French cinema cancels 'Last Tango in Paris' screening after protests

A screening of "Last Tango in Paris", which features a rape scene filmed without the consent of actress Maria Schneider, has been cancelled at the prestigious Cinematheque Francaise in the French capital following an outcry from women's rights groups, the cinema announced.

The Cinematheque, a film archive and cinema partly funded by the state, announced the decision to cancel the Sunday screening in order "to calm tensions and in light of potential security risks".

"We are a cinema, not a fortress. We cannot take risks with the safety of our staff and audience," Cinematheque director Frederic Bonnaud told AFP on Sunday.

"Violent individuals were beginning to make threats and holding this screening and debate posed an entirely disproportionate risk. So, we had to let it go," he added.

"Last Tango in Paris", directed by Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci in 1972, was scheduled to be shown Sunday evening as part of a retrospective of work by American actor Marlon Brando.

Actress Judith Godreche, a prominent figure in France's #MeToo movement, led criticism of the decision to screen the film without providing context to viewers, which she said disrespected the memory of Schneider, who died in 2011.

"It's time to wake up, dear Cinematheque, and restore humanity to 19-year-old actresses (Schneider's age during filming) by behaving humanely," she wrote on Instagram.

The film explores the relationship between a widowed American man in Paris and a much younger woman, culminating in a non-consensual sodomy scene.

While the sex was simulated, it later emerged that Schneider had been kept in the dark about what was to happen by Brando and Bertolucci, who were both later nominated for Oscars.

She later said she was crying real tears during filming and Brando did not console her afterwards.

Her allegations, first made in the 1970s, were largely ignored, as explored in the recent documentary "Maria".

The 50/50 collective, which advocates for gender parity in cinema, had also called on the Cinématheque to provide "thoughtful and respectful" place for Schneider's testimony and experience alongside the screening.

The Cinemathèque had promised on Friday to hold a "discussion with the audience" to address the issues raised by the film.

Bonnaud pointed out that the film had been screened "without incident" at the Cinematheque in 2017 -- before the #MeToo era brought violence against women to the fore.