Film Review – Being Maria

Maria Schneider was an actress for nearly three decades (she passed away in 2011), playing a number of different roles in productions of various quality. However, she’s best known for her part in 1972’s “Last Tango in Paris,” an erotic drama that attracted a lot of attention when it was initially released and, amazingly, still does to this day. “Being Maria” isn’t a bio-pic, but an attempt to understand the subject during a few tumultuous stretches in her life, as co-writer/director Jessica Palud endeavors to illuminate violations of trust and mounting frustrations that added turns to Schneider’s life, and not always in the right direction. There’s only a surface appreciation of familial and professional challenges in “Being Maria,” but Palud finds ways to connect the dots of disappointment, making for a decent examination of struggle as Schneider battles to maintain reputation and emotional stability. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com