A young French actress lands a dream role with a famous director and actor, only to face a traumatic experience during filming.
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Maria Schneider (Anamaria Vartolomei) is a promising, young French actress. When she gets the lead in a feature film directed by an acclaimed Italian filmmaker and starring one of America’s most beloved actors, it seems like the opportunity of a lifetime. Her collaborators, director Bernardo Bertolucci and star Marlon Brando (Matt Dillon) seem to bring out the best in Maria, sharing a warm rapport and mentorship with the 19-year old girl. Until one day, when the two men conspire to shoot a crucial sex scene as a harrowing assault without letting Maria in on the plan. The film goes on to be lauded as a fearless artistic breakthrough, but for Maria, it’s the beginning of a living hell. Based on the behind-the-scenes true story of the making of "Last Tango in Paris", Jessica Palud’s sensitive biopic centers Maria’s story for the first time.
"Being Maria (or simply Maria) is a biographical film that does not tell a simple or easy-to-digest story. Directed by Jessica Palud, this feature dives into the difficult journey of Maria Schneider, an actress largely remembered for the crime she suffered on the set of Last Tango in Paris. At the time, director Bernardo Bertolucci and actor Marlon Brando conspired to film a rape scene without informing the actress. Worse still, the assault actually happened on set—it was filmed by Bertolucci and carried out by Brando. It’s in the movie, for everyone to see. This biopic seeks to understand Maria’s path from before that film, which defined her career, to years later, when the events of Last Tango in Paris continued to haunt her mind and work. A powerful film that, despite its conventional narrative structure, is deeply compelling—largely thanks to Anamaria Vartolomei’s outstanding performance (Mickey 17) as Schneider."