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| DIRECTED BY |
| Bernardo Bertolucci |
| STARRING |
| Marlon Brando |
| Maria Schneider |
| Maria Michi |
| Jean-Pierre L�aud |
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Bernardo Bertolucci�s tale of love when all is lost passes as a daring masterpiece when it concentrates solely on the sordid, doomed relationship between Paul and Jeanne. When it crosses over into the realm of Jeanne�s relationship with Tom and starts trying to make comparisons between genuine and false love, it borders on ridiculousness.
The opening sequence is intriguing. Jeanne and Paul cross paths on a number of seemingly fated occasions; once they finally meet, there�s hardly any conversation between them. They let their mutual lust take over, resulting in the most appropriately executed sex scene that I�ve ever witnessed on film. I emphasize that it�s a shame that Bertolucci felt the need to include the subplot with Jeanne�s supposedly actual love interest, the pseudo-philosophical filmmaker Tom, because by the end it just doesn�t work.
Bertolucci�s direction is always impressive here, however. The much-lauded �butter� scene didn�t stick with me as much as the sequence near the end with Paul (about to have a heart attack,) sprinting up a spiral staircase as Jeanne looks on with ambivalence from an ascending elevator. And if you�ve ever had any doubts about Brando actually being as good as he�s been made out to be over the years � see this.
