Passes the Bechdel test

Last Tango in Paris

Name: Last Tango in Paris
Released: 1973

1973. Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, written by Bernardo Bertolucci and Franco Arcalli and Agnès Varda.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
10 women characters. 6 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 71.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3, though someone marked that rating as dubious.

The film

While looking for an apartment, Jeanne, a beautiful young Parisienne, encounters Paul, a mysterious American expatriate mourning his wife's recent suicide. Instantly drawn to each other, they have a stormy, passionate affair, in which they do not reveal their names to each other. Their relationship deeply affects their lives, as Paul struggles with his wife's death and Jeanne prepares to marry her fiance, Tom, a film director making a cinema-verite documentary about her.

Released: 07 Feb 1973
Genres: Drama, Romance
Rated: NC-17
IMDb: 6.8 / 10
Metascore: 77 / 100
Awards: Nominated for 2 Oscars. 7 wins & 10 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Jeanne 332 lines, woman
Paul 308 lines, man
Tom 101 lines, man
Marcel 24 lines, man
Rosa'S Mother 23 lines, woman
Catherine 15 lines, woman
Concierge 14 lines, woman
Jeanne'S Mother 12 lines, woman
Prostitute 10 lines, woman
Olympia 7 lines

Full cast, 23 people

Marlon Brando as Paul
Maria Schneider as Jeanne
Maria Michi as Rosa's Mother
Giovanna Galletti as Prostitute
Jean-Pierre Léaud as Tom
Gitt Magrini as Jeanne's Mother
Catherine Allégret as Catherine
Luce Marquand as Olympia
Marie-Hélène Breillat as Monique
Catherine Breillat as Mouchette
Dan Diament as TV Sound Engineer
Catherine Sola as Script Girl
Mauro Marchetti as Cameraman
Massimo Girotti as Marcel
Peter Schommer as TV Assistant Cameraman
Veronica Lazăr as Rosa
Marie-Christine Questerbert as Christine
Ramón Mendizábal as Tango Orchestra Leader
Mimi Pinson as President of Tango Jury
Darling Légitimus as Concierge
Gérard Lepennec as Mover
Stéphan Koziak as Mover
Armand Abplanalp as Prostitute's Client

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 5% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 71

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 2	0	1
3 to 4	4	0
5 to 6	23	3
7 to 8	2	1
9 to 10	2	1
11 to 12	3	5
13 to 14	5	9
15 to 16	15	3
17 to 18	6	0
19 to 20	5	6
21 to 22	13	14
23 to 24	4	4
25 to 26	6	9
27 to 28	6	7
29 to 30	8	4
31 to 32	18	18
33 to 34	51	42
35 to 36	30	38
37 to 38	9	4
39 to 40	22	68
41 to 42	0	0
43 to 44	6	5
45 to 46	20	21
47 to 48	25	0
49 to 50	16	18
51 to 52	0	4
53 to 54	33	42
55 to 56	10	12
57 to 58	0	6
59 to 60	1	0
61 to 62	8	0
63 to 64	16	22
65 to 66	3	5
67 to 68	28	50
69 to 70	8	14
71 to 71	1	0

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scene

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

JEANNE: I've come to see the flat. I saw the sign. CONCIERGE: The sign? JEANNE: Yes. CONCIERGE: It's always the same! Nobody ever tells me anything.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 48 are women's.

407 lines from women, 436 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

10 women and 5 men in the cast. 6 women and 3 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 3 of 884. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 44 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 39% of the words (3,158), men 61% (4,928). Women have 48% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

2 of the 13 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 26% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Bernardo Bertolucci (man)
Written by: Bernardo Bertolucci (man), Franco Arcalli (man)
Story by: Bernardo Bertolucci (man)
Produced by: Alberto Grimaldi (man)
Shot by: Vittorio Storaro (man)
Edited by: Franco Arcalli (man), Roberto Perpignani (man)
Music by: Gato Barbieri (man)
Production design by: Maria Paola Maino (woman), Philippe Turlure (man), Albert Rajau (man)
Costumes by: Gitt Magrini (woman)