Rape scene in Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris was not consensual

Elle found an interview with Bernardo Bertolucci where he confesses the famous rape scene in Last Tango in Paris was shot without Maria Schneider’s consent.

The erotic drama Last Tango in Paris was released in 1972. Marlon Brando was 48 and Maria Schneider was 19 during the shooting. The film includes a lot of sex scenes, among them raping Schneider’s character with butter as lubricant.

The filmmaker said he and Marlon Brando came up with the idea to shoot the scene when they were having breakfast on the floor in the room where the film was shot. They had a baguette and butter. The director recalls: “We looked at each other and, without saying anything, we knew what we wanted.”

The scene wasn’t in the script. The actor and the director decided not to tell the young actress about it. Bertolucci admitted he wanted to shoot her reaction “as a girl, not as an actress.” “I didn’t want Maria to act her humiliation, her rage, I wanted Maria to feel, not to act,” the director said.

Bertolucci said in the interview Schneider didn’t talk to him after the shooting because she hated both him and Marlon Brando for all her life. He noted he felt guilty but did not regret his decision, because a filmmaker must sometimes be completely free.

Though the sexual intercourse was simulated, Brando and Bertolucci’s behaviour was traumatic for her, and the rude violation of her intimate borders came as a complete surprise. She was a virgin when the film was shot. After the film, Maria Schneider struggled with drug addiction, made suicide attempts and received psychiatric care. She died in 2011 aged 58.

Bertolucci’s confession sparked a wave of criticism and outrage in social media, also from famous actors and filmmakers. Actress Jessica Chastain, director Ava DuVernay, actors Chris Evans, actress and singer Anna Kendrick and many others condemned the filmmaker’s actions as disgusting. Actress Evan Rachel Wood, who recently said she had experienced sexual harassment, called Bertolucci and Brando sick persons if they thought such behaviour was acceptable.