last tango in paris, (pt12)

I believe one thing going on in this movie is paul is a spy of some sort. probably originally from military intelligence.

he is extremely athletic (especially for a middle-aged hotel manager, I know whereof I speak lol), easily moved to violence, very good at eliciting information without giving information. this is probably why it affected him so deeply that rosa kept secrets... he didn't think he would miss something right under his nose.

of course, I think rosa had (past tense) a similar line of work and this is why she was kind of... not o.k. she perhaps needed to retire... maybe even paul did, but I think it's more likely he's just the type who only comes in so often.

marcel has some sort of sketchy background as well because he, too, is very athletic. both marcel and paul tend to dress and act in a way that seems more suitable for their age (when they're in public... tango competition and ass-beatings excepted).

this makes me think rosa WAS murdered even if paul doesn't realize it (and he doesn't, but then he was the prime suspect). perhaps the police were told to declare it a suicide and move along.

so... perhaps jeanne didn't cross his path by accident? he doesn't try to check up on her. she's too immature to be up to something on her own, but there's the weird counting, etc.

however, even if that angle is discounted on jeanne why does she shoot paul? to get rid of him?

allen tdg (who just watched this) forwarded the theory that she didn't (mean to) shoot paul; she meant to shoot her father/the colonel. so, she was in shock a bit that she did it... although she didn't much want the reality of being WITH paul.

there's a totally for crap analysis of this movie from 1974 that just proves me theory that people in the 70s were stupid. and that e.ann kaplan didn't have much use for marlon brando. basically, she's p.o.ed that he didn't explain the movie to her. um... he acted it out, wtf else to you want? plus, he's not in every scene anyway. there's a whole different storyline...

and she misses the fact that ROSA is a huge influence on a lot of what happens even though she only appears in one scene as a dead body. so there you go.

check it out and see if you agree with me or the evil ann. hehe

last tango in paris, (pt11)

so... finally! i've gotten through the movie... there may be a short analysis post on things I haven't covered (depends). thank you if you made it all the way through. i'm sorry I had to split it up so much! I didn't mean to go on so much, but the movie is really interesting! :)

last tango in paris, proximity to truth (pt10)

paul takes jeanne to a club that, like a lot of things, has seen better days. of course, maybe it's an off night. there is a tango competition in progress.

jeanne and paul sit at a table drinking and talking. paul is a champion drinker. he buys jeanne a scotch, but she doesn't drink it until he mentions it. she says, "I love you, so i'll drink it."

the tango competition continues. this is a very stylized ballroom dancing type of tango where the passion of the original dance has been replaced with precise steps. paul barely seems to notice the dancers while jeanne watches them sadly.

jeanne asks to go somewhere else because this place "is pitiful." paul poo-poohs this and decides jeanne just needs to dance (never mind there's a competition going on) and leads her to the dance floor.

paul and jeanne "dancing" is truly hilarious. they're both pretty drunk and they are laughing, falling down, and doing everything but the tango. the judge comes over and scolds them (that goes over well). they stagger away...

then the judge calls out the numbers of the finalists counting upward until she reaches 19. jeanne collapses at an outside table and says (out of nowhere), "it's over?"

paul is mystified and sits down and immediately receives a big mixed single ... jeanne's hand in his lap.

as dawn approaches, jeanne once again declares it's over and runs away. paul chases her and chases her and chases her. the further along they go, the more jeanne rejects him even starting to act as though she doesn't know him.

when they get to jeanne's place she takes the elevator up while paul run across the checkerboard floor and up the spiral staircase. jeanne knocks on the neighbor's door asking for help... there's no answer. paul briefly catches her and says "don't be silly."

jeanne goes into the house. paul gives her a minute and follows.

he sees jeanne's father's hat and puts it on and asks, "how do you like your hero? sunnyside up or over easy?" jeanne doesn't reply.

he's talking to her calmly, telling her that he loves her and he wants them to be together. he says he wants to know her name and reaches out to gently turn her toward him.

jeanne shoots paul with her father's pistol. by the way she was standing, it couldn't even be seen. you don't see where she shoots him, but possibly the groin.

paul walks past her out onto the balcony. he takes out his gum and places it under the railing. when next we see him, he's curled up on the balcony ... dead.

jeanne stands where he left her whispering (to no one) "he followed me in the street. he was crazy. he was going to rape me." it has the quality of a rehearsal.

last tango in paris, proximity to truth (pt9)

the next time jeanne comes to the apartment, paul is not there. she begs the landlady for information, but the landlady says she doesn't know "the man on the fourth floor." of course, she does and she calls jeanne back to say so, but jeanne has dramatically run off again.

after heartbrokenly sobbing on the apartment floor, jeanne calls tom. she tells him she's found an apartment for them and begs him to come right away. the address she gives is 1 rue jules verne (irl this is 1 rue de l'alboni).

when tom arrives, he's impressed at how big the apartment is and he immediately begins directing jeanne (for his own amusement, the crew isn't with him). he has her pretend to be an airplane, etc.

suddenly, tom declares they cannot play like children any more. they have to be adults. since neither of them knows what this means, tom says they'll "have to invent the words and the gestures."

just as suddenly, tom decides he cannot possibly live in this apartment. it stinks (literally). jeanne protests, but tom is adamant. they will find someplace else.

they wind up leaving on good terms, but separately. jeane is walking exactly where she was at the beginning of the movie when paul runs up to her.

paul cheerfully introduces himself. he says he's 45 and a "widower" (he doesn't mention the details on that). he says he owns a hotel that's "not a flop house."

bewildered, jeanne asks about the flop house. paul starts to answer, then he says, "what do you care if it's a flop house? do you love me or not?"

paul tells her that their days in the apartment are over (as far as them only meeting there), so they can have names and histories now. he's very interested in getting to know all about her.

last tango in paris, proximity to truth (pt8)

as jeanne's bath continues (the bath scene... the part where jeanne's getting bathed... is actually a fairly sweet scene, but considering the apparent mental health of jeanne and paul it doesn't STAY that way) she just has to continue talking about tom. at first, paul humors her.

then he calls her a "jerk". he declares "the best fucking you're ever going to get is in this apartment."

paul asks jeanne if his rival makes her "feel safe". jeanne counters that he most certainly does. paul says "everyone wants that feeling." but, he doesn't believe tom (remember paul doesn't know any names; not jeanne's and not tom's... and jeanne doesn't know paul's name) is really capable of delivering that feeling over time.

he tells her that tom will expect her to make him feel safe, too. paul breaks this down to what their sex life will become... each seeking safety in each other's physiciality.

paul tells jeanne you don't really know safety (or love) until you get intimately acquainted with fear. he isn't saying that the couple has to experience the same fear together, btw, or suggesting a field trip. he's telling her something about himself... paul has experienced extreme fear (probably on several occasions spread out over time) and knows what it's like.

personally, I think this was the basis for his bond with rosa and partly why they were so honest with one another (even though she did keep some secrets).

jeanne partly gets what paul is talking about it and their argument is over... she wants to be with paul again... she tells him she loves him.

so, paul has her prove her love in an odd way... she follows all of his instructions... and I don't even know a quick way of describing what happens so i'll just repeat paul's instruction... he wants her to stink a couple of fingers up his "ass."

of course, weird things must be said during this and he asks her if she would do some things for love of him... like have sex with a pig, smell a dying pig's fart... jeanne keeps saying "yes." finally she says, "all that and more."

one very important thing to note here is how jeanne at first runs from EVERYTHING and even physically fight against it. she does this with both tom and paul. so, she TRAINS them to expect this and also to expect that it will take a while to get to her real feelings. i'm not saying she MEANS to do this, but they may not realize how much of this is unconscious on jeanne's part.

to be continued...

last tango in paris, proximity to truth (pt.7)

jeanne, after yet another argument with her mother, announces she's getting married. her mother asks, to whom and jeanne replies "tom."

needless to say, tom wants to film jeanne picking out her wedding gown. whether it's supposed to be the one she would really marry in or just another scene for the movie, i'm not sure.

two very heavily made-up women with very fake red hair dress jeanne up as a bride. they tell her, "the dress makes the bride."

back out on the sidewalk, now in a wedding dress, tom crowds in with the crew. but suddenly, it starts to rain and the crew calls it a day. tom follows them saying he wants to film in the rain.

jeanne decides to run off in the dress. she runs, of course, to paul. he's outside the apartment and they ride up in the elevator together. jeanne asks paul if he still wants her and revealingly pulls up her dress.

when they reach the apartment, paul carries jeanne to bed. but an instant later, he realizes she's soaking wih rain (paul is wearing a coat, so the rain is cold). he announces that she must take a hot bath immediately and goes off to run it.

for a while now, jeanne has been seeing a cat hanging around the apartment (there's no indication that it belongs to paul). she now seeks why! A RAT!

jeanne loses it and paul comes running. he's very amused that it's only a rat and teases jeanne by pretending he wants to eat the rat. he promises to let her have some rat as well.

jeanne is now set on leaving for fear of more rats! or even just the fact there was one rat. paul tells her she absolutely cannot leave until she has a bath. after she's warm and dry, she can go. but he won't have her catching pneumonia.

of course, jeanne dramatically runs to the door and declares she's getting married, etc. but she's trained everyone just to accept this overly dramatic behavior (she runs away a lot from paul, from tom, from her mother). so, paul persists until she agrees she ought to have a bath.

as paul washes jeanne, they chitchat about what she's revealed: she's getting married. at first, paul takes this in stride and asks her a few questions about her fiance. she claims tom is "magnificent" and that they "make love." (not believing that, i've "met" tom. haha)

tbc...

last tango in paris, proximity to truth (pt 5)

(one thing I forgot to say about paul's childhood. he tells jeanne that his mother's alcoholism got her arrested a lot and, because it was a small, farming community, EVERYONE KNEW.)

jeanne and tom's movie continues....

tom doesn't like jeanne's new look which is much more casual than before.
if you google for images of maria schneider, it's probably going to be the first images to come up... her with curly hair and light (or no) makeup.

"it's my hair!" jeanne tells him, which sounds as if her hair is naturally very curly and she'd been straightening it before.

also, the color is dark brown which appears to be maria schneider's natural color, at least.

so, tom's taste is the more made-up, groomed jeanne. this seems to hold for her appearance in the movie and his personal preference.

he does drop it when she starts to get upset. and, it's important to note, he gives no indication that he wishes to end their relationship based on something so superficial.

for his part, paul says nothing about the change although he mostly sees jeanne wearing little to no clothing because, unlike tom, he doesn't spend time with her as she goes about her life.

tom has some cloyingly romantic scenes for jeanne... it's possible he simply thought her former look would match these scenes better than her current look. these scenes also feature tom, of course.

jeanne goes to visit paul in the apartment. WE know paul has been dealing with his mother-in-law, maurice, etc. jeanne, for her part, is miffed at tom and her mom. so, despite paul's plans... the real world is seeping into their arrangement.

paul is sitting on the floor eating bread and cheese and drinking bottled water. when jeanne arrives, he asks her to get the butter from the refrigerator.

this annoys jeanne because first, he didn't answer when she called him (it's a big apartment) and second, she had a surprise and he's barely paying attention to her. she gets the butter and throws it at him.

she tells him an american eating cheese and drinking water in an apartment isn't interesting. (the french have a more interesting way of doing it? lol)
she's hidden her surprise so, even though she has paul's attention, he doesn't know about it yet.

bored, jeanne starts goofing around with the apartment by knocking on the floor. she finds a hollow place. the carpet above it clearly has been cut out and replaced.
this gets paul's attention. it's a bit hard to describe... he'd been sort of lounging and he looked at her upside down... when he decides to go over to where she is, he does a sort of backflip to a standing position, then joins her on the floor... this is a suggestion that paul is much more athletic than your average middle-aged hotel owner.

he suggests they open the hiding place. jeanne becomes nervous and says they should leave it alone. she doesn't know why... but she knows she doesn't want to open it.

paul indicates her jeans and asks if he can open that? maybe there's gold and jewels inside? it's important to note that both paul and jeanne are fully dressed at this point... this is one of the few times we see them hanging around the apartment wearing clothes...

so, as paul and jeanne continue what seems to be something much like what they usually do... we notice paul is bring the butter closer...

suddenly, paul flips jeanne over on her stomach. "you want to know about family secrets?" he asks.

jeanne, surprised at this strange turn, is struggling. paul holds her down and pulls her pants down. he applies the butter and while he sodomizes her, he has her repeat some very odd things.

jeanne, crying, does her best to comply. unfortunately, I don't know everything he says and jeanne never manages to repeat every word, but it starts with "the church of the good citizen league" and contains lines like "there is nothing but oppression and freedom."

one thing that's widely known now that perhaps wasn't in the 1970s is that sodomy is a big part of initiations into secret societies. so, paul is most likely re-enacting something that happened to him.

maria schneider says this scene wasn't in the original script. she says this scene was a last minute improvisation by marlon brando. he told her not to worry, "it's only a movie." but she says she wishes she'd known to call her agent and protest because she felt "raped."

now, this is very interesting since they both are fully clothed (except her pants get pulled down), and the scene probably has a lot less physical contact than many other scenes. but there is something strange about this scene that has caused it to be probably the most famous sex scene in the movie.

a lot of write-ups about this scene show pictures of jeanne in the bathtub. that is a completely different scene that takes place on a later day (in movie time).

later, after paul wakes up, jeanne is messing about with a record player. this is her surprise: music. she tells him she can't get it to work. he comes over and immediately is shocked by the plug. he knows jeanne did this on purpose and there's some indication that he takes this as her revenge for the butter scene.

the music is something jeanne likes. she immediately disassociates while listening to it (which is a bit weird).

so, the butter scene is now behind them and their relationship seems to enter another phase...

to be continued...

last tango in paris, proximity to truth (pt 4)

so, now we have seen both paul and jeanne's homelife and heard a bit about their past. we've also seen them interact with other people.

jeanne lives in a large house with a large garden. it may have been nicer once (or perhaps its location may have been nicer once... the house is still quite nice), but it is still very nice. it's a place you wouldn't mind being filmed for a documentary.

jeanne has lots of memories of her childhood that she can share with tom for the movie. perhaps those memories are darker than what she told him, but they don't seem to upset her.

the only thing that's a bit odd is the colonel. is he the same person as her father? if so, why doesn't she just say so? if not, how did she get to know him?

we also see a bit of a conflict between jeanne and her mother over her father's things. so, there is something hidden there.

paul meanwhile, can't even bring himself to go back to the u.s. he has nothing but bad memories of his parents. it's likely what he didn't say is much worse than what he said.

it's clear paul isn't close to rosa's family. he notified them, but seems indifferent to whether or not they show up to rosa's funeral. his mother-in-law's attempt to comfort him only angers him.

he also doesn't seem that crazy about running the hotel although he seems willing to do it. and he's clearly been helping rosa with it.

it's interesting to see the change in paul when he goes into "hotel owner" mode. he becomes oddly meek. this is the way he first greets his mother-in-law, in fact

so, what draws jeanne and paul together? there is a strong indication even early on that this is more than a sexual liaison for both of them.

paul, although he doesn't want names, doesn't seem to mind jeanne's stories even though he can easily see through them.

when she tells him she drew castles with many towers as a child, he asks if she loved her teacher.

when she says her teacher was a woman, paul asks if she was a lesbian. "how did you know?" asks jeanne. "it's classic," says paul.

besides jeanne, the only person we see paul seem at ease with is marcel. they get along rather well for several minutes.
in fact, the scene with paul and marcel in their matching robes is the reason why I wonder why ANY lesser actor (and it can be argued every actor is a lesser actor than marlon brando) would want to attempt it... especially if that actor has persistent gay rumors around him. although to be fair, jeanne is the only (living) woman paul interacts with for more than a few minutes.

there is a scene where paul and jeanne are in the bathroom getting ready for whatever they're going to do in their separate lives.
paul is shaving with the straight razor from his pocket (the one rosa used) while jeanne puts on her make up.

at one point, jeanne even found the razor and related shaving materials in paul's pocket when she was searching for his identity. he returns before her search goes any further although you get the feeling he wouldn't mistakenly leave anything to be found.

jeanne asks if paul thinks she's a "whore." (she rather charmingly mispronounces the word) he tells her he thinks she's "an old-fashioned girl" trying to make her way in the world. jeanne tartly replies that she'd rather be a whore.

then jeanne deduces that paul hates women. she asks him sincerely, "what have they done to you?" paul never confirms her suspicion, but you do wonder... are rosa and then jeanne the only people who have ever really known paul?

to be continued...

last tango in paris, proximity to truth (pt3)

spoiler warning, plus... some scenes may be discussed out of sequence. i'll try to get as close as possible to the way the movie progresses.

back at paul's hotel (the one he owns), rosa's mother has arrived. rosa's parents used to run the hotel. in fact, rosa's mother is quite disappointed in the way the hotel looks these days although it is definitely nicer than the building across the street where paul has the apartment.

rosa's mother is portrayed by maria michi. she bustles in with her suitcase, and her plans for rosa's funeral.

she has planned funerals before. although she certainly is very sad to lose her daughter, she's determined rosa's funeral will be more respectable than her death.

as for rosa's father, he is very sick with asthma. his doctor refused to allow him to travel. this is what rosa's mother tells paul when she arrives. paul accepts this without much comment.

rosa's mother spends some time looking through rosa's purses. finally, paul asks her what she's looking for... she replies that her rosa would have let her know, somehow, why she wanted to take her own life. paul tells her she won't find anything like that. rosa's things are neatly arranged on shelves that go all the way up to the ceiling.

as rosa's mother unpacks, she shows paul the things she brought with her. he comments she has everything they need (for the funeral) in that suitcase. this emboldens her to bring up her desire to bring in a priest.

paul absolute refuses because he says rosa didn't believe in it, so it shouldn't be at her funeral. her mother continues to insist that it is important. this causes paul to pick up her suitcase and throw it. he was just humoring her before...

later, paul is on the couch downstairs. rosa's mother comes and sits in a chair beside him. she tries to reach out to him and places her hand on his arm. he orders her to move her hand away.

she then begins to complain about a guest who's practicing his saxophone, hinting broadly that paul should run a tighter ship. paul decides on a unique strategy, he turns off all the lights.

paul laughs how the guests are afraid of the dark, just like children. rosa's mother nervously asks him to turn the lights back on as the guests creep out of their rooms.

paul decides he should introduce rosa's mother around (in the dark). one guest he calls "miss blowjob of 1939". he says that still makes her popular with some people. everyone is given names and many of those names relate to people's drug habits. one person he says was his and rosa's dealer. after a certain amount of mother-in-law freaking out, paul turns the lights back on and she decides to just leave him alone.

the next day, rosa's mother meets a guest she likes: marcel (massimo girotti). marcel was one of rosa's lover.

when paul goes to visit marcel in his rooms, they discuss how much rosa tried to make them alike. she got them the same robes, she made sure they both had jack daniels on hand for her (marcel admits he doesn't even like bourbon).

paul learns that marcel has a job clipping certain things from magazines and sending them in... (paul comments that it's an educational job).

marcel tells paul that one night rosa begin clawing at the wall. he only stopped her because she was breaking off her fingernails.

marcel tells paul his with rosa affair was finished before she died. paul says he knows all about it because rosa told him everything.

in fact, paul and marcel seem to be getting along pretty well. then, marcel demonstrates how he stays fit... he has a portable chin-up bar. this causes paul to doubt whether marcel was worthy of rosa and leave.

along this time, paul finds rosa's cigar box of trinkets ... all things that belonged to men. he thinks they are probably souvenirs from her encounters, but thinking he knew everything... paul realizes rosa not only kept this secret; she hid the evidence.

last tango in paris, proximity to truth (pt 2)

from now on, spoiler warning... i'm just going to outright say what happens and what I think it means. personally, I think you could still enjoy the movie, but just in case SPOILERS (somewhere) AHEAD.

when paul suggested meeting again to jeanne, he told her "no names." later, we find he means no names AT ALL. not only does he not wish to know her name, he doesn't want her to use names when she talks about people. of course, one of the first names she uses is "paul". she's talking about her cousin...

bernardo bertolucci wrote the screenplay, but marlon brando ad libbed A LOT. so, I suspect much of what unfolds in any scene with paul (i.e., most of the movie) come from a really different place than what's going on otherwise.

there is some suggestion that marlon brando and maria schneider didn't expect the movie to be the way it wound up being because they both complained about their treatment by bertolucci.

however, marlon brando and bernardo bertolucci did have a friendship by the end of brando's life. bertolucci tells brando he was "in love with him." so, perhaps he tried to maintain control of the movie a bit more harshly than necessary.

also, FIVE actors have every one of their scenes deleted. maybe the movie we see isn't the movie the actors thought they were making?

maria schneider also said she felt "raped" by marlon brando (the butter scene) although she also remained friends with him, she did say there was a time they couldn't discuss the movie. sadly, this movie ruined all associations with butter for poor maria. she cooks with olive oil.

this movie perhaps was a mistake for maria schneider to make. she says she was nothing like jeanne. she does a great job in this movie, but it's not too hard to imagine that everyone just assumed she was a wild slut afterwards.

for his part, marlon brando doesn't stomp all over her lines which... if he wanted to he could have done. but, he plays his part and lets her play hers.

the movie spends some time right about now letting us know about jeanne and her fiance tom. tom is played by french new wave star jean-pierre leaud.

he is finished with his education and is directing the movie he proposed with jeanne. because it's her real life he's also a star. like any reality show, there's all sorts of set up situations.

so when jeanne goes home, tom (and crew) follows her around as he asks her questions about her childhood. she shows him photos, reads an essay, some definitions she copied down (including one for the word "penis"), and takes him outside to see her "jungle." she tells tom how she and her cousin each had their own tree they liked to sit under (we hear more on this later).

tom dramatically sets up shots and directs jeanne with words and gestures. he "regresses" her in age by counting back year by year until he reaches age nine. at first, this seems like another bit of direction by tom, but toward the end of the movie there is another counting scene... counting up to 19.

we meet maria's mother. she's played by gitt magrini and their servant olympia (luce marquand). maria's mother is talking about things she wants to take with her to the country. these include some "military things" (uniform, boots) that belonged to jeanne's father. she says "these military things never age".

jeanne talks about the colonel with his "tall boots and bright blue eyes." she says he died in 58.

there is some feelings around the house that jeanne has been overindulged... by her teacher, by this film project.

nothing about what we see happen between jeanne and tom seems completely real. and nothing makes her seem like she'd go back to the apartment, but she does go back and she goes back not long after the first time.

she arrives to see paul's had some furniture delivered. he gets her to help him move a few things. then she decides to tell him some of the same stories she told tom. only paul questions her until she tells him the truth.

paul learns the teacher who indulged jeanne so much was a lesbian. he learns she and the cousin she liked so much used to play a masturbation game... they'd sit under their trees and see who could reach orgasm first.

when she talks about the colonel, paul says "all military uniforms are a lie." when she says he died in 58, pauls says, "or 68", "or 98." jeanne becomes petulant and insists "58!"

paul talks about his childhood... his parents were alcoholics. his father was "super masculine, bar fighting, whore fucking." paul's chore was to milk a cow. he remembers having to milk it before going to a basketball game and how his shoes stank up the car.

he says they had a black dog named dutchie who ran through a mustard field. he says that was beautiful to see.

then he talks about working for an old farmer who was always sucking on a clay pipe. it was "back breaking work" and he'd make bets with himself how long it'd take the drool to fall off the pipe.

after this paul leaves the room. jeanne is annoyed at the lack of attention from him. she doesn't realize, paul has made himself very sad. while he cries, she masturbates (she doesn't know what he's doing).

it's hard to say if jeanne thinks paul is purposely being annoying. but of course, she doesn't know about rosa.

last tango in paris, proximity to truth (pt1)

the first scene of the movie establishes there is something wrong with marlon brando's character (paul). he's standing under an elevated train, screaming. but, as no one can do that forever, he trudges on his way and soon finds himself behind a young woman.

maria schneider (we eventually learn her name is jeanne) is dressed fashionably when we first see her. she's anticipating something good... as evidenced by her hurried, but light steps.

(m.b. age of character = 45. m.s. acs = 20. ages of actors similar to acs. released 72/73.)

everyone in the universe over age 18 knows what happens next AND next, next, next; but what most people don't get is that's just another piece to the puzzle of wtf is going on in this movie? no, they did not make a feature film starring hollywood's top man to introduce us to alternate uses for butter (the klum masters probably count that as a bonus, however)

THE APARTMENT, a lot of people i've read on the internets miss the fact that this thing is across the street from the residential hotel where paul lives (and he owns it; therefore no matter what he says, paul does not need the apartment as a residence).

so, the landlady of the apartment knows paul. she's LYING to jeanne every time she claims she has no idea who he is (she probably thinks he'd want her to lie). this is never explicitly stated, but common sense? that's happening.

so, knowing none of this, jeanne enters the apartment and looks directly at a broken mirror with a piece missing from the center. (hehe, clue.) we see her reflected in this mirror.

then, she finds out this apartment has a man in it. he's just been kind of... there (following her) and he might rent the place... who knows...

interestingly, paul gets a freaking phone call right then (hmm...) which jeanne listens in on... and he catches her. he puts down his receiver and very quietly sneaks over to where she is...

somewhere around this time, they decide to hook up. well, they don't so much "decide" that's just what they do. then, quickie accomplished, they get themselves in order and go on their way. but not before paul makes a suggestion "let's do this again" (secretly). and without further ado, they go their separate ways. THIS shocked the crap out of audiences at the time for some reason...

jeanne, now sans pantyhose, goes to meet HER FIANCE at the train station. her hair's still styled, her makeup still looks good... she's almost as put together as she was which is good luck as her fiance is going to do a sort of reality movie with her called "the life of a girl." filming begins right this second, in fact, she has to ask him about the cameras.

at some point around this time jeanne makes her first trip to the bar around the corner. irl this is the john f. kennedy, jr. bar (seriously).

paul goes on across the street to talk to the maid who's cleaning up the bathroom where his wife rosa just died of a violent case of cutwrists. the maid tells him how the police wondered if it was murder and had her act out rosa's moments to account for how blood got some places it got.

she chattily tells paul (who you know is ready for her to stfu) the cops asked many questions about him! why didn't he work? why didn't paul and rosa have children (she's fishing, we find out why no kids much later)? she says she told the police that paul has ben a boxer, an actor, a journalist in JAPAN, a south american revoluntionary, he learned french and married rosa (the maid calls her "a woman worth money"). basically, even though we're constantly reminded paul IS AN AMERICAN, he hasn't been in the u.s. for 20 years... he's been going "from country to country."

rosa suicide(?) was in room 12. she used a straight razor. the maid gives paul the razor. he puts it in his pocket.

now, for some reason, a lot of people think paul and rosa weren't together. they WERE. he found her. she had affairs (though ended the last one long before her death) and they talked about these, but they lived together as a couple. this is made obvious so many ways (things characters say, etc) I really don't know how people miss it.

so, who are paul and rosa? well... probably not what they seem(ed). was the hotel (which was a much nicer place when he parents ran it) a cover? a retirement plan? but, i'm getting ahead of myself, we haven't even met maurice yet.

(apologies if some scenes are a little out of order, it's been a while since i've seen it... it's a great movie. but not that pleasant to watch once you look past the sexy time... which I did on the first viewing, so... haha)

to be continued...

tommygirl, tommygirl, tommygirl

well, tom cruise is working on finding a sexy movie for himself and katiebot to co-star. why would he do this?

granted "days of thunder" (which I have not seen, but people say...) and "far and away" were fairy successful forays with nicole kidman. but then there was "eyes wide shut". this was a good movie, don't get me wrong. but i'm not sure it really fulfilled tommygirl's agenda.

so, proving he's a movie-picking genius, he is thinking about remaking "last tango in paris" with katie. what?

first, this is not a movie that needs remaking. there's just no reason for it.

some people think it's dated, but those same people would want real sex (i'm getting this from articles they've written). are tomkat sure they want to go there?

well, I suppose they could do the movie all in english instead of a mix of french and english (the french is subtitled in english). I suppose that would be different.

but, does tommygirl realize there's a difference between a movie with a lot of sex in it and a sexy movie?

basically, i'm finding out a lot of odd things as I prepare my "last tango in paris" post. haha

kstew n rpatt: brando fans?!

well, "brando" is misleading. actually, their favorite movie is "last tango in paris". they (cough) "bonded" due to this. hehehehe

ok. I am working on a post about that very movie. I can tell you, marlon brando throws down hardcore with the acting. not that everyone notices that because his costar is mostly naked and there is a lot of sex.

oh yes, BACK ON TOPIC... wtf do kstew and rpatt learn from brando? it just boggles the mind. they can't be trying to learn how to act, can they?

all I can say is start with someone easier. I don't think marlon brando's style can really be learned. I think you kind of have to be him.

fortunately, I think they're just getting sex idea. or maybe they're learning french.