Bernardo Bertolucci Finally Commented on the 'Last Tango' Rape Scene He Directed
In the wake of the controversy surrounding a resurfaced video describing the alleged sexual assault of Maria Schneider on the scene of The Last Tango in Paris, director Bernardo Bertolucci made a statement about the incident. He said that Schneider knew the rape scene would be filmed, but she didn't know Marlon Brando would use butter. That, Bertolucci said, was all that was improvised by he and Brando without Schneider's knowledge for the purpose of getting her "spontaneous" reaction.
"Maria knew everything because she had read the script, where it was all described. The only novelty was the idea of the butter," Bertolucci said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "And that, as I learned many years later, offended Maria. Not the violence that she is subjected to in the scene, which was written in the screenplay." He also called the controversy a "ridiculous misunderstanding."
Schneider died in 2011. Before her passing, however, she said she the scene made her feel "a little raped." Now, after a weekend of headlines, the story doesn't seem to be going away.
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