>"All the dimwits of Movieland are coming out of the woodwork to trample Bernardo Bertolucci and Marlon Brando whose 1972 film Last Tango in Paris is an unparalleled masterpiece but now has fallen victim to the millennium’s nitwit political correctness.
> "The P.C. mob is sharpening its pitchforks in response to a recent interview in which Bertolucci (age 75) openly reminisced about his career, including some regrets such as when he surprised Maria Schneider, the female co-star of Last Tango, in order to obtain her memorable performance. In one moment of that largely improvised film, Bertolucci and Brando simulated a rear-end sexual act (“Get the butter” Brando famously called for lubricant). Schneider, a fully cooperative participant in the production, acted the role of a cheated partner who soon after gets her revenge. (Our homophobic media ignores the subsequent scenes where Schneider gives Brando an electric shock then fingers his anus.)
>"It is a sad sign of these times, in which college students protest for “safe spaces” and university administrators give in to closed-mindedness rather than respect the root meaning of the word “education” (to lead “out”). Fake outrage over Last Tango stays deliberately ignorant of the film’s virtues. Ignorant of the dramatic context of the controversial scene, ignorant of that movie’s historic significance.
>"And it’s doubtful if the stone-throwing Ava DuVernay, Chris Evans, Jessica Chastain, and other self-righteous halfwits have ever actually seen the movie or appreciated its daring or its greatness. Certainly DuVernay, Evans, and Chastain have never made a film that equals Last Tango.
>"Have you, dear Out readers, seen Last Tango in Paris? It should be Film 101 for anyone reading this column. Bertolucci’s film is one of the landmarks of sexual expression in Western culture. Its original story of a distraught American widower, Paul (played by Brando) who initiates a sex-only affair with a young Parisian woman, Jeanne (Schneider), was the most daring cinematic achievement of the sexual revolution. Paul and Jeanne agree to meet in an empty Paris flat and fuck. They follow one rule: “We don’t need names here!”
Isaac Lee
>"This premise dramatized both female and male sexual liberation. Paul and Jeanne demonstrate what academics call “agency.” So did Schneider and Brando (who brings his bisexual magnetism to the role). Under Bertolucci’s guidance, they explored the physical and emotional extent of sexual license. As the storyline developed, down-and-dirty impulses give way to romanticism, then become conflicted with social propriety. The film is aesthetically sensual but it is also a moral critique: What happens when people give in to their libidos? Can it ever be separated from their personas?
>"Bertolucci deserves ever-lasting gratitude for pursuing those questions. (Upon the film’s premiere, Robert Altman exclaimed to Newsweek magazine, “What do the rest of us [filmmakers] think we’re doing?”)
>"Only great movies rouse condemnation (while meaningless garbage routinely wins praise and awards). Last Tango’s first controversy started with Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman’s assertion that Bertolucci had made a covertly homosexual film (an allegation explored by scholar Will Aitken). This was authentically part of the sexual revolution debate. It bears upon the sophistication that Bertolucci has displayed throughout his career in films that understand the spectrum of hetero- and homo- attraction and experience (Before the Revolution, The Conformist, The Last Emperor, You and I).
Jeremiah Carter
>"Paul and Jeanne’s foolishly guilt-free sexcapades undeniably resembled the libertine exploits that gay men enjoyed pre-AIDS. And gay viewers should appreciate the humanism in Bertolucci’s middle-class tale. It is the universal inability to divorce identity and human obligation from sexual hook-ups that lead to Last Tango’s devastating tragic climax. The film was rated X for a reason now lost to our craven film culture—Last Tango is cautionary, not a movie for children or for childish adults. It’s intended for open-minded audiences, gay and straight, who are willing to acknowledge their own awareness of the emotional risk taken by fuck buddies.
>"In some strange millennial joke, today’s “feminists” who attack Bertolucci and Brando are unable—and unwilling—to appreciate the honesty of Last Tango’s insight. This is the key reason why Bertolucci and Brando’s artistry must be defended against those prigs who argue “feminism” simply to control thought, limit emotion, and censor free expression. Last Tango recognizes the irony of liberated man at the end of his tether—of sex that abuses oneself. Neither Paul nor Jeanne are blameless, the film’s narrative forces them (and us) to realize the consequence of the mutual dehumanization that sex radicals are reluctant to admit.
Dominic Foster
>"It is ridiculous to accuse Bertolucci and Brando of “rape.” Schneider herself never made that claim. The “act” was just that, an act. Not literal abuse. Certainly, violence is indefensible, but it seems we have entered an era when art is looked upon childishly—as a safe space, with no awareness that creativity and showbiz can be impolite. (Hollywood’s casting couch continues to exploit men, women, and children.) We may be living in the “innocuous” Pixar age, but Last Tango is not a movie for children or for frail and dishonest sensibilities. It advances on the risks of the gay filmmakers who influenced Bertolucci—Visconti, Pasolini, Cukor, Minnelli—and cinema’s other giants, such as Griffith, Dreyer, Von Sternberg, Ophuls, Truffaut, Godard, and even that die-hard hetero pimp Ingmar Bergman, who ventured the depths of sexual and spiritual experience. None of those masters had to contend with the censorship seen in recent castigations of male artists under the pretense of protecting female sanctity. But in this climate we can expect them all to be pilloried eventually.
>"How fascistic has Political Correctness become? It besmirches Bertolucci and Brando and it won’t even allow Maria Schneider her own agency, even in death. An irresponsible fake-news article contended that the “butter” scene drove Schneider to drugs yet never mentioned Schneider’s own selfhood, the fact that she recovered from her addiction, went on to make such superb films as The Passenger and Cyril Collard’s gay classic Savage Nights and faced the end of her life as a helpful companion to the cinematic genius Michelangelo Antonioni.
Camden Hill
>"Antonioni’s L’Avventura (1960) was the greatest film of the European tradition that explored sexuality in moral terms. L’Avventura’s motto, “Eros is Sick,” is repeated in the way Paul inflicts his spiritual crisis upon Jeanne who lacks moral roots yet displays the murderous reflex of privileged bourgeois elites. In the most famous movie review of all time, Pauline Kael characterized Jeanne insightfully: “These girls know how to take care of themselves; they know who No. 1 is. Brando’s Paul, the essentially naïve outsider, the romantic, is no match for a French bourgeois girl.”
>"In 2016, Jeanne’s privilege has become an onerous political tool, favored by the new cultural fascists. Accusations of rape and male aggression have become routine in attacks on masculinity and patriarchy that criminalize everyone from Thomas Jefferson to Bill Cosby and now Bertolucci and Brando.
>"It is appalling that Political Correctness prevents people from understanding the depth and complexity of challenging art like Last Tango in Paris. Kael predicted that Last Tango would be “argued about for as long as there are movies,” but could she could have imagined today’s fascist repression? This film makes the sexually ambivalent Bertolucci and Brando more than gay allies, but among the boldest, most humane artists in movie history."
I like how this is a problem, but nobody cares about Polanski repeatedly sodomizing 13 year old girls.
Brandon Hughes
Poland, once again, refused to extradite him just a couple days ago. And yet there's practically no furor over it from the same people criticizing Bertolucci and Brando for would could, at worst, be considered assault-- certainly not rape, though.
Anthony Ramirez
I love this man.
Xavier Evans
lol fucking Armond
Jonathan Moore
>>"It is appalling that Political Correctness prevents people from understanding the depth and complexity of challenging art like Last Tango in Paris. Kael predicted that Last Tango would be “argued about for as long as there are movies,” but could she could have imagined today’s fascist repression? This film makes the sexually ambivalent Bertolucci and Brando more than gay allies, but among the boldest, most humane artists in movie history." Anyone who fails to recognize this simple point has not business watching films.
Jacob Walker
What is it about Polanski that just lets him off the hook? Like, really just no one cares about that. Didn't he even admit it?
You just have to be a supremely talented director and everyone looks the other way?
Jayden Long
yep there's no other reason.
Adam Anderson
This+it was 40 years ago+a lot of international legal stuff
Just waiting for him to kick the bucket, it would be more convenient for all involved. His life is currently pretty shitty because of it anyway.
Leo Hill
We may never know the reason (((why)))
James Torres
Fucking brilliant. I hope Evans shuts the fuck up about politics and culture for the next 10 years, he gets spanked every time he tweets about it.
Jacob Turner
hmmm.... I wonder.....
William Parker
Literally king of Sup Forums. How can one black man be so based
Cooper Nguyen
>Hey maybe actually physically abusing this woman to get a performance for this scene was morally reprehensible?
>YEAH BUT THE MOVIE GOOD THO
Luis Scott
>Hey maybe actually physically abusing this woman to get a performance for this scene was morally reprehensible? She knew what she signed up for. She knew that she was going to be "raped" in the scene. The only thing that was a surprise to her, that she didn't know about beforehand, was the butter.
Blake White
I definitely agree with Armond's point as to how millennial movements/reactions simply destroy discussion on serious artistic works, and simply makes the world follow their PC perspective.
Also this was hilarious >"And it’s doubtful if the stone-throwing Ava DuVernay, Chris Evans, Jessica Chastain, and other self-righteous halfwits have ever actually seen the movie or appreciated its daring or its greatness. Certainly DuVernay, Evans, and Chastain have never made a film that equals Last Tango.
Austin Morgan
Jesus, you brainwashed Sup Forums mongs really grasp at straws to justify your programming. Literally right wing social justice warriors.
Grayson Bell
>Certainly DuVernay, Evans, and Chastain have never made a film that equals Last Tango. I'm going to assume he simply forgot about The Tree of Life. Besides that, he is correct.
Colton Myers
The rape wasn't in the script.
Alexander Mitchell
>he's actually defending a rat kike who sodomized pre-pubescent girls how low can you go?
Zachary Robinson
Where does this comparison even come from?
>nobody cares
They cared like 30 years ago when everyone found out about it, you fucking retard.
Owen Myers
Funnily enough, I was going to mention ToL in my post, which is definitely worthy of comparison to Last Tango.
Christian Fisher
Bertolucci has said multiple times that she knew the rape would happen in that scene right before they filmed it. It was the butter that she didn't know about.
Logan Long
You'd think in the modern age of virtue signaling and social activism grand standing this would be a huge deal.
Tyler Lewis
...and then they gave him an Oscar.
Colton White
so C O N T R A R I A N it's disgusting
Angel Reyes
If you can't suffer for your art, you are not an artist.
Blake Gray
>the movie was good >therefore it's OK to practical rape someone in making it
It's obvious Armond has no argument which is why he spends 3/4 of his article talking about the impact and value of the movie, which no one is questioning. His only defense of what Berolucci did was "well Shneider never mentioned it" and "hollywood is full of real rapists you know." Oh and of course the classic "well she signed up for the movie so she consented even though she didn't know what was going to happen"
Literally 1 paragraph in his whole article actually touching on the controversy and the rest is completely irrelevant
Asher Robinson
how would you like it if marlon brando started rubbing butter on your ass in the middle of a scene?
Angel Lewis
This is why I like this man on facebook, brilliant and elequent. His out of the box-thinking is inspiring and awesome.
Adrian Campbell
Hi Armond
Jayden Russell
not really, it's basically ancient history and not controversial anymore. Everyone knows he's a rapist, why bother arguing over it?
It's like the Zionists who bitch whenever someone criticizes Israel but not Saudi Arabia. No shit, Saudia Arabia is a hellish theocracy, there's literally no one defending it, what's the point of discussion when everyone agrees already?
Zachary Parker
It wasn't rape, she was aware of the rape scene, just not the butter on the butt. The unscripted part is over in like 5 seconds.
Nathan Diaz
Not really
Just repeats things white people have said
Asher Torres
An Oscar is a movie-making award, not a personal character award. What bewilders me is that you even bring up Polanski. What's the relevance other than consistent alt right neckbeard behavior of attempting to deflect every conversation to Jews?
Kevin Torres
He deserved it, Polanski made great films.
Elijah Hill
>I was going to mention ToL in my post, which is definitely worthy of comparison to Last Tango.
Xavier Scott
Anyone else quickly got their hands on this movie before it'll eventually be banned and illegal to own?
I was afraid I would get called out in the store, but I think buying it along with a copy of 12 Years a Slave softened the blow. The worst I got were dirty looks.
Noah Adams
>Accusations of rape and male aggression have become routine in attacks on masculinity and patriarchy that criminalize everyone from Thomas Jefferson to Bill Cosby and now Bertolucci and Brando.
Cosby did it tho
Gabriel Barnes
>right wing social justice warriors DELETE
William Myers
Jefferson did too, but that's not the point.
Gabriel Kelly
So, why is Last Tango suddenly getting attention?
Elijah Gonzalez
Maybe not comparison, but both are great films worthy of praise
Zachary Sanders
What's wrong with criminals being criminalized?
Anthony Gonzalez
so did Jefferson and in the same article Armond talks about Hollywood rape culture and the casting couch.
he's a retarded ideologue that switches his position on everything depending on what the other side is arguing for. The funniest part of this was him calling the media homophobic; I'm sure you could dig up a review of his of some recent gay movie and he'd be calling it pro-homo propaganda
Cameron Gray
Can we just make him an honorary white? Do we still do that?
Grayson Gonzalez
>I'm sure you could dig up a review of his of some recent gay movie and he'd be calling it pro-homo propaganda
He's given a negative review for Moonlight but not for being pro-homo.
you know armond is a gay, right?
Cameron Myers
but that is the point. Armond is arguing that males are being unfairly called rapists just to criminalize masculinity, but in all of the big cases it's people who have literally done it.
it's the same SJW-tier reasoning as admitting a black man committed a crime but saying he shouldn't be tried for it because that's racist
Benjamin Perez
Again that's not the point
Cooper Lewis
What is the point?
Jaxon Parker
he seems to be complaining about how everyone turns the rapes into a chance to scream about destroying the patriarchy or other unrelated causes
Gavin Gutierrez
>search google for any mention of Armond being a gay >get a review of Finding Dory that's all about sexual identity that he wrote damn I thought he was Sup Forums the critic not tumblr the critic
Nolan Mitchell
>thinking Sup Forums would ever be able to produce something as eloquent as a based armond review
Brandon Walker
well when everyone is defending the rapists until the last breath it's kind of hard not to agree with them don't get me wrong, I hate SJW's who can't shut up about their pet ideology of the week, but the degree that people will stick their fingers in their ears and pretending nothing happened even after there's evidence is staggering
Nolan Kelly
All you Sup Forums faggots need to go back, as soon as an artist of some sort inadvertently does something that conforms to your hate against PC culture and SJW's you instantly drop your pants down and start dick riding them while turning your cognitive dissonance up to maximum.
The same thing happened a while back when Dave chappalle came out hating on Hillary, suddenly some increasingly irrelevant black comedian was /our guy/ and threads going on about how "i always liked him". You people are equally as retarded as the SJW and Shills you despise and I've stopped seeing any difference between there opinions and yours because they're both equally cringe and unintelligent.
As for the OP's question what Armond and Brando did was pretty unacceptable really, no matter how much he keeps reminding us about how ground breaking it was but I'd say it was too long ago and not extreme enough to follow up on, its more of just a little black mark against them.
Jordan Brown
>>get a review of Finding Dory that's all about sexual identity that he wrote
Yeah it's for a gay magazine. The article in OP is for the same gay magazine.
Levi Harris
Shit, man. I didn't realize. I guess that makes him the only sane voice in the monolithic Cishet world of film review. Unless there are any other homosexual film reviewers, then they share the title.
Austin Thompson
>what Armond and Brando did was pretty unacceptable really
armond's article isnt saying that what brando did was acceptable
Adrian Martinez
Cosby hasnt been convicted...yet.
But in this case we are not talking about rape.
Christian Johnson
he's saying it's fake outrage and an attempt to limit free expression. He obviously thinks it's not a big deal
Isaiah Fisher
here's a separate clip of Bertolucci talking about it in 2013 that hasn't been reported much:
He says she knew he was "in a way raping her" in the scene. It was only the butter and method she didn't know about. I guess we can't know for sure how much she knew until someone digs up a real pre-shoot screenplay
But it's still morally unethical to not let a 19 year old actress know she was going to get digitally penetrated on set in front of everyone.
That still makes me uneasy about Bertolucci's method, as does his final comment that: "If the movie is good, the manipulation was right"
That's just plain wrong.
Jeremiah Stewart
He's saying that it makes no sense that they are outraged at the specific methods used to create the scene but not at the film as a whole or at the influence the film had on a societal level
Evan Price
If I could say something, it's to please stop lumping those of us born 80-81 into entitled Millennials. I'm not one.
1981 is the latest date used for Generation X by reliable and established researchers such as Strauss and Howe (who coined the term "Millennial" in the first place). The Class of 2000 has always been the special graduating class because they were the Millennials, or "Generation Y", the first class of the New Millennium. There was a lot of expectation for that graduating class. Graduating in 1999, that's all we heard, we were the LAST of Gen X, and media and news programs commented on the Millennials and a New Beginning who would show up next year. That has always been the case.
Read the numerous articles on the Class of 2000 and the Millennials. Born 1980-81 are NOT Millennials/Gen Y. The term Millennials refers to those from the Class of 2000 (born 1982) and later and then goes up to 1995-97 or so, up until they get too young to remember 9/11. It has always been so. The dates for Gen X are 1965-1981, period.
