Tango Quotes

(About shooting nude scenes for The Dreamers) "I am a very shy person in life, very reserved, but you know, it`s Bertolucci. I`ve seen Last Tango and it`s not pornographic, it`s not vulgar, it`s not sick, so I trusted him. He`s a master of love and eroticism, but it`s good because I stopped being self-conscious. I felt like I was on drugs or anaesthetised because you have to be. You have to let yourself slip away and forget everything, forget the sound guy and all that."

(about shooting nude scenes for The Dreamers (2003):) "I am a very shy person in life, very reserved, but you know, it`s Bertolucci. I`ve seen Last Tango and it`s not pornographic, it`s not vulgar, it`s not sick, so I trusted him. He`s a master of love and eroticism, but it`s good because I stopped being self-conscious. I felt like I was on drugs or anaesthetised because you have to be. You have to let yourself slip away and forget everything, forget the sound guy and all that." (February 5, 2004)

I think it was sad that Brando (Marlon Brando) did what he did. If he had something to say, he should have appeared that night and stated his views instead of taking some little unknown girl and dressing her up in an Indian outfit. What he was doing was trying to avoid the issue that was really on his mind, which was the provocative story of Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972) . . . Let`s just say I haven`t made a particular point of seeing that particular picture. Brando is one of the finest actors we`ve had in the business, and I`m only sorry he didn`t have the benefit of older, more established friends - as I did - to help him choose the proper material in which to use his talent.

You just can`t take a crash course to be a tango dancer in a movie.

The money part is one of the most difficult things. Coppola always said I should do a tango movie. If it hadn`t been for him, I don`t know where we would have gotten the money.

We believe that we should come to an agreement with the Palestinians. But we need two to tango.

(On seeing the Marlon Brando movie "Last Tango in Paris") "It was the first time that I understood that acting was an art form. It was not Clint Eastwood on a horse, Bob Hope in a road movie. It was not Don Knotts in The Incredible Mr. Limpet. These are favorite movies of mine, too. But when I sat in Last Tango in Paris, the lightbulb went on. To this day, Brando is the one I want to meet, and the one I`m terrified to meet."

I was basically just walking by a dance studio that was advertising salsa lessons, and I thought I`d go in and see what it was all about, ... I fell in love with the fox-trot, the tango, the waltz, the cha cha.

When I read Last Tango In Paris, I didn`t see anything that worried me. I was 20. I didn`t want to be a star, much less a scandalous actress - simply to be in cinema. Later, I realized I`d been completely manipulated by Bertolucci and Brando.

(In response to Ingmar Bergman`s contention that Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972) (US title: "Last Tango in Paris") was really about homosexuals, and only in those terms did the film make sense and become interesting) I accept all interpretations of my films. The only reality is before the camera. Each film I make is kind of a return to poetry for me, or at least an attempt to create a poem.