Last Tango in Paris is something of a bizarre movie to me. The plot follows Marlon Brando as Paul, a recent widower after his wife's unexpected suicide, and Maria Schneider as Jeanne, a young girl in Paris. They randomly meet in an apartment up for rent, have rough sex bordering on rape, and agree to continue seeing each other without ever knowing the other's name or past. I'll be the first to admit that I don't "understand" this film, although I consider it a fault of the film and not myself. It was too impenetrable; it was as if it didn't want to say what it was about and purposely stayed away from revealing its meaning. Why?Another thing about the movie I didn't understand was the prevalent nudity and sex. Usually I don't mind it when I see the purpose of keeping it in, but I saw no real reason for its gratuitous excess in this film. It certainly wasn't realism, because the compositions and camera movements were so set-up and planned that the movie as a whole didn't feel realistic in the first place--any realism by having a girl stand around naked was immediately lost and crossed the fine line from art into pornography.
Bertolucci has this amazing visual flair that I love to watch, but it just wasn't good enough to outweigh my distaste for the rest of the movie. The music was fantastic as well, although it came in and out at strange places and volumes. There were some very powerful moments in the movie, but they were few and far between and weakened by the meandering story. Really, I'm very disappointed with Bertolucci after this film. I don't recommend this to any but the most hardcore of Bertolucci fans.
IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0070849/