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January 31, 2005
Door in the Floor vs. Last Tango
Tod Williams cops to an influence to Sheila Johnston in the Telegraph: "Male sexuality is the dark engine behind both films. In Williams's, a narcissistic author (Jeff Bridges) reacts to the deaths of his two sons by wallowing in self-loathing, booze and promiscuity. Brando's obsessive behaviour in Last Tango is driven by his wife's suicide. "They are exorcising their demons through sex: dealing with loss and controlling grief. The rules Brando lays down for his affair—no names, no history—are like trying to stage-manage life the way Jeff Bridges's character does." Williams selects a scene where Brando's character tells Maria Schneider's about himself. "He's lying in bed in the apartment he has rented for the affair. It's a sustained close-up of a guy with a handsome, craggy face, beautifully lit, of course, by Vittorio Storaro. He's describing being a kid on a farm in the Midwest... largely improvised by Brando based on his own memories and personal issues. He's walking though a mustard field with his black dog, and the dog is leaping up above the mustard, looking round for rabbits. You can 'see' the dog and the field even though you're looking at Marlon Brando in a room in Paris. What an uncinematic favourite cinema moment—just a talking head against a wall!"
Posted by Ray Pride at January 31, 2005 05:37 PM
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