National Post (National Edition)
The indignities suffered by Maria Schneider
How we believed a director over a woman
When Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango In Paris opened in 1972, it became notorious for its graphic portrayal of sex. Rumours spread for years that much of the sex in the film, between Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider was real and not simulated — including the infamous butter scene.
In that particular scene, Brando, who plays an American widow engaging in an anonymous sexual relationship with a young Parisian woman, played by Schneider, rapes her after using a stick of butter as lubricant. Brando was 48 years old at the time of filming, while Schneider was just 19.
The horrific scene is once again being discussed after the recording of a Q&A with Bertolucci from 2013 resurfaced over the weekend. In the video, the Italian director says, "The sequence of the butter is an idea that I had with Marlon in the morning before shooting. I had been, in a way, horrible to Maria because I didn’t tell her what was going on, because I wanted her reaction as a girl, not as an actress. I wanted her to react humiliated. “I think she hated me and also Marlon because we didn’t tell her,” he said, adding that despite all this and his belief “that she hated me for all of her life,” he does not regret the scene nor the way it was constructed, as it had been written “in the script that he had to rape her in a way.” Bertolucci’s admission that he and Brando planned to manipulate and take advantage of Schneider for a more genuine effect is outrageously brazen, and since coming to light, his actions have been roundly condemned on social media and by multiple media outlets. However, there is another aspect to this story that is equally revolting.
Nearly a decade ago, Schneider, who died from cancer in 2011, told her side of the story in an interview with the Daily Mail — except, it seems, no one was listening. Garnering no where near the attention being given to Bertolucci’s recently unearthed comments, Schneider repeatedly noted that while the sex in the film was all simulated, the scene left her traumatized; feeling “raped,” “humiliated” and scarred for years after filming wrapped.
According to Schneider: “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,” she said. “I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci. After the scene, Marlon didn’t console me or apologize. Thankfully, there was just one take.
“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, but at the time, I didn’t know that. I was so young and relatively inexperienced and I didn’t understand all of the film’s sexual content,” she said.” I was too young to know better,” she added. “Marlon later said that he felt manipulated, and he was Marlon Brando, so you can imagine how I felt.”
Just as obvious today, as it was in 2007, Bertolucci and Brando (who himself died in 2004 from respiratory problems) conspired to place Schneider in a physically and sexually compromising situation without her knowledge, banking on her youth and inexperience, making the entire incident an assault — whether she was penetrated by Brando with the butter or not. However, it’s telling that we only seem to be acknowledging this now after Bertolucci’s comments were made public, and not when Schneider revealed a similar version of events nine years ago.
Back in 1972, Bertolucci and Brando received Oscar nominations for the film, while Schneider was snubbed. “I’ve not really forgiven (Bertolucci) for the way he treated me,” she told the Daily Mail. “Plus, he and Marlon made a fortune from the movie and I made about £2,500.” While in recent years, Hollywood has made strides to better acknowledge the mistreatment of women in the film industry and move toward improving gender equality, that the wrongdoing in this specific case is only being acknowledged after the director’s boastful admission (rather than Schneider’s previous statement) reveals just how far we have to go to not only give women a platform, but actually listen to them when they use it.
I FELT HUMILIATED AND TO BE HONEST, I FELT A LITTLE RAPED.