{"id":46509,"date":"2025-03-25T12:56:53","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T16:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/being-maria-review-the-muses-side-of-the-story\/25\/03\/2025\/"},"modified":"2025-03-25T12:56:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T16:56:53","slug":"being-maria-review-the-muses-side-of-the-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/being-maria-review-the-muses-side-of-the-story\/25\/03\/2025\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Being Maria\u2019 Review: The Muse\u2019s Side of the Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When it comes to telling stories about the victims of abuse, filmmakers are often faced with a dilemma: to show or not show the act of violence. Showing could mean exploiting the victim\u2019s pain to satisfy viewers\u2019 curiosity; not showing could mean hedging around a hard truth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Jessica Palud\u2019s \u201cBeing Maria\u201d \u2014 a biopic of <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/02\/04\/movies\/04schneider.html\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Maria Schneider<\/a>, a French actress perhaps best known for playing the mistress of Marlon Brando\u2019s character in \u201cLast Tango in Paris\u201d \u2014 chooses to show.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 1972, when the 19-year-old Schneider was shooting one of the film\u2019s many sex scenes, Brando (with the director Bernardo Bertolucci\u2019s blessing) improvised without telling her his intentions, using a stick of butter to perform what on-screen looks like anal penetration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cBeing Maria\u201d recreates the scene \u2014 and it\u2019s a tough watch. Anamaria Vartolomei, who plays Schneider, conveys shock, discomfort, fear and shame in distressing close-ups. When the scene cuts, Brando (Matt Dillon), who had previously been chummy with Maria, looks sheepish. Bertolucci (Giuseppe Maggio) is unapologetic; he tells Maria the scene was meant to be intense.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Loosely adapted from the memoir \u201cMy Cousin Maria Schneider,\u201d by Vanessa Schneider, the film doesn\u2019t stick around too long on Bertolucci\u2019s set. Benjamin Biolay\u2019s treacly string score adds an unsavory sentimental touch, but the rest of the film is quite sober as it moves through the decade of Schneider\u2019s life after \u201cLast Tango.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Showing how Schneider\u2019s trauma festered over time \u2014 and eventually calloused over \u2014 the film moodily weaves together scenes of her struggles with addiction, nights at the discoth\u00e8que and experiences on other movie sets, relying on Vartolomei\u2019s edgy, delicate performance to signal Maria\u2019s underlying anxieties. If the meandering nature of the film makes the psychic fallout seem tonally scattered, it nevertheless conveys the sense that she\u2019s sleepwalking through life \u2014 and always fighting to snap out of it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\"><strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">Being Maria<\/strong><br \/>Not rated. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. In theaters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/25\/movies\/being-maria-review.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to telling stories about the victims of abuse, filmmakers are often faced with a dilemma: to show or not<br \/><button class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/being-maria-review-the-muses-side-of-the-story\/25\/03\/2025\/\">Read More &rsaquo;<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/25\/multimedia\/25cul-beingmaria-review1-vlcg\/25cul-beingmaria-review1-vlcg-facebookJumbo.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46509"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}