United Artists | Release Date: January 27, 1973
6.7
USER SCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 46 Ratings
USER RATING DISTRIBUTION
Positive:
27
Mixed:
12
Negative:
7
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2
elitefourJun 28, 2015
It´s such kind of aberrant and misogynist piece of junk.
Filled with horrible dialogues and unwatchable moments.
It´s disgusting. I just can´t believe Bertolucci received critical acclaim for an film like this.
2 of 3 users found this helpful21
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2
FilipeNetoApr 28, 2018
This film, basically and to approach in a simple way, revolves around a man and a woman who, while remaining anonymous, maintain sexual encounters that end up developing dramatically to the point of rupture. He is a widower and suffers withThis film, basically and to approach in a simple way, revolves around a man and a woman who, while remaining anonymous, maintain sexual encounters that end up developing dramatically to the point of rupture. He is a widower and suffers with it, she is engaged but she have doubts that become more intense as their involvement increases. He seems to love her and despise her at the same time. She submits herself, accepts to be treated as a desired object, but this becomes more and more insufficient. That anthological scene of anal rape can be the most shocking and disgusting moment of the film. Subjects such as the middle age crisis, widowhood, sexual taboos, remorse, psychological traumas, betrayal, abuse over another, are all approached more or less intensely.

The two main actors, Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider, achieved stardom and have made here (mainly she) one of their most acclaimed cinematographic works. However, they are not particularly grateful to Bernardo Bertolucci, as they were also strongly stigmatized by the intense controversy surrounding the film. Personally, I understand the feelings of the actors, but I am the first to consider that it was an act of courage, folly and enormous talent to accept such roles.

The cinematography is beautiful, fits perfectly into the mood of the film, which rotates between the seductive, the forbidden and the menacing. Eroticism and psychological violence unite their hands in this film, provocative, disturbing and horrendous in equal parts. Sex was not only an intimate act, but an act of mastery of one individual over another, a psychological refuge and a hope for something more, that never comes.

For me, this movie is paradoxical. It was beautifully filmed and done, but it tackles themes and issues that are ugly in my opinion. Bernardo Bertolucci is one of the directors I least appreciate. Not because he's bad, but because I have always found him cruel and sick. Moreover, a good part of Italian cinema has this problem: it is cruel, it is ugly, it likes to talk and to show ugly things that repugn us. This movie is a movie I do not like, but it is powerful, it's impossible to be indifferent to it.
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1 of 2 users found this helpful11
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