Precious is a new-style weepie but one that is much more bracing than depressing
Precious
Theatre
Ian McKellen is captivating throughout. He delights in the play’s gallows humour, yet is also maudlin and poignant
Waiting for Godot
Theatre
Slight quibbles notwithstanding, this will set the West End’s stock riding high
Enron
Utterly, utterly brilliant. You really are in for a treat
Though 'Trilogy' has won rave reviews, I personally found myself exasperated after about an hour
We went on a quiet sunday evening and the food was excellent, but the experience let down by the service and ambiance
London,
Derek Malcolm's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Bernardo Bertolucci.
Cast: Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider
Description: Re-release of the infamous 1972 journey of sexual discovery, starring Marlon Brando as the aging womaniser wrestling with news of his unfaithful wife's suicide. By chance, during a viewing, he crosses paths with a sexy young woman and the strangers forge a pact to revisit the apartment to indulge in frenetic, anonymous sex without emotional ties.
Country: FR/ITA/US. 1972. 129mins
No bum notes: Maria Schneider and Marlon Brando
Here's how the court in Bologna which seized and banned Last Tango in Paris saw Bertolucci's 1973 film: "Obscene content offensive to public decency, characterised by an exasperating pan-sexualism for its own end, presented with obsessive self-indulgence ... dominated by the idea of stirring unchecked appetites for sexual pleasure ... accompanied off screen by sounds, sighs and shrieks of climax pleasure."
That's the downside. Here's the upside, from Pauline Kael: "The movie breakthrough has finally come ... this must be the most powerfully erotic movie ever made, and it may turn out to be the most liberating movie ever made ... Bertolucci and Brando have altered the face of an art form. Who was prepared for that?"
Kael's 4,000-word review convinced most sceptics that Last Tango - the story of a middle-aged man (Brando) who, devastated by the apparent suicide of his wife, embarks on a sadomasochistic affair with a young girl (Maria Schneider) - was morally serious and a work of art. But the British Censor cut the anal sex scene all the same.
Whether the film really indicts the bourgeois family structures which suppress feeling and "civilise" the savage in us all is a moot point. But as a psychodrama it has the audacity of Godard and the naked power of Bergman. Not bad for starters.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Morning:
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