Approximations: Next to Last Tango

Production Collaboration: Johanna Householder and b.h. Yael, 2002

Video length 7:00 mins

Post-production collaboration: Johanna Householder and editor Brad Johnson as part of the Trinity Square Video Trans>Sex>Tech Residency

Next to Last Tango is a shot-for-shot reenactment of the notorious "butter Scene" in Bernardo Bertolucci's classic Last Tango In Paris. Maria Schneider and Marlon Brando meet for anonymous sex in a vacant Paris apartment.

It was recently revealed that Maria Schneider was not prepared in advance for this scene, an assault of bodies and sensibilities.

Approximations: Next to Last Tango is one of four works by Johanna Householder and b.h. Yael, which are shot for shot recreations of specific filmic scenes while their own gendered bodies re-perform the lead characters. The first three works take on 1970’s cinematic classics: Apocalypse Now, 2001 Space Odyssey, and Last Tango in Paris. The last, a bit more of an anomaly, is Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.

The works are an amalgamation of Johanna’s and Yael’s sensibilities, performance and cinematography, and display a fascination with and questioning of representations of the future, apocalypse and war, sex and religion. 

Catalogue published by Mount Saint Vincent University, MSV Art Gallery, Halifax.