Screening of Last Tango in Paris featuring rape scene shot without actress’s consent has to be abandoned after organisers receive ‘violent threats’

A screening of ‘Last Tango in Paris’, which features a rape scene filmed without the consent of actress Maria Schneider, has been cancelled at the Cinematheque Francaise in the French capital following outcry from women’s rights groups.

The Cinematheque, a film archive and cinema partly funded by the state, announced the decision to cancel the Sunday screening in order ‘to calm tensions and in light of potential security risks’.

‘We are a cinema, not a fortress. We cannot take risks with the safety of our staff and audience,’ Cinematheque director Frederic Bonnaud told AFP on Sunday.

‘Violent individuals were beginning to make threats and holding this screening and debate posed an entirely disproportionate risk. So, we had to let it go,’ he added.

Campaigners have hit back at the claims, saying their planned protests did not amount to security threats and would have been peaceful.

‘Last Tango in Paris’, directed by Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci in 1972, was scheduled to be shown Sunday evening as part of a retrospective of work by American actor Marlon Brando.

Actress Judith Godreche, a prominent figure in France’s #MeToo movement, led criticism of the decision to screen the film without providing context to viewers, which she said disrespected the memory of Schneider, who died in 2011.

‘Everyone knows it’s a real rape that was filmed in The Last Tango in Paris,’ she wrote on Instagram alongside a video of Schneider. She added that rather than honouring the memory of Brando, Schneider’s career and life should be remembered. 

Schneider starred in the controversial film alongside American superstar Marlon Brando, who was 48-years-old at the time of filming

Actress Judith Godreche, a prominent figure in France’s #MeToo movement, posted a picture on Instagram showing a sign placed over the road name where The Cinematheque is based, renaming it after Schneider in an act of protest

‘It’s time to wake up, dear Cinematheque, and restore humanity to 19-year-old actresses (Schneider’s age during filming) by behaving humanely,’ she wrote.

The film explores the relationship between a widowed American man in Paris and a much younger woman, culminating in a non-consensual sodomy scene.

While the sex was simulated, it later emerged that Schneider had been kept in the dark about what was to happen by Brando and Bertolucci, who were both later nominated for Oscars.

‘I didn’t want Maria to act her humiliation, her rage,’ Bertolucci said in shocking comments made at the time. ‘I wanted Maria to feel, not to act, the rage and humiliation. Then she hated me for her whole life.’ 

Schneider later said she was crying real tears during filming and Brando did not console her afterwards.

Her allegations, first made in the 1970s, were largely ignored, as explored in the recent documentary ‘Maria’.

The film drove the actress to using drugs ‘to cope’ and voluntarily admitting herself to a psychiatric hospital. 

The 50/50 collective, which advocates for gender parity in cinema, had also called on the Cinématheque to provide ‘thoughtful and respectful’ place for Schneider’s testimony and experience alongside the screening.

Casting director Sophie Diodovic slammed the decision saying: ‘Shame! Rather than organizing a discussion and contextualization of the film, La Cinématheque prefers to cancel the screening!!

Following the distressing and disturbing rape scene, Schneider said she felt she had immediately become a sex symbol, admitting it ‘turned me a little crazy’ 

‘Are feminists dangerous for security?? No feminist demonstration has ever been violent!! Gross misogyny!!!!’ 

The Cinemathèque had promised on Friday to hold a ‘discussion with the audience’ to address the issues raised by the film.

Bonnaud pointed out that the film had been screened ‘without incident’ at the Cinematheque in 2017 – before the #MeToo campaign shone a spotlight on the prevalence of violence against women.

Actress Maria Schneider receiveed decoration at the Ministry of Culture on July 1, 2010 in Paris

Schneider spent much of her life as an advocate for actresses facing similar situations to the one she was in back in the 70s – a newcomer who was exploited by powerful male figures.  

Later in life, Schneider appeared at a film festival that Bertolucci was also present at. 

The organisers attempted to reunite the director and star, but she refused. ‘I don’t know that man,’ she said. 

Schneider died in Paris on February 3, 2011, at the age of 58 after a long battle with cancer.