The Movie
Ah, Paris.... Where else could a middle-aged widower (Marlon Brando) meet a beautiful 20-year-old young French girl (Maria Schneider, just recently deceased) and be, y'know, doing it literally minutes later? He's a dark soul, an American with issues after his wife committed bloody suicide only a day or two ago. She's an artistic soul, dating a filmmaker who has been rubbing her the wrong way recently. Together they forge an unconventional relationship, agreeing to know nothing about one another when they convene in his apartment for their encounters.
Last Tango in Paris is a classic, groundbreaking European drama, so from here it's a lot of sex and talking and sex and talking and sex and talking, but could it lead to love? It's full of what we Americans would consider a lot of the wild, melodramatic clichés about French romance, but it is undeniably powerful in its depiction of two souls reaching out and pulling back in a complicated dance.
The Picture
In Technicolor and through the lens of master cinematographer Vittotio Storaro, Last Tango uses light and color and focus at times more like a painting than a film, and the results are often magnificent. The 1.85:1 canvas is frequently shadowy, with blacks that are mostly inky and natural, although they can become a little harsh or vague. There's also a bit of flicker, some grain and modest video noise, and a couple of isolated incidents of strobing in the camera moves. So it's rather lovely if not perfect.
The Sound
The original mono soundtrack is presented as two-channel DTS-HD Master Audio. This is a lower-volume disc than I'm used to, begging me to turn up my receiver and when I did, loud sounds--raised voices, an elevated train--had their limited dynamic range exposed. The highs in particular hit their ceiling fairly quickly, and there is no real low end. Dialogue appears to have been either recorded live on-set, often under less-than-optimal conditions, or re-recorded after the fact. It's all just okay.
The Extras
Pop in the movie and it simply begins playing, without even any top menu that I could locate. Through the pop-up menu I was able to locate the 90-second theatrical trailer, in HD. And that's it.
Final Thoughts
Such an important film deserves more in the way of extras, frankly, a pity that writer/director Bernardo Bertolucci did not see fit to be involved in the Blu-ray. It's an inexpensive, bar-bones release, worth picking up if you never owned the DVD.
Product Details
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