NC-17 films: Why they got the rating

Box office: $36 million, or $225 million today

Marlon Brando was nominated for an Oscar for his role as an American widower whose wife had committed suicide. Maria Schneider, a 1970s sexual icon, played a carefree Parisian engaged to marry a pompous young filmmaker. Brando’s Paul and Schneider’s Jeanne meet at an apartment for rent, have a quick sexual encounter and decide to meet there again for anonymous encounters -- they know nothing about each other, including each other’s name. An explicit sex scene involving butter earned the film the X rating and was not part of the original script.

Critic Pauline Kael called it “a landmark in movie history� and critic Roger Ebert said it was “one of the great emotional experiences of our time,� but the film was banned in a number of countries for its sexuality and nudity.

In her later years, Schneider expressed regret about appearing in the film, saying “I felt a little raped� by Marlon Brando and director Bernardo Bertolucci.

MORE: ‘Last Tango in Paris’ actress Maria Schneider had a turbulent life | Obituary   (United Artists / Associated Press)