A screening of Last Tango in Paris in the French capital has been cancelled after threats of violence from women's rights protests French Cinémathèque was due to show 1972 film that features a controversial scene filmed without actor Maria
Schneider's prior consent. The cinema said it had dropped the film after receiving threats. Frédéric Bonnaud, the director of the Cinémathèque said: We are a cinema, not a fortress. We cannot take risks with the safety
of our staff and audience, Violent individuals were beginning to make threats and holding this screening and debate poised an entirely disproportionate risk. So, we had to let it go.
The controversial scene was simulated but
Schneider, who was 19 at the time, said afterwards it had felt like a violation as it was sprung on her without notice or preparation. Her allegations were first made in the 1970s. I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and Bertolucci, Schneider said four years before her death in 2011. She said the film had destroyed her life and had driven her to years of drug abuse. Bertolucci later responded to the allegations by insisting the scene had not been improvised on the day of shooting but acknowledging that Schneider had not been informed.
Judith Godrèche, an actor and leading figure in France's #MeToo movement, had been critical of the Cinémathèque's decision to screen the film without providing context to viewers. Had it gone ahead, the screening would also have come
towards the end of the Mazan mass rape trial, in which verdicts and sentencing are expected later this week. |