Editing Last Tango in Paris (section)

=== Response in United States ===
{{quote box|bgcolor=#CCDDFF|align=right|width=25%|quote=October 14, 1972... should become a landmark in movie history comparable to May 29, 1913—the night ''[[The Rite of Spring|Le Sacre du Printemps]]'' was first performed—in music history...  ''Last Tango in Paris'' has the same kind of hypnotic excitement as the ''Sacre'', the same primitive force, and the same thrusting, jabbing eroticism.  The movie breakthrough has finally come.|source=—[[Pauline Kael]]{{sfn|Arcalli|Bertolucci|1972|p=9}} }}

The film opened February 1, 1973 at the Trans-Lux East in New York City with a $5 ticket price and advance sales of $100,000,<ref name=usopen>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=February 7, 1973|page=7|title=Bertolucci Rues $5 Bit on 'Tango'|last=Segers|first=Frank}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=February 7, 1973|page=6|title=KO 'Tango' Case In Italy; Leads Director Safe}}</ref> grossing $41,280 in its first week.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=February 7, 1973|page=8|title='Tango' At $5, Takes $41,280, First}}</ref> The media frenzy surrounding the film generated intense popular interest as well as moral condemnation, and the film was featured in cover stories in both ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' and ''[[Newsweek]]''<ref name="The Hottest Movie"/> magazines. ''[[Playboy]]'' published a photo spread of Brando and Schneider "cavorting in the nude".<ref name="The Hottest Movie"/> ''Time'' wrote,

{{blockquote|Any moviegoers who are not shocked, titillated, disgusted, fascinated, delighted or angered by this early scene in Bernardo Bertolucci's new movie, ''Last Tango in Paris'', should be patient. There is more to come. Much more.<ref name="SelfPortrait" />}}

The ''[[Village Voice]]'' reported walkouts by board members and "vomiting by well-dressed wives".<ref>{{cite web |first=Geoffrey |last=Macnab |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/last-tango-in-paris-can-it-arouse-the-same-passions-now-454083.html |title=Last Tango in Paris: Can it arouse the same passions now? |work=[[The Independent]]  |location=London, England |date=22 June 2007 |access-date=22 March 2018|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100311220122/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/last-tango-in-paris-can-it-arouse-the-same-passions-now-454083.html |archive-date=11 March 2010}}</ref> Columnist [[William F. Buckley]] and ABC's [[Harry Reasoner]] denounced the film as "pornography disguised as art".<ref name="The Hottest Movie"/>

After local government officials failed to ban the film in [[Montclair, New Jersey]], theatergoers had to push through a mob of 200 outraged residents, who hurled epithets like "perverts" and "homos" at the attendees. Later, a [[bomb threat]] temporarily halted the showing.<ref>{{cite news |first=Walter H. |last=Waggoner |title=Pickets Call 'Tango' Filthy as it Starts its Montclair Run |work=[[The New York Times]] |location=New York City |date=26 April 1973 |page=91}}</ref> The New York City chapter of the [[National Organization for Women]] denounced the film as a tool of "male domination".<ref>{{cite news |first=Laurie |last=Johnston |title='Women's Power' Protests 'Male Domination' of Wall St. |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]  |date=24 August 1973 |page=39}}</ref>

The film's scandal centred mostly on an anal rape scene, featuring Paul's use of butter as a [[Sexual lubricant|lubricant]].<ref>{{cite news |first=Tamara |last=Jenkins |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/28388/Last-Tango-in-Paris/overview |title=Movies: About Last Tango in Paris |location=New York City | access-date=7 May 2010  |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121031085713/https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/28388/Last-Tango-in-Paris/overview |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=2012 |archive-date=31 October 2012}}</ref> According to Schneider, the scene was not in the original script, but was Brando's idea.<ref name="Downhill Ride"/> Other critics focused on when the character Paul asks Jeanne to insert her fingers in his anus, then asks her to prove her devotion to him by, among other things, having sex with a pig. [[Vincent Canby]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' described the film's sexual content as the artistic expression of the "era of [[Norman Mailer]] and [[Germaine Greer]]"<ref>{{cite news |first=Vincent |last=Canby |author-link=Vincent Canby |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/02/02/archives/screen-last-tango-in-paris-at-last-the-cast.html |title=Last Tango in Paris |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]  |date=2 February 1973 |access-date=29 July 2018}}</ref> and was upset about the high ticket price.<ref name=usopen/>

Film critic [[Pauline Kael]] endorsed the film,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/834-last-tango-in-paris|title=Last Tango in Paris|first=Pauline|last=Kael|authorlink=Pauline Kael|website=The Criterion Collection}}</ref> writing that "''Tango'' has altered the face of an art form. This is a movie people will be arguing about for as long as there are movies."<ref name="SelfPortrait"/> She called it "the most powerfully erotic movie ever made, and it may turn out to be the most liberating movie ever made."{{sfn|Arcalli|Bertolucci|1972|p=10}} [[United Artists]] reprinted the whole of Kael's rave as a double-page advertisement in the Sunday ''New York Times''. Kael's review of ''Last Tango in Paris'' is regarded as the most influential piece of her career.<ref>{{cite news |first=Louis |last=Menand |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1995/03/23/finding-it-at-the-movies/ |title=Finding It at the Movies |newspaper=[[The New York Review of Books]] |date=23 March 1995 |access-date=22 March 2018}}</ref>

Many feminist film critics disliked the film. In a 1974 review in ''[[Jump Cut (journal)|Jump Cut]]'', [[E. Ann Kaplan]] criticized it for featuring "a one-sided relationship seen mostly through Paul's eyes."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kaplan |first1=E. Ann |title=Importance and Ultimate Failure of Last Tango in Paris |journal=[[Jump Cut (journal)|Jump Cut]] |date=1974 |volume=4 }}</ref> In ''[[Women and Their Sexuality in the New Film]],'' (1974) one of the first explicitly feminist books on film, [[Joan Mellen]] complains about a similar issue, that Jeanne constantly gives way to Paul, "the man who is made more interesting in every way."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mellen |first1=Joan |title=Women and Their Sexuality in the New Film |date=1974 |publisher=Horizon Press |location=New York City|isbn=978-0818007057 |page=49 |edition=1 }}</ref> However, a few did enjoy it, such as [[Molly Haskell]], who responded to feminist criticism in ''[[From Reverence to Rape|From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies]]'' (1974) by noting that women more than men seemed to respond to the film, and that female sexual fantasies can include "rape, sadism, submission, liberation, and anonymous sex."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Haskell |first1=Molly |title=From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies |date=1974 |publisher=New English Library |isbn=0-226-31885-0 |page=32}}</ref>

The American critic [[Roger Ebert]] repeatedly described Kael's review as "the most famous movie review ever published", and he added the film to his "Great Movies" collection.<ref>{{cite news |first=Roger |last=Ebert |author-link=Roger Ebert |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-last-tango-in-paris-1972 |title=Intimate strangers in the night |newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]  |location=Chicago, Illinois |date=15 August 2004 |access-date=22 March 2018 |via=rogerebert.com}}</ref> American director [[Robert Altman]] expressed unqualified praise: "I walked out of the screening and said to myself, 'How dare I make another film?' My personal and artistic life will never be the same."<ref name="The Hottest Movie" />

Review aggregation website [[Rotten Tomatoes]] retrospectively collected 44 reviews and gave the film an approval rating of 82%, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Naturalistic but evocative, ''Last Tango in Paris'' is a vivid exploration of pain, love, and sex featuring a typically towering Marlon Brando performance."<ref>{{cite web |title=Last Tango in Paris (1972) |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/last_tango_in_paris/ |work=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] |publisher=[[Fandango Media]] |access-date= 18 April 2024}}</ref> {{Metacritic film prose|77|6|access-date=21 December 2024}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Last Tango in Paris critic reviews |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/last-tango-in-paris/critic-reviews/ |access-date=2024-12-21 |website=www.metacritic.com |language=en}}</ref>

In 2004, director [[Martin Scorsese]] compared this "towering Brando performance" to the actor's turn as Terry Malloy in ''[[On the Waterfront]]'' (1954) and noted that "[w]hen you watch his work in ... ''Last Tango in Paris'', you're watching the purest poetry imaginable, in dynamic motion".<ref>{{cite web|agency=[[Associated Press]] |title=Marlon Brando redefined acting |url=https://www.today.com/popculture/marlon-brando-redefined-acting-wbna5354214 |access-date=July 20, 2020 |work=Official website of The Today Show |date=July 3, 2004}}</ref>

[[Ethan Hawke]] considered Brando's work a seminal moment in the movement of performance. Praising both the star and the director of the film, Hawke told [[Richard Linklater]] and [[Louis Black]] that, "Brando upped [''On the Waterfront''] with ''Last Tango''."<ref>{{cite web|first=Louis |last=Black |author-link=Louis Black |title=Page Two: 'I Got Vision, and the Rest of the World Wears Bifocals' |url=https://www.austinchronicle.com/columns/2016-03-04/page-two-i-got-vision-and-the-rest-of-the-world-wears-bifocals/ |url-access= |access-date=March 23, 2021 |work=The Austin Chronicle |date=March 4, 2016}}</ref> [[Pauline Kael]], in her aforementioned review, had echoed the same sentiments by saying, "On the screen Brando is our genius as [[Norman Mailer|[Norman] Mailer]] is our genius in literature … Paul feels so 'real' and the character is brought so close that a new dimension in screen acting has been reached."

[[Richard Brody]] of ''[[The New Yorker]]'' praised the personal nature of Brando's role, commenting in his review of ''[[Listen to Me Marlon]]'' (2015) that, <blockquote>"When Brando said what he himself had to say, it was indeed of a unique value. That's why the best of Brando is when he's closest to himself, as in ... Bernardo Bertolucci's ''Last Tango in Paris'', from 1972. It isn't only his words that are better than those of the screenwriters; his persona, his character, is greater than those that are scripted."<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Richard |last=Brody |author-link=Richard Brody |title=Just Let Marlon Brando Talk |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/just-let-marlon-brando-talk |url-access=limited |access-date=July 15, 2020 |magazine=The New Yorker |date=July 30, 2015}}</ref></blockquote> In 2019, actor [[Brad Pitt]] said the film from the past he'd most like to have starred in is ''Last Tango in Paris'', "Brando. That one hurts."<ref>{{cite web|first=Jacob |last=Stolworthy |title=Brad Pitt says he wants to be 'spliced into' infamous 1970s film Last Tango in Paris |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/brad-pitt-margot-robbie-last-tango-in-paris-rape-controversy-once-upon-time-hollywood-tarantino-a9048996.html |access-date=August 26, 2020 |work=The Independent |date=August 9, 2019}}</ref> ''[[Premiere (magazine)|Premiere]]'' had named Brando's performance the 27th-greatest film performance of all time in April 2006.<ref>{{cite news|title=100 Greatest Movie Performances of All Time by Premiere Magazine § Part 3 |url=https://www.filmsite.org/100greatperformances3.html |access-date=March 23, 2021 |website=[[Filmsite.org]] }}</ref>

The film was given a nationwide release on February 7, 1973, and grossed $36 million in the United States and Canada,<ref name=mojo/> [[1973 in film#Highest-grossing films|the seventh highest-grossing film of 1973]].