I just found out Maria Schneider, the French film actress, passed at only 58. Her impact in the first movie I saw her in, LAST TANGO IN PARIS, was unforgettable, holding her own against two iconic film presences, Marlon Brando and fellow French actor, Jean-Pierre Leaud (who first made his mark on a lot of our movie-going lives almost two decades before LAST TANGO in THE 400 BLOWS, and went on to play Truffaut's alter-ego a few more times).
After LAST TANGO Schneider went on to play opposite lots of famous leading men, Jack Nicholson being just one (the rest were mostly European), but she never achieved the kind of iconic status I think she deserved (she was only nineteen went she dominated the screen in LAST TANGO). That may have been because TANGO was initially rated "X"—which in part led to the changing of the ratings system when the notoriety it received had soft and hardcore porn filmmakers rating their films "X" to get people into their theaters—but became NC-17 under the new system, and as a result a lot of people didn't see it or saw it in the censored version Blockbuster rented out for years without telling their customers the film had been cut in ways that destroyed a lot of the emotional and artistic impact (thanks to the fundamentalist head of Blockbuster) etc.
Somehow her going feels like the end of an era. Guess it is.
5 comments:
The end of an era indeed, and she only 58. It seems far too young for one who is my mind is still quintessentially young and beautiful. Thanks, Michael. I often wondered what happened to thios actress. I remember seeing the film when I too was nineteen.
My sentiments exactly Elisabeth, "quintessentially young and beautiful" and "far too young"...
Wow do I remember this movie. I saw it in Iowa City.
I wanted her hairstyle so badly.
suzanne
Yeah, she seemed pretty original at the time, including her hairstyle. I saw it in DC and got into an argument afterward wit the young feminist I saw it with, she objected to Schneider's character's behavior even though the ending of the film, I thought, made it a pretty feminist statement in the terms of those days.
I saw it in Boston. It was so of the times. Landmark in the collaboration of Bertolucci and Storaro. Gato Barbieri did the soundtrack.
I will hold her memory and spirit in my heart and good thoughts and remember her for the beauty and spirit she gave me and so many others long ago.
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