Last Tango in Paris is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The controversial film has been criticised in recent years, following shock revelations about its most infamous scene.

Released in the US on 1 February 1973, Bernardo Bertolucci’s erotic drama follows a young woman from Paris (the late Maria Schneider), who begins an anonymous sexual relationship with an older American widower (Marlon Brando).

In one shocking scene, Paul rapes Jeanne, using a stick of butter as a lubricant.

Schneider, who was just 19 when she shot the film opposite 48-year-old Brando, said in a 2007 interview that the scene “wasn’t in the original script”, but that Brando had come up with the idea to simulate it and told her right before they had to film that part.

“I was so angry,” she said. “Marlon said to me, ‘Maria, don’t worry, it’s just a movie,’ but during the scene, even though what Marlon was doing wasn’t real,...