"For me, cinema is closer to painting, and I like working with filmmakers who have a sense of the image. I like the idea that cinema remains a memory of our time, and when filmed, that there is a trace of it. Then I met Antonioni, who is closer to what I am in life. He chose not to sell his soul, and many actors also abstain . After the Bertolucci film, I had golden bridges to sub-Tango, roles of sex symbols ... I ended it very quickly. I also had problems because they said: "She does not want to undress, she will not do the love scenes ..." That's what we always ask young women, even in 2001, it has not changed one iota, however. I'm still shocked about the fact that men of sixty years, Serrault, Poiret, Noiret, have a continuous career, compared to women the same age. Even Girardot. Between the sex symbol and grandma, there are no other interesting roles. I'm a part of an association for those involved in difficulty called "La Roue Tourne" which has existed since 1956. I'm just their ambassador. The president is eighty years old and she helps those she calls "disasters of glory." The actors have no unemployment insurance and when they have an accident they are not covered by social security. It's incredible when you consider that this association has paid the rent for Marcel Carné in the last ten years of his life ... but also that of Abel Gance. The state did nothing. Me, I also see a time when I will have difficulty working. The president said: "But, my dear Maria, it has always existed, now you're old, you are forty ! She has known actresses of the silent era, like Jacqueline Delubac. All this has not changed, even with women directors. There is a terrible crisis of roles, and film seems locked up. Everyone has their place, and "family film" is an illusion".

Through the Years with Maria Schneider: A Visual Essay

 Rethinking Last Tango

French culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand ("le conseil" in "Merry Go Round" (France 1977)  paid tribute to Maria Schneider, February 3, 2011:
"She remains the singular image of today’s woman, one of those living conduits of female liberty who is eternally reconquering a new generation".

Maria Schneider, Créteil 2001 

©Moira Sullivan

"For me, cinema is closer to  painting, and I like working with filmmakers who have a sense of the image. I like the idea that cinema remains a memory of our time,  and when filmed, that there is a trace of it. Then I met Antonioni, who is closer to what I am in life. He chose not to sell his soul, and many actors also abstain . After the Bertolucci film, I had golden bridges to sub-Tango, roles of sex symbols ... I ended it very quickly. I also had problems because they said: "She does not want to undress, she will not do the love scenes ..." That's what we always ask young women, even in 2001, it has not changed one iota, however. I'm still shocked about the fact that men of sixty years, Serrault, Poiret, Noiret, have a continuous career, compared to women the same age. Even Girardot. Between the sex symbol and grandma, there are no other interesting roles. I'm  a part of an association for those involved in difficulty called "La Roue Tourne"  which has existed since 1956. I'm just their ambassador. The president is eighty years old and she helps those she calls "disasters of glory." The actors have no unemployment insurance and when they have an accident they are not covered by social security. It's incredible when you consider that this association has paid the rent for Marcel Carné in the last ten years of his life ... but also that of Abel Gance. The state did nothing. Me, I also see a time when I will have difficulty working. The president said: "But, my dear Maria, it has always existed, now you're old, you are forty ! She has known actresses of the silent era, like Jacqueline Delubac. All this has not changed, even with women directors. There is a terrible crisis of roles, and  film seems locked up. Everyone has their place, and "family film" is an illusion". 

- Maria Schneider, interview for Créteil Films de Femmes, 2001. 

 

--> "With her face of the eternal child-woman and character of a small wild cat, she has conquered the world with the brilliance of a meteorite whose shower pulverizes everything in its path!"- Brigitte Bardot, 10 February 2011 

Traversing the empty space of Last Tango

-->

From this point on Jeanne takes back her power from sadistic Paul

"A passage brilliant but ephemeral where, offering her velvet body to Marlon Brando at the height of her fame, she shocked, scandalized with her shamelessness but forever marked by her insolence in an era that she personalized".  
- Brigitte Bardot, February 10, 2011.

Maria Schneider, Chevalier - Ordre des Arts et Lettres, July 2010. Frédéric Mitterand, Ministre de la Culture.

With Michelangelo Antonioni, Cannes Film Festival, 1975. "Then I met Antonioni, who is closer to what I am in life. He chose not to sell his soul, and many actors also abstain".  
Maria Schneider, Créteil Films de Femmes, 2001.

Maria with the Italian "cantautore" - singer-songwriter Cristiano Malgioglio. Disco-tribute to late "cantautore" Lucio Battisti: "Señor Battisti" (1998).

Io Sono Mio (1978).

Italy

The Passenger (1975)

With Jack Nicholson  -  The Passenger.

Mama Dracula (1980)

Spain

Disco-tributo a Lucio Battisti dal titolo "Señor Battisti" - Cristiano Malgioglio and Maria Schneider 1996

Crime of Honor 1985

With Martin Scorsese and Michelangelo Antonioni

Faye Dunaway, Elizabeth Taylor, Maria Schneider

Créteil Films de Femmes 2001

With photographer Joan Townsend where Maria voluntarily committed herself to support her partner. It should be noted this was at a time when visitation rights was prohibited for same sex partners not only in Italy but everywhere.

La Repentie 2002

With Cristiano Malgioglio

Cannes Film Festival: Au Pays des Juliets (1992)

Luigi Comencini Commander:Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

With Alain Delon

Le Nuits Fauve (Savage Nights) 1992

At ceremony for Meryl Streep, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 2000.

With Cristiano Malgioglio

What a Flash 1972

Cannes Film Festival Au Pays des Juliets 1992

With Jean Piere Léaud

What a Flash 1972

Hellé 1972

Hellé 1972

La Dérobade 1979

Maria Schneider says "to hell with it". She is going to abandon the (beautiful) set of "Caligula" to make a 100% percent feminist film.

A Woman Like Eve 1979

                                                      Maria in French gay nightclub

Cari Genitori 1973

--> Without a father who did not acknowledge her   - which was the drama of her life - she was the prey of all the glittering lures so that she burned herself to escape the neglect she dreaded.
Brigitte Bardot, February 10, 2011.

With photographer Joan Townsend, Rome 1975.

Èglise Saint Roch, Paris, 10 February 2011.

-->

"She is a new little star in the Milky Way, far, far away from the atrocities and suffering that has been imposed on her on her passage on Earth." Brigitte Bardot, February 10, 2011.

Photos are fair use from the public domain.