman was victimized and then it was recorded and she was 19 and he was 48,” Chastain said.
In his interview, Bertolucci mentioned that after shooting the film, Maria Schneider was angry with both him and Brando. He also said that they didn’t speak afterward. Schneider died in 2011 at the age 0f 58.
See Chastain’s and other celebrity tweets about the Last Tango in Paris news, as well as Bertolucci’s 2013 interview on the next page. (The interview begins around 0:18).
To all the people that love this film- you’re watching a 19yr old get raped by a 48yr old man. The director planned her attack. I feel sick. https://t.co/qVDom2gYf6
— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) December 3, 2016
Wow. I will never look at this film, Bertolucci or Brando the same way again. This is beyond disgusting. I feel rage https://t.co/uvaLogvv7I
— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) December 3, 2016
@colliderfrosty @ChrisEvans Ms Schneider stated this several years ago. I used to get eye-rolls when I brought it up to people (aka dudes).
— Anna Kendrick (@AnnaKendrick47) December 3, 2016
Inexcusable. As a director, I can barely fathom this. As a woman, I am horrified, disgusted and enraged by it. https://t.co/voGRhafy9K
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) December 4, 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA4izm2JAJs&list=PL3ZQ5CpNulQn95HpTpozTa4lrUPeS15Ax
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