Bernardo Bertolucci of “Last Tango” Fame, Dies in Rome

Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci, whose 1972 movie ““Last Tango in Paris” shocked audiences with a notorious sex scene that came back to haunt him in his later years, died on Monday.

Bertolucci, 77, died at his home in Rome after a long illness, his publicist said. He had been in bad health for years and confined to a wheelchair since the early 2000s following a back operation.

“Last Tango”, which starred Marlon Brando, was banned in several countries, including Italy, where it was not released for viewing until early 1987.

It won Bertolucci an Oscar nomination and burnished his international reputation, but his follow-up “1900”, a five-hour historical epic starring Robert De Niro, Gerard Depardieu, Donald Sutherland and Burt Lancaster, marked the start of a lengthy period of commercial flops.

He burst back with ““The Last Emperor” in 1987, beautifully shot by his long-time cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, which took all nine Oscars for which it was nominated, reasserting Bertolucci’s position as a filmmaker with a distinct vision.

Born in Parma in central Italy, Bertolucci was the son of poet and film critic Attilio Bertolucci.

He began writing poetry as a child and had his work published in magazines before his teens, winning a national poetry prize as a student in Rome.

Bertolucci’s early works were certainly far from sensationalist, however, notable for their passionate depictions of the effects of social evils, reflecting the director’s strong left-wing views.

“Last Tango” aroused controversy because of its explicit sex – in particular an anal rape scene – and was condemned in the Italian courts as ”obscene, indecent and catering to the lowest instincts of the libido”.

The rape scene, infamously remembered for Brando’s use of butter to penetrate his co-star, also traumatised its lead actress Maria Schneider, an unknown 19-year-old at the time.

“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,” she told Britain’s Daily Mail before her death in 2011.

The controversy resurfaced in 2016 when a video emerged of Bertolucci telling a master class in Paris: “I had been, in a way, horrible to Maria because I didn’t tell her what was going on.”

Responding to a wave of outrage, the director said Schneider had known everything about the scene in advance, except the use of butter, which was an idea he had discussed with Marlon just before shooting.

(Excerpt) Read More at: Reuters.com