Last Tango in Paris ranks with Godard's Pierrot Le Fou, Malle's The Fire Within, Dassin's Night and the City, and Huston's Under the Volcano as one of the great films of personal disintegration, despite a strenuous struggle for redemption. In this case the struggle is via sexual excess and domination, which has lead some commentators (e.g., Norman Mailer) to regard the film as a failed attempt at a drama of sexual renewal -- especially as the film was a pioneering work in the emotionally intense treatment of unruly sexuality. However, director Bertolucci did not inadvertently create a saga of a man on the way down despite effort to shag his way out of his fall. A comparable iaccomplishment to the literary efforts of Roth with Sabbath's Theater and Lowry with is novel Under the Volcano. Empowered by one of Marlon Brando's greatest performances and magnificent camera work by Vittorio Storaro.
Review of Last Tango in Paris
