In My Own Words

I met iconic actress Maria Schneider shortly after the release of Bernardo Bertolucci’s brilliant and revolutionary “Last Tango in Paris” (1972). Maria Schneider was just 19-years-old when she made “Last Tango.” We met at the famed Chateau Marmont, at the bungalow I was staying in with director Nicholas Ray, where we were working to prepare his film “We Can’t Go Home Again” for its premiere – as an unfinished film – at Cannes. (I am very happy that Nick Ray’s widow Susan Ray has undertaken a comprehensive restoration of “We Can’t Go Home Again,” which will be shown at this year’s Venice Film Festival).

It was completely logical that Maria Schneider would visit Nick Ray’s bungalow – Bertolucci was – and continues to be – a huge fan of the work of Nicholas Ray, who was a major influence on his career. And, Nick Ray was always “where it was at” – and while I was just a naive observer on the scene – and even younger than Maria by a couple of years – the bungalow we stayed in for a month brought guests from Wavy Gravy (now known more, perhaps, for the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor named after him) to Natalie Wood, whose breakout role was in Nick Ray’s “Rebel Without A Cause,” and who was one of Nick’s lovers when she appeared in “Rebel” at the age of 15.

I only saw Maria for a moment here and there, and conversation between us was very brief – but they remain as indelible images and experiences in my psyche. This was the girl who performed in the famous “butter” scene in “Last Tango” – and she was also clearly someone whose sudden catapult to fame was troubling and unsettling. When I first saw her, she was wearing a large button that said “Happiness is a Warm Pussy.” I pointed to it and she just smiled. I asked her what it was like to work with Bertolucci, and she said he was completely preoccupied by sex – no surprise there. I asked her about how it was to work with Marlon Brando, and her response, while not exactly a word, is forever etched in my mind. She smiled and simply said: “Marlon – mmmmmmmmmmm…” That was going to be enough questioning for me. Later, some guests who were hangers-on and unknown to me placed a mountain of cocaine on the kitchen table. That was not at all my thing, but I observed from a distance. Maria Schneider reached into the cocaine mountain and placed it all over her face. In white-face, she stumbled out of the bungalow and walked through – literally – the glass door in the lobby, shattering the glass. Dramatic entrance, dramatic exit.

It is with sadness that I learn of her passing in Paris at the age of 58. In addition to her brilliant role as the girl who has anonymous sex with the grieving Marlon Brando in an abandoned Paris flat in “Last Tango In Paris,” she co-starred in another iconic film, the great Michelangelo Antonioni’s existential allegory The Passenger (1975) , this time with another screen legend – Jack Nicholson. Shortly after completing The Passenger, Maria Schneider checked herself into a mental hospital in Rome and was outspoken about having been objectified by both Brando and Bertolucci in the sexually candid “Last Tango.” She continued to act in French films until shortly before her death. She will forever be known for “Last Tango in Paris” and “The Passenger” – but with those two films, that is quite a career.

Danny Fisher is the CEO of film distribution company Fisher Klingenstein Films and Editor of website Wish I Didn’t Know. He was also the founder and CEO of former company City Lights Media.

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