The heroine, Jeanne, played by Maria Schneider, discovers an apartment for rent and inquires about the available space. The appearance, speech and mannerisms of the black, female concierge, exude the presence of voodoo forces and immediately attach an ethereal aura to the Victorian style building. The bewildered concierge seems to be unaware of the "for rent" sign outside, which presents the first implication of disillusionment and freedom from conformity within the walls of the elusive space. The concierge further solidifies its incongruity by declaring that, "A lot of strange things happen." Before breaking into an evil laugh while tightly gripping Jeanne’s hand, the concierge hands her the duplicate key and concludes their interaction by noting that the heroine is "very young." This hand grasping foreshadows future envelopment, possession, and exploitation of Jeanne’s youth by the male protagonist, played by Marlon Brando.

The next significant moment of the film's thematic threshold occurs within the staging of the first sexual rendezvous. It takes place within the confines of the abandoned apartment, which the two characters associate with escape from the outside world, moral judgments, and the temporal laws of the universe. It becomes a place of retreat, where the couple can eroticize with the same commitment bears devote to sleep during the hibernation period. After Jeanne picks up her hat, she turns to look at the mysterious man who happened to coincidently enter the apartment before her and whom she recognizes from swift and impersonal encounters in the past. The American silently walks over to Jeanne and lifts her by placing one hand between her legs and the other around her back. This exemplifies an unwillingness to comply with the conventions of verbal expression, and presents an inclination towards animalistic tendencies. Such a notion is reestablished through the aggressive ripping of the panties and the physicality of the sexual positioning. The choice in having Jeanne be penetrated standing up and clothed indicates urgency and insatiable lust, which breaks with the standard of romanticism previously established in cinema. The two characters descend onto the filthy floor only after they reach the state of climax. Jeanne frantically rolls away from the stranger as though struggling to escape the metaphysical interconnection they just established through the ritualistic act. The sexual interdependence of the two characters is only broken upon the heroine's realization of the inconsequentiality and absurdity of their union, which can be interpreted as a reversal of the mystic spell. Furthermore, the couple's incompatibility becomes most apparent during their minimal conversation.

The second meeting in the apartment demonstrates the American's refusal to exchange any information about their identities. He rejects seemingly essential details such as one's age and name in favour of impersonal and detached relations. This nuance suggests an emotional unavailability and a fear of vulnerability - a consequence of his wife's recent suicide - that stands as a substantial barrier in the progression of his present relationship. He repeatedly insists on wanting to know "nothing" about Jeanne. The American says, "We are going to forget everything that we know…everything, everything", as though the confines of the rugged apartment possessed the magical ability to eliminate the suffering and complications of the outside world, along with the destroyed fabric of his fragile mind. The American’s unwillingness to become emotionally attached parallels their failure to officially rent and own the apartment. The two invaders violate and disturb its solemn tranquility with their habits of fornication.

The third rendezvous demonstrates the progression of what was once spontaneous and mysterious into the realm of the routinized and recognizable. Jeanne walks into a seemingly unchanged apartment, with the exception of the dirty mattress in the middle of the room. Without saying a word, she and the American begin to take off their shoes in preparation for the inevitable. The next shot cuts to a close-up of their naked intertwined bodies embracing each other, which alludes to the existence of genuine affection; however, this notion is immediately complicated as Jeanne attempts to attach an artificial identity to the protagonist in substitution to the unattainable, authentic identity. Marlon Brandon’s character resists by declaring that he has been called a million names in the past, and further abstracts his persona by inferring that he is a composite of multiple identities. The animalistic quality of this man becomes increasingly evident after he suggests that a more appropriate approach would be to use a grunt or a groan rather then language in his identification. This persistent denial of the outside conventions is central to the films thematic undercurrents. It should also be noted that the mysterious confines of the apartment are repeatedly established as the sphere of the "bestial" and the "primitive." Aside from the two lovers, it is inhabited by cats and rats, and is the only such space within the diegesis.

In contrast to the previous encounter, which began with Jeanne walking into their unclaimed nest, the portrayal of the subsequent engagement places the spectator at the end of their intimate endeavor. This can be inferred from the image of Jeanne walking around the apartment with a pillow over her breasts. She tells the story of a colonel from her past, which the male recipient brutally rejects. As he says, "What a steaming pile of bullshit", he marks the beginning towards a propelled deterioration of their union. He clearly rejects the symbols of traditional authority by declaring that, "uniforms are bullshit", and sinks deeper into his element of isolation by stating that, "everything outside this place is bullshit." This scene clearly contrasts between Jeanne's attempts to elicit bonding by reflecting on the past and his insistence on rejection of the past and the future in favour of the present. Nevertheless, this sequence also illustrates Bertolucci’s ingenuous ability of providing the spectator with enough clues to conceive of a seemingly untainted perception of the character’s depth before he undermines and inverts our assumptions. Moments after Jeanne’s vulnerability is rudely disregarded by the American he begins to contradict and expose himself through the "cow milking" monologue. This demonstrates the ambiguity and complexity of Bertalucci’s work as he repeatedly establishes and then retreats, builds and then breaks; crushing out misconceived notions built on simplification and one-dimensionality.

Within the last couple of interactions, the American sexually dominates Jeanne as he bizarrely rapes her on the dirty floor, while instructing her to recite text. The eccentricity of his preferences in erotic practices progressively intensifies as he commands Jeanne to penetrate his anus with her fingers. Bertolucci's frankness in the portrayal of such activities nonchalantly indicates the interdependence of the protagonist’s physiology and sexuality, which adopts a form appropriate to its executor. Throughout the last sequences, Jeanne becomes emotionally drained and begins to invert their previously established pattern by resisting his demonic spell.

This brief analysis of Bertolucci's masterpiece, Last Tango in Paris, provides one of many interpretations of this ambiguous work and focuses on the sexual innuendoes and mystic elements within its cinematic framework. It chronologically traces through the erotic encounters of the two characters, drawing and elaborating on the inferred allusions.