It may not contain a lot of actual South American dancing, but Last Tango in Paris has plenty of the metaphorical, horizontal kind of tangoing. (We are referring to sex.) But plenty of movies have THAT. What is it that makes Last Tango in Paris so special? Why is it still discussed nearly 40 years later? Let's slather on the butter and investigate.

The praise: Marlon Brando got his seventh Oscar nomination for his performance. If he'd won, it would have been back-to-back with his win for The Godfather; he lost, though, and look at who he was up against: Jack Lemmon, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, and Robert Redford. If you have to lose an acting award, those are four pretty good people to lose it to. The other Oscar nomination for Last Tango in Paris was for its director, Bernardo Bertolucci, who lost to George Roy Hill for The Sting. Bertolucci had previously earned a screenplay nomination for The Conformist (1971) and would eventually win for both a writing and a directing Oscar for The Last Emperor (1987). (Note: Last Tango in Paris was released in Europe in late 1972, and had a screening at the New York Film Festival in October of that year. But it was officially released theatrically in the United States in early 1973, so it competed with other 1973 films at the Oscars. If it had been a 1972 release, it would have been up against, among other films, The Godfather.)

The context: After spending the 1960s in decline, Marlon Brando -- perhaps America's greatest film actor, and definitely one of its most inscrutable -- came roaring back to life in the early 1970s. He'd barely finished shooting The Godfather when he made Last Tango in Paris; the latter had its U.S. premiere (at the New York Film Festival) just seven months after the former hit theaters. In 1972 and 1973, Marlon Brando was once again on top. He soon blew it, of course, and went back to being reclusive and weird. But the one-two punch of The Godfather and Last Tango in Paris was enough to renew his membership in the Hollywood Legends club.

The Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci, meanwhile, was young (in his early 30s) and enjoying a bit of international success with his 1970 anti-fascist political drama The Conformist. Brando, a fan of that film who was intrigued by Bertolucci's talent, approached the director when he heard he was looking for someone to star in Last Tango. This proved to be fortuitous. In 2007, Geoffrey Macnab in The Independent spoke for all film buffs when he wrote, "Had Bertolucci made Last Tango -- as he had originally intended -- with the French actors Jean-Louis Trintignant and Dominique Sanda, it is hard to see how the film would have become the international phenomenon that it did."

Mainstream movie audiences had grown more accepting of sex and nudity in the years leading up to Last Tango, and it helped if the movies were European. Midnight Cowboy (1969), an all-American production, will forever be famous as the only X-rated film to win the Oscar for Best Picture, but that record needs an asterisk: the film was later reclassified with an R rating, which is what it should have had in the first place.

Last Tango in Paris, on the other hand, actually deserved the X rating it got, in the sense that it was a film meant for adults that contained a lot of nudity and very strong sexuality. (Producers of outright pornography eventually co-opted the X rating, but in 1972 an X-rated film could still be taken seriously.) The film's U.S. distributor shrewdly allowed exactly one screening of it at the New York Film Festival in October 1972. By the time it opened for real, in February 1973, it had caused a stir all over Europe and had American moviegoers lined up for a chance to see it. Time and Newsweek both did cover stories. Playboy ran a pictorial. There was, as you may well imagine, much consternation in the media about whether the film was pornography, art, or some combination of the two.

Time magazine quoted a Manhattan theater owner: "There is such a thing as pornography, and there is such a thing as a beautiful, well-made production by a talented director, and when you see this movie you will understand the difference." The Time writer then added: "You will also understand the similarities.... The audacity of Tango might not have been possible, either in terms of the law or of audience acceptance, without the example of out-and-out porno flicks."

To be clear, Last Tango is pretty far removed from hardcore porn in terms of actual content. It has one female character who is fully nude a lot, but no other nudity, male or female. (Reflecting the dynamic of the relationship, Brando's character is always clothed when they have sex.) The sex is simulated, not real, separating it from what most people think of when they think of "porn," and it's hardly erotic. It's not even particularly pleasant. The man, in anguish over the sudden death of his wife, is vulgar and degrading, though perhaps that in itself is erotic to some viewers.

It's apparent that the film wasn't made just to titillate audiences. There are much cheaper and more efficient ways of doing that, and without having to drag the Brando character's complex psychology into it. But the movie certainly had more naughtiness than the mainstream moviegoer was used to seeing -- and with one of Hollywood's greatest legends as its star, no less! The film was censored in some countries, banned outright in others (including Bertolucci's native Italy). It got mostly rave reviews and was a box-office hit, but it also inspired protests, contempt, and disgust.

What it influenced: Actually, Last Tango in Paris might be most notable for what it failed to influence.

When it was released, the cover story in Time magazine made this assertion: "Tango proclaims the liberation of serious films from restraints on sex as unequivocally as the 1967 Bonnie and Clyde proclaimed liberation from restraints on violence." Pauline Kael, writing for the New Yorker, and sounding like Will Ferrell's exaggeration of James Lipton, said the film had "altered the face of an art form," and that the date of its premiere would go down in film history. "This is a movie people will be arguing about for as long as there are movies," she wrote.

But while Bonnie and Clyde was indeed a watershed moment for realistic violence in mainstream movies, Last Tango in Paris didn't lead to a new era of grown-up movies treating sex with equal seriousness, nor is its premiere date being memorized by film students. In 1995, reflecting on this point, Roger Ebert wrote:

This movie was the banner for a revolution that never happened.... It was not the beginning of something new, but the triumph of something old -- the "art film," which was soon to be replaced by the complete victory of mass-marketed "event films." The shocking sexual energy of Last Tango in Paris and the daring of Marlon Brando and the unknown Maria Schneider did not lead to an adult art cinema. The movie frightened off imitators, and instead of being the first of many X-rated films dealing honestly with sexuality, it became almost the last. Hollywood made a quick U-turn into movies about teenagers, technology, action heroes and special effects.

Still, the film was famous enough that it's been referenced frequently in other movies. Usually the references are to a particular scene: the one where Paul sodomizes Jeanne using butter as a lubricant. ("The One Where Paul Sodomizes Jeanne Using Butter As a Lubricant" was also a rejected episode title for Friends.) This scene was so notorious that it came to represent the film as a whole in many people's minds. "Last Tango in Paris?" people would say. "Oh, sure, the movie with the buttery sex." Just as Janet Leigh didn't take showers for a long time after Psycho, Maria Schneider said she didn't cook with butter.

What to look for: Brando was notorious for being either unwilling or unable (or some combination) to memorize his lines, so he put cue cards everywhere and improvised a lot. In the scene where Paul visits his wife's corpse, you can see him casting his eyes upward -- in character, of course -- looking for his lines.

Brando also reportedly showed up to the set wearing way too much makeup, unaware of the kind of lighting and close-ups Bertolucci would be using. In the scene where Paul shares memories from his childhood, Brando's face is noticeably orange.

Though Jeanne and Paul's relationship is mostly focused on Paul's selfish desires, there is some nuance, too. There are moments of fun and frivolity between the two. You can see how she would genuinely enjoy his company at times, and you can see him gradually defeating his own purpose by falling in love with her.

Further reading: If you haven't seen the movie, do so before reading these, as they get into some spoiler-y details.

Roger Ebert's contemporary review of the film -- a rave -- has his 1995 reflections appended to it. After Brando's death, in 2004, Ebert again discussed the film, this time comparing Brando's real life to his performance as Paul.

Here's the Time magazine cover story from early 1973, which is both a review of the film and a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes reportage. I tried to find out who wrote this article, but my efforts were in vain. Still, that's better than Newsweek, which also ran a cover story but whose online archives only go back a year. Welcome to the late 20th century, Newsweek!

Vincent Canby's review in the New York Times was positive but not glowing.

Pauline Kael's review, on the other hand, for the New Yorker, is a rave to end all raves. It was so complimentary that rather than pull a quote from it to use in advertisements, United Artists bought space in the New York Times and simply reprinted the entire review.

Finally, here are two articles -- one from The Independent, one from the Sydney Morning Herald -- about the film's aftermath, and in particular its effects on Maria Schneider.

* * * *

Eric D. Snider (website) encourages you not to think about anything Hilton-related when you hear "Last Tango in Paris."