7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 3.6 |
A middle-aged American, whose wife has just committed suicide, meets a young French girl when they both view an apartment in Paris at the same time. They begin a strange, anonymous sexual relationship in the empty apartment, agreeing not to divulge any personal information to each other.
Starring: Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider, Maria Michi, Giovanna Galletti, Catherine AllegretDrama | 100% |
Erotic | 30% |
Romance | 29% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono (256 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono (256 kbps)
Catalan: Dolby Digital 2.0
German: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
English SDH, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Indonesian, Korean, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, Thai
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Roger Ebert put it best in his retrospective 1995 review, with the statement that writer/director Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris “was the banner for a revolution that never happened.” The failed revolution in question? The proliferation of erotic films made for and by adults, films that would maturely deal with human sexuality in all its complicated permutations and rely on dramatic depth and emotional honesty rather than mere titillation. At the time of its release, the film was sharply divisive, prompting mass walkouts and “vomiting by well-dressed wives” at its first New York screening—according to the Village Voice—but also garnering rapturous praise from critics like Pauline Kael, who hailed Last Tango as what “may turn out to be the most liberating movie ever made.” Kael’s review—perhaps the most widely read in the history of cinema criticism—posited the film as a “movie breakthrough” that “altered the face of an art form.” She even went so far as to compare Last Tango’s October 14, 1972 premiere to the riot-inducing 1913 debut of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, the ballet that upset the classical world and opened the floodgates for the incoming wave of musical modernism. And yet, the movie produced no similar wave of grown-up cinematic erotica.
Last Tango in Paris debuts on Blu-ray with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that's entirely natural and much better than I had expected. To start, the print itself is in excellent condition, with only a few scattered specks but no major debris, scratches, or staining. The film's grain structure has been left untouched—there's not a trace of any over-zealous noise reduction here—and the image is unmodified by any edge enhancement, boosting, or other forms of digital tinkering. The picture is somewhat soft at times, but I suspect this is due to the way the film was shot, and not any default in the transfer process. That said, clarity gets a major improvement over SDVD releases, especially in the scenes that take place outside the apartment, which tend to be brighter and sharper. Throughout, the film's uterine color palette—all warm reds and pinks and salmons—is richly represented, black levels are adequately deep, and skin tones are natural. (Brando's face does veer towards orange on occasion, but apparently he did all of his own make-up without fully understanding how cinematographer Vittorio Storaro was going to light the scenes.) Aside from some light noise, the disc is free from any significant compression issues. I'm very pleased with how this transfer turned out.
Rather than try to expand the film's original elements into a 5.1 mix, MGM has wisely opted to stick with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track. This is, after all, a film that's almost entirely driven by dialogue and score, with very little effects or ambience. (There aren't many noises in an empty apartment.) The only oddity that I noticed is that there are a few instances where the volume of the score and vocals seems to fluctuate slightly within a scene. Otherwise, I have no concerns about this mix at all—there are no hisses, crackles, drop-outs, or other audio hiccups. Gato Barbieri's music sounds wonderful and full—it's a beautiful score—and the dialogue is always comprehensible. (If not always clean. There's some minor muffling occasionally, but this seems mostly due to the nature of on-location recording.) The disc also includes mono Dolby Digital tracks in French, Spanish, German, and Catalan, as well as subtitles in a variety of languages.
Unfortunately, the sole supplement on the disc is the film's theatrical trailer (1080p, 1:32).
Last Tango in Paris remains a challenging and controversial psychosexual drama even nearly forty years after its release. It's certainly not for everyone—the prudish or easily offended need not apply—but audiences open to the sexually frank subject matter will likely be moved by acting-titan Marlon Brando's hungry, animalistic performance. I can't help wishing this disc had been filled out with some retrospective bonus features, but at least the high definition transfer and lossless audio track are true to source. Highly recommended!
2004
2015
Original Uncut Version
1986
2013
1974
2013
2017
Lucía y el sexo | Unrated Director's Cut
2001
1948
2019
2013
2004
1995
1969
2012
2017
1978
1985
1971
Warner Archive Collection
1966