Brando gives his greatest performance in 'Last Tango in Paris'

Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris

Marlon Brando will probably be best remembered by modern audiences for his Academy Award winning (but later refused) performance in 1972's The Godfather and to a lesser extent his show-stopping turns in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and On The Waterfront (1954).

But for my money his greatest acting achievement was the controversial Last Tango in Paris.

It's a marvelous, very vulnerable role for the legendary actor and it was so raw Brando admitted he never committed himself to a part the same way again.

I am an enormous Brando fan. I believe he was one of the greatest film actors of all time. But he was so full of contradictions.

He was both feminine and masculine. He could be sensitive and sweet but also a bully onscreen. He also became so cynical about his talent that he seemed to purposely torpedo it by letting himself go physically and by phoning it in for the majority of his later movies.

That is not the case with Last Tango in Paris, which is one of the best tragic movies ever made. It is lush and sensual but ultimately tinged with dread. And anchoring it all is Brando, aging but still quite handsome as Paul, a man ravaged by loss and regret. His wife has just committed suicide. We never are given a reason why but we get a sense that Paul was a difficult man to love, let alone live with.

To cope with her death or perhaps to forget it, Paul engages in what is initially supposed to be an anonymous relationship with a French girl named Jeanne (played by the very appealing Maria Schneider). Their affair is exciting and daring for them at first but Paul grows more controlling and cruel and then things get disturbing. I won't spoil the last act for you -- but needless to say I find it emotionally devastating.

Brando in Last Tango in Paris

Last Tango in Paris has maintained a reputation for being a sexually graphic film. It's definitely not for kids, but it's pretty tame by today's standards. It's still a shocking film though, more because it's willing to go into some dark places sexually. This is not a film that's shot to be sexy (even though it looks gorgeous). There are long, unbroken takes and powerfully delivered but totally natural monologues.

Brando has two moments like these in the film. The first is touching and bittersweet and the second (a speech he delivers to his dead wife) is simply one of the greatest pieces of acting I have ever seen.

Brando had so much contempt for his profession he later tried to discredit his own work by claiming the tears he cried were manufactured but the truth is up there on the screen. Brando really bore his own soul as Paul and it's riveting to watch.

That said, this is not a movie for everyone's taste. The language and sexuality are frank and fairly provocative. It's not a feel-good movie and probably not the best introduction to Brando's body of work.

Still, it's one of the great 1970s-era dramas, and now that the hysteria surrounding the infamous "butter" scene has died down -- it should be reappraised.

It is a film that can be open to many interpretations. There are themes of doubling and regression. There is rebirth and death. There has been a case made for the film being about repressed homosexuality.

I enjoy any film that invites this kind of passionate evaluation and debate.

And for Brando fans it's the culmination of all his prior work.

He was reportedly a phenomenal mimic and his prior legendary roles had him doing a flawless interpretations of characters somewhat removed from himself -- whether it be an inarticulate longshoreman or a mafia kingpin. But in this film we got the closest glimpse to the raw real-life personality of this most mercurial of movie stars.