Last Tango In Paris (1972) Novelization

Last Tango in Paris (Italian: Ultimo tango a Parigi; French: Le Dernier Tango à Paris) is a 1972 erotic drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. The film stars Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider and Jean-Pierre Léaud, and portrays a recently widowed American who begins an anonymous sexual relationship with a young Parisian woman.

The film premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 14, 1972, and grossed $36 million in its U.S. theatrical release, making it the seventh highest-grossing film of 1973. The film's raw portrayal of sexual violence and emotional turmoil led to international controversy and drew various levels of government censorship in different jurisdictions. Upon release in the United States, the MPAA gave the film an X rating. United Artists Classics released an R-rated cut in 1981. In 1997, after the film became part of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer library, the film was reclassified as NC-17.

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As a novelization it hews pretty closely to the script, and offers some backstory not found in the film.  It does not adequately convey the power of the film, but it is interesting nonetheless.

Missouri Breaks

Directed by Arthur Penn.   Written by Thomas McGuane (and an uncredited Robert Towne according to IMDB.)  Stars Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid, Kathleen Lloyd, Fredric Forrest, Harry Dean Stanton.
1976, 126 minutes, Color, Rated R.

I guess this is really when Brando's reported boredom with acting came to a head.  As written his character was threatening and downright evil and if Brando had gone down that road it probably would have ranked as one of the all time great movie villains.  But that would have been too easy I suppose, for Brando goes off on an idiosyncratic tangent that transforms the character into something altogether different.  I've read that if you just accept that Brando's character is insane the movie is a lot easier to take, but I don't think that's entirely correct.  Granted, his character is somewhat deranged, but insane?  I don't think so.  Damaged is more accurate.

Nicholson is outstanding in this movie, and I personally dug Brando.  Kathleen Lloyd is also in it, and I liked her as well.  The setting is the 1880's and the film depicts this with aplomb.  Arthur Penn directed it and I'd be interested in reading what his experience making this movie was like.