Tango 2001

Thanks to a marvelous and passionate genre film festival that gets organized annually in my country's capital, I had the unique opportunity to watch this pleasantly deranged and groovily swinging exploitation flick from Greece. From the director of the equally intriguing "The Rape Killer" comes this Giallo-esque "Tango of Perversion" that hasn't stolen this title! There is a bit of dancing, although I'm not sure it's tango-dancing, and there most certainly is a lot of perversion.

In a sleazy Athens' nightclub, several dubious people come together. Stathis is a hunky but violently arrogant macho who beds all the women of the club. The beautiful but heroin-addicted Johanna is obsessed with Stathis, even though the slightly older but stylishly elegant Rosita has a lesbian crush on her. Observing everything from a safe corner is the nerdy but incredibly rich Joachim, who hides the embarrassing secret of being impotent. These people have nothing in common, except they're all chain smoking as if they were chimneys, but nevertheless pretend to be friends. When Rosita lures Johanna to Joachim's fancy house for sex in exchange of drugs, Stathis catches them and kills Rosita in a blind rage. Little detail: Joachim is a real perv and installed a camera behind the bedroom's mirror (since Stathis always uses his house for sex dates) and thus has the murder on tape.

Rather than turning into a dull story about blackmail, the plot takes a few wondrously bonkers twists and turns that even include elements like necrophilia, misogyny, true love, and a masterclass in how to spectacularly get rid of dead bodies! Of course, there's plenty of nudity and softcore sex, provided by gorgeous natural beauties, and a delirious soundtrack.

Very watchable, although I was slightly confused at first, as my copy was seemingly Greek with English subtitles but everyone was speaking Spanish. It turns out this must be a Spanish dub because it is certainly Greek. Very much borderline giallo, it is nevertheless, fast moving and most colourful with some wonderful costumes. Lakis Komninos is fine as the lead rogue and the girls are good, in and out of their costumes, just the supposed hero, played by Vagelis Voulgaridis who plays it just too pathetically, for my taste. Excellent soundtrack, sex and death (not always in that order), some fun dance sequences (didn't notice any 'tango' though) and drugs and voyeurism a plenty. Bit predictable but good fun all the same.

This is essentially an old-fashioned, Tales Of The Unexpected type drama made a little bit special by the way its done, ie quite seedy, gaudy looking, fairly kinky. It is very Seventiesish and very continental, with all of the leading actresses disrobing at some point or other. The film's strange twists are all quite enjoyable in a weird sort of way, especially the last two. It's the sort of film which will never be made again, and it's worth tracking down, although that could be quite a task. It received a limited video release many years ago and would surely now be ripe for a DVD rerelease. A film with a title as great as this one's certainly deserves some attention.

An absolutely atypical example of exhilarating, Jess-Franco-esque titillation from sun- splashed Greece. Able Director, Kostas Karagiannis doesn't appear to be a sleazoid neophyte, as he corals his feisty, and not to mention nubile cast with great aplomb, and gets on with the sordid matters at hand with admirable alacrity! This especially lurid narrative concerns the exploitative, and overtly libidinous orbits of one especially Greek male animal, Stathis; a tall, handsome, and brooding manipulator, who finds little trouble oozing his way into the innumerable confines of many a young ladies undergarments, and yet sharing the similarly frustrating fate of many a conniving, psychologically shallow Lothario, he also seems emotionally unable to keep hold of these most beauteous of fleshly gifts, having been only temporarily bestowed upon him by his prosaic erotic, game-play! This wonderfully pulpy tale of arch, self-serving sexual machinations is handled well by, Karagiannis, and I found myself wholly absorbed, not only by the splendorous generosity of exposed nubile flesh, but by the fascinating perversity of these uncommonly seedy, amoral characters, all of whom spiral inexorably into a gloriously angst-laden, Giallo-esque vortex of fervid sex and hysterical, bloody violence! I must admit that my initial, pre-viewing interest was somewhat perfunctory, but merest seconds into the preternaturally funky, hep-cat title sequence my initial fears were demonstratively allayed, as the triumphantly titillating, sordidly satisfying,'Tango of Perversion' finally proved to be a giddy foray into murderous, Mediterranean-set decadence!