'Last Tango' stole my star's youth, admits Bertolucci

Bertolucci with Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider on the set of ‘Last Tango in Paris’ (AP (AP)

The Italian film director Bernardo Bertolucci has expressed his regret for never apologising to Maria Schneider for making her do the taboo-busting sex scenes with Marlon Brando in his 1972 arthouse film, Last Tango in Paris.

The French actress died, aged 58, after a long illness earlier this week.

"Her death arrived too soon, before I could re-embrace her tenderly and tell her that I still felt close to her and ask her at least once for her forgiveness," Bertolucci said.

"Maria accused me of robbing her of her youth and only today I ask myself if she wasn't perhaps right," he told Ansa news agency.

The film portrayed a US businessman, Marlon Brando, engaging in a series of sexual encounters with an engaged Parisian woman played by Schneider. But the film gained notoriety for the scene in which he is seen grabbing a lump of butter from the fridge, apparently to facilitate anal intercourse.

The actress later said: "Brando and Bertolucci manipulated me, using me without thinking about me. I took years to forgive them."