Screening of Last Tango in Paris featuring rape scene is abandoned

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

The Cinémathèque Francaise, a film archive and movie theatre 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,' Cinémathèque 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.

She said that rather than honouring the memory of Brando, Schneider's career and life should be remembered. 

'It's time to wake up, dear Cinémathèque, 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.

Following the vulgar scene, in 2007 - four years before her death, Schneider told the Daily Mail she felt 'a little bit raped' by Brando and Bertolucci.

'I should have called my agent or had my lawyer come to the set because you can't force someone to do something that isn't in the script,' she said.

'Marlon said to me: "Maria, don't worry, it's just a movie", but during the scene, even though what Marlon was doing wasn't real, I was crying real tears.'

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

The 50/50 collective, which advocates for gender parity in cinema, had also called on the Cinémathèque 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!!

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

The Cinémathèque 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 Cinémathèque in 2017 - before the #MeToo campaign shone a spotlight on the prevalence of violence against women.

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.