[on
Maria (2024)] At the same age as
Maria Schneider during the filming of
Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972), at 19, I met
Bernardo Bertolucci: I was an intern on
The Dreamers (2003). Admiring Bertolucci's work greatly, I often wondered how he had directed Maria in Last Tango in Paris. Maria Schneider's story struck me, perhaps because it echoed my experience on film sets when I worked as an assistant. Even a decade ago, there were few women on set. I was often the youngest and always surrounded by men. I witnessed complicated scenes, actors and actresses humiliated, and I myself felt the control some directors abused. I experienced situations that today I would describe as abnormal, without being able to express myself. So, it's true that Maria Schneider's story moved me. I'm not trying to accuse or judge, but to deal with the legacy and to offer a portrait of this society, through a new perspective, that of Maria Schneider.
