Last Tango in Paris (1972)

There’s a detail about this film that you may have heard about, whether you’ve seen it or not. I’ll get to that, I promise. Marlon Brando is “Paul”, a middle-aged American expat in Paris, who is grieving the sudden suicide of his wife. Maria Schneider is “Jeanne”, a 20-something Parisian who’s living with her mother but is in talks with her boyfriend about moving in together. Paul and Jeanne both hear about the same apartment for rent and run into each other while looking it over; but sparks fly and they have sex on the floor. Instead of figuring out who gets the space, Paul proposes they share it, using it for the purpose he was intending – as a space to hide from the world now and then. Only with Jeanne in the picture, he suggests they use it for their hookups – and he’s insistent on their trysts just being hookups, refusing to tell her anything about himself and discouraging Jeanne to tell him about her own self. He doesn’t even want to exchange names. At first it’s an adventure…

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