Being Maria

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1:56

Being Maria

2025

1h 42m

Biography

Drama

History

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

60%

Tomatometer

35 Reviews

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Maria Schneider (Anamaria Vartolomei) is a promising, young French actress. When she gets the lead in a feature film directed by an acclaimed Italian filmmaker and starring one of America's most beloved actors, it seems like the opportunity of a lifetime. Her collaborators, director Bernardo Bertolucci and star Marlon Brando (Matt Dillon) seem to be bringing out the best in Maria, sharing a warm rapport and mentorship with the 19-year old girl. Until one day, when the two men conspire to shoot a crucial sex scene as a harrowing assault without letting Maria in on the plan. The film goes on to be lauded as a fearless artistic breakthrough, but for Maria, it’s the beginning of a living hell. Based on the behind-the-scenes true story of the making of Last Tango in Paris, Jessica Palud's sensitive biopic centers Maria's story for the first time.

Robert Abele

Los Angeles Times

03/31/2025

there’s enough of an emotional intelligence inside the bumpier elements of “Being Maria” that the movie effectively acknowledges that it’s only one part of a complicated life story.

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Beatrice Loayza

New York Times

03/25/2025

If the meandering nature of the film makes the psychic fallout seem tonally scattered, it nevertheless conveys the sense that she’s sleepwalking through life — and always fighting to snap out of it.

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Bob Mondello

NPR

03/22/2025

Palud, who previously worked with Bertolucci, does her most evocative work in the on-set sequences, with a coddled Brando (a terrific Matt Dillon) and an increasingly vulnerable Schneider.

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Anne Brodie

What She Said

05/23/2025

2/2

For all the sturm und drang, betrayal and abuse, the film seems bloodless and slow, but left a strong impression of diastase for the perps and empathy for those victimised in their naivete.

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Sean Burns

North Shore Movies

05/22/2025

Wht's ironic is that by refusing to see Schneider as an artist, the movie is guilty of some of the same sins as the director it tries to demonize.

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Simon Foster

Screen-Space (Substack)

05/22/2025

4/5

With the luminous Anamaria Vartolomei embodying the fierce spirit of the damaged but determined Schneider, BEING MARIA honours and unravels an ahead-of-her-moment icon that suffered through and overcame systemic exploitation and trauma-stifling addiction.

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Jessica Palud

Director

Anamaria Vartolomei

Maria Schneider

Céleste Brunnquell

Noor

Giuseppe Maggio

Bernardo Bertolucci

Yvan Attal

Daniel Gélin

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Synopsis

Maria Schneider (Anamaria Vartolomei) is a promising, young French actress. When she gets the lead in a feature film directed by an acclaimed Italian filmmaker and starring one of America's most beloved actors, it seems like the opportunity of a lifetime. Her collaborators, director Bernardo Bertolucci and star Marlon Brando (Matt Dillon) seem to be bringing out the best in Maria, sharing a warm rapport and mentorship with the 19-year old girl. Until one day, when the two men conspire to shoot a crucial sex scene as a harrowing assault without letting Maria in on the plan. The film goes on to be lauded as a fearless artistic breakthrough, but for Maria, it’s the beginning of a living hell. Based on the behind-the-scenes true story of the making of Last Tango in Paris, Jessica Palud's sensitive biopic centers Maria's story for the first time.

Director: Jessica Palud
Producer: Marielle Duigou
Screenwriter: Jessica Palud, Laurette Polmanss, Vanessa Schneider
Distributor: Kino Lorber
Production Co: Les Films de Mina
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Original Language: French
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 21, 2025, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 29, 2025
Box Office (Gross USA): $18.0K
Runtime: 1h 42m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)