A prestigious French cinema has canceled a screening of Last Tango in Paris following protests from women’s rights groups over its notorious rape scene, which was filmed without the consent of lead actress Maria Schneider.
The French Cinémathèque in Paris stated that it decided to withdraw the film after receiving threats. Frédéric Bonnaud, the director of the Cinémathèque—a state-funded film archive and cinema—explained, “We are a cinema, not a fortress. We cannot take risks with the safety of our staff and audience. Violent individuals were beginning to make threats, and holding this screening and discussion posed an entirely disproportionate risk. Therefore, we had to let it go.”
Last Tango in Paris, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and released in 1972, was scheduled to be shown on Sunday evening as part of a retrospective honoring Marlon Brando. The film depicts the relationship between a widowed American man in Paris, portrayed by Brando, and a much younger woman, played by Schneider.
Although the rape scene was simulated, Schneider, who was just 19 at the time, later described the experience as feeling like a violation, as it was presented to her without warning or preparation. Her allegations first surfaced in the 1970s but received little attention. “I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and Bertolucci,” Schneider stated four years before her death in 2011, adding that the film had profoundly impacted her life and led to years of substance abuse. Bertolucci eventually responded to these claims by asserting that the scene hadn’t been improvised on the day of filming, while acknowledging that Schneider had not been informed.
Bertolucci admitted he made an “artistic decision” to keep her in the dark in order to capture an authentic reaction, stating, “I feel guilty, but I don’t regret it.”
Judith Godrèche, an actress and prominent figure in France's #MeToo movement, criticized the Cinémathèque for planning to screen the film without providing proper context to the audience. “It’s time to wake up, dear Cinémathèque, and restore humanity to a 19-year-old actor by behaving humanely,” she wrote on Instagram.
Critics also raised concerns over the timing of the screening, which would have coincided with the trial of filmmaker Christophe Ruggia, who is facing charges of grooming and sexually abusing actress Adèle Haenel when she was 12 during the filming of his 2002 movie, Les Diables (The Devils). Ruggia has labeled the allegations as "pure lies."
Additionally, the screening would have taken place just before the verdicts in the Mazan mass rape trial, where Dominique Pelicot, 72, is facing up to 20 years in prison for drugging his wife, Gisèle, 73, and inviting strangers to assault her. Alongside him, 50 other men accused of aggravated rape or sexual abuse are set to be judged and sentenced.
