Why Molly Ringwald translated an infamous story of film exploitation

Ringwald talks about ‘My Cousin Maria Schneider,’ a book she translated from French about the life of Maria Schneider, who starred in ‘Last Tango in Paris’

By Nora Krug
April 16, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Molly Ringwald. The name sparks a 1980s flashback: Jake Ryan and that 16-candled cake; Claire the reluctant prom queen pouting her way through detention; Duckie. For a generation of moviegoers, the red-haired actress embodied teenage angst. ... In the some three decades since she became a fixture of John Hughes films, Ringwald has built a wide-ranging career: Broadway productions, a Godard film and the TV series “Riverdale,” among other projects. In 2012, she turned to writing, publishing the novel-in-stories “When It Happens to You.”

Ringwald, 55, has also translated two books from French. Her latest is “My Cousin Maria Schneider,” by Vanessa Schneider. The book, originally published in France in 2018, chronicles the life of Maria Schneider, the actress who starred in Bernardo Bertolucci’s controversial 1972 film “Last Tango in Paris” when she was 19. ... In a much-discussed, infamous scene, Schneider’s character is sodomized by Marlon Brando’s. Schneider wasn’t informed beforehand about what exactly would be done to her in the scene — “because,” Bertolucci later said, “I wanted her reaction as a girl, not as an actress. I wanted her to react humiliated.”

After Schneider’s death in 2011, Bertolucci pleaded for forgiveness: “She was much too young to have been able to withstand the impact and the unpredictable and brutal success of the film. … Her death came too soon, before I could kiss her tenderly and tell her that I feel as close to her now as I did on day one, and ask for her forgiveness,” he said. To which Vanessa Schneider retorts on behalf of her cousin: “You wouldn’t have wanted his excuses. Even less his kisses.”

Schneider never quite recovered from the Brando scene — in a 2007 interview, she said she felt “a little raped” — or the notoriety that followed. Despite appearing in other films, including “The Passenger” (1975), opposite Jack Nicholson, Schneider’s acting career was forever marred by that single experience, what “My Cousin Maria Schneider” calls a “bad tattoo.”



(Scribner)

Maria struggled with addiction and flitted in and out of her first cousin Vanessa’s childhood home — and her life — over the years. In their last moment together, Vanessa and Maria sip Champagne and take snapshots at Maria’s home, just before Maria dies of cancer. The book, written in the present tense, as if Vanessa is writing directly to her cousin, has a sad immediacy. Still, there are wonderful moments of enduring joy, connection and discovery.

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By Nora Krug
Nora Krug is an editor and writer in Book World. Before joining The Washington Post, she was an editor at the New York Times, Architectural Digest and Harper's Magazine. She also worked as an editor at the book publisher Little, Brown. Twitter https://twitter.com/nbkrug