The Insert Shot: Last Tango in Paris
Why Bertolucci's Masterpiece Needs and Earns Every Dirty, Filthy Moment
By Tom Houseman
March 8, 2012
BoxOfficeProphets.com
But this is a fairly limiting perspective, and while Closer is a very effective film, it is possible to make a film about sexual exploits that is as effective, and perhaps more effective, by showing the characters having sex with each other. It is possible that Bernardo Bertolucci's intention was not to create a film about the way we have sex and what it says about us as people, how we interact with lovers and cope with grief. It is possible that he just wanted to tell a story about a young woman coming of age and a middle aged man attempting to restart his life. But by showing the graphic and sometimes disturbing sex that these two characters have, Bertolucci gave us far more insight into these characters than would be possible just by seeing them talk to each other, regardless of the topic. Showing the way that Paul and Jeanne have sex helps us understand their inner conflict and how they are using each other, and attempting to control each other, as a way of dealing with their personal issues.
Last Tango in Paris follows two characters who begin a sexual affair that becomes abusive. Paul is in his mid-40s and dealing with the suicide of his wife, for whom he moved to France five years before. He was aware of her multiple sexual affairs, but did not have any of his own. He meets Jeanne, who is 20 and in a relationship with a young filmmaker, in one of the rooms of the hotel that he and his wife ran with his wife's mother. Paul is attempting to retake control of his life. His wife's infidelity and suicide, as well as the fact that he is on the wrong side of middle age, have him questioning his masculinity and his sense of power. He is desperate for affirmation, for a situation in which he has total control. Jeanne presents him with such a situation. She is young, naïve, and at a very different crossroad in her life. She is looking to forge her own identity, to prove to herself and the world that she is a woman, not a girl.
Their first meeting reveals their attempts to redefine themselves and establishes the power dynamic in their relationship, mainly through their sexual interactions. Jeanne is looking at a room in Paul's hotel, and finds that he is already there. They both immediately size each other up, speaking cautiously and watching each other move around the room warily. Jeanne thinks that Paul is also interested in renting the room: “So you're going to take it,” she assesses. “You decided.” Jeanne sees Paul as a powerful man who takes what he wants, and Paul recognizes that.
This is the ideal situation for both of them. Paul wants power, and the easiest way to have power is by taking it from somebody else, especially somebody smaller and weaker. Paul looks Jeanne up and down and then, without saying a word, lifts her into his arms and carries her to the side of the room. What he does to her might not be rape, but certainly raises issues of consent. Paul rips Jeanne's panties off, without taking off any of his clothes, and enters her. The scene is perfunctory yet passionate. Her moans make it clear that, despite her lack of consent, she is enjoying the act, and indicates that she has at least one orgasm. What is important about this scene is that Paul is completely in control of the situation, which is what both of them want.
Still inside of her, Paul falls to the floor on top of her, her legs straddling his, and they catch their breath as the sex ends. Almost immediately she rolls away from him. This is not an act of gravity; she pushes herself so as to get distinct distance from him. She is trying to find her own space, and find herself, after having given herself to him completely. This is what Jeanne wants, she thinks, which is why she does not resist Paul when he takes her. She wants to be a grownup, to have a real sexual relationship, and she thinks that allowing herself to be controlled by Paul will provide her with that. But she thinks that this will create true intimacy, which is the exact opposite of what Paul wants.
Paul creates an abusive relationship with Jeanne in which he has complete power over her because he does not know anything about her or care about her. He was hurt by his wife because he let himself love her, so he shuts himself off from Jeanne completely, which is his way of retaining control. He takes her physically but does not give up any part of himself, and there are several scenes in which she is naked or partially naked but he is clothed, as if he is wearing armor to keep himself safe. At one point he puts his hand over her mouth to stop her from telling him her name. He doesn't want a real person. He wants a doll he can own and control.
Jeanne is drawn to Paul because he offers her a physical closeness that her fiance does not. Her fiance, Tom constantly films her in an attempt to make their love into a movie. The result is fake and insincere, and as a result creates a distance between them. As much as Tom tries to be loving and embrace her, he does so in the wrong way. In one scene, Jeanne and Paul are lying together, their arms and legs entwined, creating the kind of closeness for which Jeanne is desperate.
Jeanne plays Paul's games as an attempt to create intimacy with him. She is desperate to prove her own maturity to him, which is why at one point she starts masturbating on the bed in front of him. But he responds to her with cruelty and abuse, and his moments of sweetness are mixed with mockery. When she is soaking wet in her wedding dress Paul carries her over the threshold of his apartment, but later he picks up a dead rat and taunts her with it. He frequently grabs her, lifts her up, pushes her under the water, always proving that he has the power, both physically and emotionally.
As Paul's sense of control slips away from him he becomes more abusive towards Jeanne. The last two sex scenes we see are deeply disturbing, and one of them can only be classified as rape. Paul takes Jeanne from behind, using butter as lubricant. He pushes her to the ground, controlling her completely, ignoring her pleas and her tears. Paul is able to maintain his control over Jeanne by emotionally manipulating her. This is a common tool in abusive relationships, where the abuser uses demeaning language to denigrate their partner, making them feel like they deserve physical and emotional abuse. In one scene Paul makes Jeanne insert a finger into his butt, forcing Jeanne to do something she does not want to, and using her for his own pleasure. “I'm gonna get a pig, and I'm gonna get the pig to fuck you,” Paul says. “And I'm gonna have the pig vomit in your face. And I want you to swallow the vomit.” Paul is trying to make Jeanne feel worthless, and he is successful. “Are you gonna do all of that for me?” he asks, to which she responds, “Yes, and more than that. And worse.”
Throughout the movie we see Paul using Jeanne to maintain control over his life, taking advantage of her to develop a sense of power and superiority, both of which he lost in his relationship with his wife. Paul becomes more abusive as he senses that he is losing control, but we don't actually see him lose control until he sees his wife in her coffin. This is the scene in which Paul falls apart, admitting all the weakness and helplessness he has been feeling, that we have seen beneath the surface but has never come out. “I might be able to comprehend the universe,” Paul tells her, “but I'll never be able to understand the truth about you. Never.” He admits to her that he is lost and afraid, the sort of admission he could never make to Jeanne. He attempts to assert himself in the situation, verbally assaulting his wife's corpse in the same way he did Jeanne, but he has no power in this dynamic so it is useless. Eventually he is left with no recourse but to break down in tears and beg for forgiveness.
It is at this point that we understand that Paul is completely broken, has lost all control over his own life. He is desperate for a real emotional connection, exactly what he has spent the rest of the movie trying to avoid. Before, he presented himself to Jeanne as strong and impenetrable, but the next time he sees her he is weak, open, and emotional. He opens himself up to Jeanne exactly as she wanted him to, telling her all of the details of his life. He is allowing himself to be vulnerable because he can finally admit to himself that he loves her.
This is the moment that Jeanne realizes what she wants. She has been dealing with a broken man the whole time, but she never realized it because she was so in love with him and so at his mercy. She gave him such total control of herself that she wan't able to see that he had no control over his own life. This is the moment when we see Jeanne grow up. She thought that being with Paul was making her a woman, mostly because of the sex, but she truly becomes a woman when she takes control of her own life, dictating the terms of her relationship. Of course, sex plays a part of this as well. Sitting in the corner of a bar, Jeanne jerks Paul off over his pants. This is the first time in their relationship that Jeanne has been the one in control of a sexual situation. She is pleasuring him, yes, but on her terms. Paul later tries to reassert control in the way he had earlier, but telling her “You're a a crummy looking broad. I don't give a damn if I never see you again.” But his spell has been broken and he has completely lost the power that he had over her.
So why then, does Jeanne shoot Paul at the end of the film? There are a number of theories one could posit. The most obvious is revenge. Having grown up and understood how damaging and terrible what Paul did to her was, and this is how she gets back at him. She has an obvious excuse for the police, in that she could claim self defense and nobody would be able to challenge her. But it is entirely possible that her motivation had less to do with revenge than with wanting to create a new life. A theme throughout Last Tango in Paris is wanting to start over. That is what Paul attempts to do with Jeanne, and at one point he tells her “it's over and then it begins again.” Jeanne doesn't understand what he means, but over the course of this last day with him, she sees how he is trying to start a new life. She makes the same decision, severing her ties to the girl that she used to be. Paul used her sexuality in an attempt to break her, but she makes the choice to be strong and in control. Shooting Paul is her way of beginning again, of reclaiming her strength and power.
Last Tango in Paris is a wild, tumultuous, aggressive movie, but what makes it so powerful is not its looseness, but its rigidity. Watching the film you understand how much control director Bernardo Bertolucci has over the frame, and how he moves the story forward effortlessly. So you can watch the sex scenes and think they are excessive, gratuitous, sacrificing story for the sake of titillation. But such a judgment ignores the insight these sex scenes give us into the fluctuating emotional states of the film's protagonist. How they touch, how they fuck, how they move when they are together. Filmmakers are often told to “show, not tell” when developing their characters. Depicting somebody during their most intimate, most vulnerable moments is the ultimate way to show us all of the secrets they want to keep hidden. Bertolucci understood that when he wrote and directed Last Tango in Paris, and the result is a movie that is not sexy or titillating, but is brutally honest and deeply sad.