Subrin’s Maria Schneider, 1983 (short)

For years, critics dismissed anyone who did not properly appreciate Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris as a prude. Now, it is practically cancelled, even though it is the same film it always was. The truth is, Tango always had a lot of ickiness, but Gato Barbieri’s score is absolutely gorgeous. Maria Schneider’s feelings on the film were mixed at best, due to the emotional and physical abuse she experienced (which Bertolucci essentially inadvertently confirmed). The film made Schneider internationally famous, but it became a constant source of pain and embarrassment. She made that quite clear in an uncomfortably candid French television interview in 1983. Elisabeth Subrin adapts that transcript three times with three different thesps in the 25-minute experimental short film, Maria Schneider, 1983, which screens this Saturday and Sunday at the Metrograph.

At least 80% of Schneider’s words and their underlying themes remain constant throughout Subrin’s successive takes, but she makes not-so subtle variations, to make very clear points. The first version hews the most faithfully to the actual interview. Manal Issa also probably bears the greatest resemblance to Schneider and probably best approximates the late actress’s mannerisms. As a result, the way she eerily channel Schneider makes her performance is far and away the most powerful of the three.

By casting Aisa Maiga and subtly rewriting the text, Subrin adds a pronounced racial dynamic to the second version of the interview. Maiga plays the part of Schneider with conviction, but the dissimilarities between her and Maiga heighten the short film’s artificial vibe to a distracting extent. That is even more true with Isabel Sandoval, whom Subrin has call out Bertolucci and Brando in explicit terms the real-life Schneider was seemingly trying to avoid.

It is easy to understand why Schneider was uncomfortable revisiting Last Tango. Regardless of the circumstances of its production, Bertolucci’s film ought to make all viewers uncomfortable, because they should have empathy with her character, Jeanne. Unfortunately, as we can see from the spectacle of people ripping down posters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, empathy is something that is in short supply these days. The late Schneider deserved more than she got from the film establishment.

Maria Schneider, 1983 is not entirely successful, but it ought to make cineastes reflect a little. It reminds us how quickly some people in the film establishment can change their tune. Fifteen years ago, Marina Zenovich’s Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired argued that it was a scandal the LA District Attorney was still trying to extradite and prosecute the Polish filmmaker. Today, he is so cancelled, his last three films have yet to be distributed in the U.S.

It is also important to remember Schneider was more than one film, having also starred in Antonioni’s The Passenger and films by Rene Clement and Roger Vadim. Maria Schneider, 1983 helps to put her career in proper perspective, which is something. Despite its ideological baggage, Maria Schneider, 1983 is recommended for fans of the actress and experimental documentaries in the tradition of The Arbor and Dreams of a Life, when screens with another Subrin short, Shulie, this Saturday (12/2) and Sunday (12/3), at the Metrograph.