Last tango for Maria Schneider: 1952 -- 2011
Look at that face! Strong and proud, the face of one who has lived. Whatever troubles beset her in her life, at the end I hope she had found some kind of peace.
I may reach for “The Passenger” later.
I read somewhere that in that famous scene, butter wouldn’t read as butter, so they had to use margarine.
I couldn’t stop thinking about her after seeing Last Tango…RIP
not the best actress in the world but it is a shame. She was so cute and effective in Last Tango In Paris.
Too young.
She was actually a very impressive actress in the 3 films I’ve seen her, careful, luscious, eloquent in her moves and I expect to like her even more after watching this clip here:
Two acting goddesses on screen here by the way.
luscious?
Her career went downhill fast, but at least she was in two of the most important films of the 70’s that are still loved by cinephiles all around the world, even today. that’s more than what can be said about most!!!
And I still haven’t seen Last Tango… :(
True, true @ JOKS
Sad.
RUS: luscious = sexually attractive. Can’t a performance be like this? ;)
“that’s more than what can be said about most!!!”
That’s actually an overreaction considering the lot of lesser-known and equally magnificent actresses of past and present but I’ll let pass at the moment for this:
she was hot until she got that perm. then all I could see was Roger Daltry. Thank god the film was 95% Brando’s performance.
“That’s actually an overreaction considering the lot of lesser-known and equally magnificent actresses of past and present but I’ll let pass at the moment for this:”
we are talking about era defining films Dimitris, this has nothing to do with personal taste, or what i or the rest of the world doesn’t know. Last Tango In Paris IS a a very important film in the history of cinema. that is just undeniable. whether there are better with lesser known actresses out there isn’t the issue.
so, to recap, if she is remembered for her contribution to two important films, that is better than most who will not be remembered at all.
=(
She was an actress in the Warholian sense — always doing variations on herself. It’s interesting that in Last Tango she and Brando are in an antagonistic relationship whereas in The Passenger she and Jack Nicholson are pretty much on the same general wavelength.
Off-screen she was a total lesbian wild child. She once had herself brieflty committed to a mental ward so she could be with a girlfriend who had been sent there.
Merry Go Round came about because Rivette wanted to work with her. She agreed asking only that Joe Dallesnadro co-star with her. Rivette agreed, but when it came time for the shooting Joe was up for it but a decidedly drugged-ut Maria wasn’t, much of the time. As a result in the film’s last section Hermione Karagheuz pops in out of nowhere (with no explanation) to appear in scnees with Joe.
While she never scaled past the heights Bertolucci, Antonioni and Rivette offered her she worked rather steadily on and off over the years. Her last credit was in 2008.
“this has nothing to do with personal taste”
Nope, it’s about revisionism. Maria Schneider one day will be remembered for MORE performances and not because of two films and only. We have to look beyond convention, beyond the norm. Schneider belongs to an underrated crop of actors / actresses, filmmakers, screenwriters, cinematographers and…well, FILMS that must become part of a new, universal encyclopedia of filmmaking history.
Yes, I truly believe that and no academic rules and arguments will change my stance and my perseverance whenever I can say it.
I’d say her performance in Rivette’s “Merry-Go-Round” was just as memorable as in those two well-known films, and will probably find more appreciation as soon as the film gets a decent Criterion release.
Who else would you say is part of the crop she represents?
Laura Antonelli ? Stefania Sandrelli? Debora Caprioglio? Or am I limiting my focus to the wrong areas?
YIKES! did NOT age well
Very few actors or actresses have made such an indelible impression on me in my growth as a moviegoer. ‘The Passenger’ is one of a very limited handful of films that I feel could possibly be the greatest movie of all-time, and her presence has a lot to do with that. The image of her standing up in the car- looking back with the wind behind her, her face suddenly changing from exhilarated to pensive as she realizes what it is, in fact Nicholson is trying to escape- is one of the moments that defines cinema for me.
@David, I was always intrigued by her off-screen persona as well. In many ways, it probably kept her from working as much as she could have. That one story that you mentioned in particular is especially fascinating.
In comparison with what is going on in the world, her death is not that significant. However, I feel a genuine loss. What did Kael say—“she is like a bouquet of Renoir’s heroines.” Something like that.
I remember her hopping over the sweeper’s broom in “Last Tango.”
That bit was typical of her physical spontaneity, which is what excited Bertolucci at that time. She was up for anything Brando threw her way — whcih is what made tham such a great mis-matched couple. He sarts by not wanting to know anything about her. But then he does, and that’s the ruin of it all.
Is it just me, or was Scheider’s perfomance in The Passenger a little uneven? At times i got the feeling like she was confused and didn’t know what to do, whereas i never got that feeling in Last Tango In Paris.
maybe it was Antonioni’s fault ;-)
Maria Schneider’s performance in “The Passenger” was naturalistic with plenty of presence. Even though we know relatively little about her (not even her name, she is simply “Girl”), she is a fascinating, compelling character. Nothing is forced about it and I feel young actresses would do well to watch it to know what real acting is all about. She is beauty but not beauty in the shallow sense. Maria was very good in “Last Tango In Paris”, although maybe her own sexuality made her uncomfortable with what she was asked to do. I doubt Maria was as naïve on the set as she made out to be. She was very fortunate to work opposite two Masters—Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson. Maria probably achieved more in those two films than what 99 percent of actresses these days shall achieve in a whole career.
Jaspar:
For your information, that’s what a typical nearly-sixty-years-of-age woman looks like—or don’t you get out much into the real world?
Factor in her narcotics abuse and a stay in the mental ward and I’d say she aged reasonably well. She was also working here and there very late into her life.
I love this shot pictured below: Maria Schneider from the Michelangelo Antonioni film “The Passenger”. It screened twice recently at ACMI yet I did not attend either screening. I will definitely check it out again the next time it hits the Astor and I shall forever relish the beauty of Maria Schneider in this wonderfully framed scene…
Yes that’s a great moment in the film — obviously created by Antonioni to showcase Maria’s freewheeling charm.
“Maria probably achieved more in those two films than what 99 percent of actresses these days shall achieve in a whole career.”
Let’s not get a hold of ourselves. Speak for actresses who have sold themselves for fame, not the ones who are still gaining acclaim in art-house films…..and there are MANY of them.
No, I stand by my comment. The remaining one per cent still includes a lot of talented actresses. There are even some very talented actresses in the 99 per cent. What I am saying is few actresses have the opportunities afforded to Maria Schneider, and even fewer know what to do with them when they arrive.
“…if she is remembered for her contribution to two important films, that is better than most who will not be remembered at all.”
Exactly right: if a tree falls in a forest and no-one is around…
She could have had a much bigger career. But I have a lot of respect for her. Think about it: To be such a sex symbol, to be so profoundly beautiful and have so much charisma, and then not be available to men? Hollywood just doesn’t stand for that…..I don’t care what people say, this town is run by men. Always.
Dimitris Psachos
From the Guardian:
“Maria Schneider dies aged 58”
Maria Schneider, the actor who helped introduce explicit sex to mainstream cinema, has died following a long illness. The 58-year-old is best known for her performance in Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1972 drama Last Tango in Paris – a role that came to both define and destroy her acting career.
Schneider was a teenage model when she landed the role opposite Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris. The film details the relationship between a young Parisian woman and a middle-aged American hotel manager and was notorious for an improvised, butter-assisted sex scene that resulted in a prohibitive X-rating in the US.
The film made Schneider a star, although she later accused Brando and Bertolucci of exploiting her. She described the director as “a gangster and a pimp”, likened the experience to being “raped” and said that Last Tango in Paris had taught her an important lesson: “Never take your clothes off for a middle-aged man who claims that it’s art.”
Bertolucci, for his part, appeared puzzled by the criticism. “It is true that Maria was very young when we shot the film and maybe she couldn’t articulate what happened,” he told the Guardian in 2003. “So what remains is a confused moment where I am the killer or the bad guy.”
Following Last Tango in Paris, Schneider went on to star alongside Jack Nicholson in The Passenger, an existential thriller by director Michelangelo Antonioni. But her subsequent career was hindered by drug addiction and mental illness.
Schneider’s other films include A Woman Like Eve, In the Country of Juliets and the acclaimed Aids drama Savage Nights. Her last significant role was the anguished Mrs Rochester in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1996 adaptation of Jane Eyre.
I stole the original title from another site but I found appropriate to post the Guardian text. I really love Maria and she used to be one (and still is) of my first daydreaming ladies after watching her in Last Tango and subsequently in The Passenger. She’s splendid in Merry-Go-Round and mister Ehrenstein can give you plenty of background information about that Rivette delicacy as well.