last tango in paris Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Toss this one right into the "unproven" files, but it's amusing enough to warrant some exploration: According to this tabloid (along with The Guardian and our pals at Spout), it seems that spouses Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes may be gearing up to remake Bernardo Bertolucci's controversially sexy romance drama Last Tango in Paris. The last time we saw Tom Cruise nail a spouse on camera was in 1999's Eyes Wide Shut, and I'm sure he probably groped Mimi Rogers in a movie once or twice. (Say what you like, but the guy does have good taste in women.)

"They need to have sex on screen, to prove their love" is what The Guardian's Xan Brooks had to say, which only serves to make the whole thing sound more like an April Fool's gag. The paragon of journalism that is Now Magazine indicates that the couple simply wants to star together in something sexy. I believe the title Basic Instinct was tossed out as an example. Yikes. In Mr. Brooks' tongue-in-cheek piece, he proposes a remake of Betty Blue. Double yikes. But if this entirely goofball story turns out to be 100% true, and Cruise / Holmes are intent on making a "sek-say" remake together ... Lolita makes a little more sense. Or maybe The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Seriously, that I'd go see.

But the question of the day is now this: Does it creep you out to see married couples "doin' it" in a movie? Hmmm, I think I smell a new Cinematical Seven topic.

For some guys, the reason to sit through Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers is to see Eva Green naked ... a lot. Well, guys, I hope it is enough, because the actress may never do another nude scene. She told The Guardian that she found the nudity in The Dreamers "troubling" and that she had to refuse to get naked for Casino Royale. Green was asked to disrobe for a scene in which her character, Vesper Lynd, breaks down in the shower. If you've seen the movie, you will probably agree with Green that the scene works better with her clothed.

She states that her parents were against her doing The Dreamers because of how Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris affected Maria Schneider (she entered a mental hospital and alleges the director manipulated her). But Green claims she couldn't say no to working with Bertolucci, and despite her trouble with the nudity she apparently has no ill feelings toward him. Has he turned her off from doing more nudity later, though? She doesn't say. For those guys who want more, there's always the older films starring Green's mom, Marlène Jobert, who looked enough like Green when she was younger.

In the Guardian interview, which was conducted as promotion for Green's BAFTA nomination, the actress also mentioned that it is okay that Daniel Craig's chest is bigger than hers because the way the film was shot, he ended up as more the Bond girl than she. Again, if you've seen the movie, you'll agree with her about the gratuitous shot of Craig coming out of the sea.

According to reports from Munich, Bernardo Bertolucci (who hasn't actually been around for as long as it seems - he's only 65) has announced plans for his first film since 2003's The Dreamers. His next project, though it is currently in very, very early stages, will be an adaptation of Ann Patchett's enchanting novel, Bel Canto. The book starts out as a tale of terrorism in a South American country, as all the attendees of a politician's party for a wealthy Japanese businessman are taken hostage. Instead of a story about terror and violence, though, it "slowly evolves into something quite different, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different countries and continents become compatriots." Plus, there's a lot of opera.

Bertolucci, who is also writing the screenplay, seems like the perfect man to undertake this story. His films - good and bad - are almost always incredibly lyrical, and he's very skilled at creating emotionally-charged worlds that exist only for his characters (see, for example, both The Dreamers and a little picture called Last Tango in Paris). Patchett herself must be thrilled by this news.