Last Tango in Paris
I have always been interested in “The Last Tango in Paris” for some reason… maybe because I know the title for years, since I’ve been 8 years old or something; and I was intrigued by the title simply because I liked Paris (Disneyland, you know) and tango (it looks so beautiful).
Later, I have always dreamt of a relationship like this – an unknown man, way too much money and an apartment whose only function is to the one of an expensive love hotel. A Parisian apartment would be perfect – maybe in the 16e arrondissement *snicker* (I can’t believe this film actually plays in Passy.)
I guess the main interests of the movie are the characters and the relationship between them. Let’s begin with the characters. She’s not particularily interesting, I find it perfectly easy to identify myself with her. Also, I don’t find her beautiful at all, but in this movie, it works perfectly. It’s all about charisma and attractiveness, not beauty, I guess. But he’s rather interesting, especially since I don’t find Marlon Brando good-looking at that age anymore. His character has the something, maybe it’s the ‘manliness’ that comes with his outbursts of anger. It made me realize that in this movie, this makes him attractive so that I can perfectly understand why the girl let him basically rape her; but at the same time, I find his male tsundere character utterly scary. In real life, he is indeed the kind of man who ends up with a suicidal wife and another woman who kills him; at least I would get crazy of fear one day if I had a man who yells at me like this – with a certain charisma, these men might find it easy to find a woman, but impossible to keep her. Even though the internet and popular media think differently, I strongly believe that in the long run, a kind person would always win in a competition for love.
What is much more difficult to talk about is their relationship. I believe the chemistry between them is actually what makes this movie so famous and not the all popular anal sex scene. However, I would not exactly say that this is the kind of relationship I would have expected. I mean, what are they talking about – their childhood and their sex experience? Besides the fact that the whistling and the animalic noises have annoyed me, I feel like I’m missing something in the content of their relationship. Of course there probably aren’t many interest in common with an old guy and some girl, but there must be more than just childhood and a slightly crazy interest for sex – both elements all people have in common – that draws them to each other.
I should lose a few words about said anal sex scene though, because it slightly reverted my first impression of that relationship. When I read in the wikipedia article that he forces himself upon her and makes her say the most abasing things, I seriously expected something along the lines of “Your cock feels so good in my wet pussy” (this is a reference to Ressentiment as I actually have never watched a porn movie), but I definitely did not expect statements about how the “holy family assassinates freedom”.
Of course I don’t even talk about the perverted aspect of their relationship. He clearly treats her like the little girl she is, hitting her and raping her while she lets him wash her while talking about the other man she has sex with… yadda yadda, it was so expected that I don’t find that interesting or outraging anymore.
Another point: It’s interesting to see them speaking in two languages, I have the impression it is completely coincidental and without any meaning when they switch between french or english. Now that french and english are my main foreign languages, it still has an impact on me though: I find his french okay and her english unbearable. She sounds so much better in french and her weird pronounciation somehow makes her ridiculous and the emotions she conveys much less powerful. It seriously makes me worry about my english, because I, too, make quite a lot of pronounciation mistakes.
The tango scene was brilliant, and the end as well. So unexpected, even though it finally explains the title of the movie. In the end, I don’t know if I find this movie fascinating or utterly pointless.
PS. Two sex scenes basically… that’s not much for a film that supposedly is mainly about sex – sometimes Wikipedia articles are horrible.