Tango

This is a stunning film. The score is dynamic--beautifully written and magnificently performed, with a shockingly wonderful presence in its new DVD incarnation. The color is gorgeous, bright, subdued, subtle, stunning--broad of range and magnificent. The dancing is incredible!

Add to this the magnificent variety of tango, and you have an undeniable winner!

And this in spite of the fact that the plot is rather slight, relieved finally and solely because of a rather Pirandelloesque twist at the end.

In Buenos Aires, the director Mario Suarez (Miguel Ángel Solá) is developing and rehearsing a tango play with historical events as background. Mario misses his mate Laura Fuentes (Cecilia Narova), who has recently left him, and is recovering from a car crash with an injured leg. When the major investor Angelo Larroca (Juan Luis Galiardo) asks for an audition for his lover Elena Flores (Mía Maestro), she succeeds and participates in the play; however, Mario falls in love for her and Elena fears the dangerous Angelo.

I saw "Tango" for the first time on 01 January 2001; I have just watched it again and I still believe it is one of the most wonderful tributes to the tango. Carlos Saura uses the concept that history is indestructible and recalls the dark years of military dictatorship in Argentina after the amnesty entwined with a passionate love of a middle-aged man for a young woman to build the plot, supported by stunning cast, choreography, music score and lighting. However, the conclusion is confused and disappointing, and I really do not understand the relationship of Angelo and Mario acting like pals in the last scene. Cecilia Narova and Mía Maestro are extremely beautiful and fantastic dancers, and I do not get tired of seeing them dancing tango. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Tango"

I love this stuff. This film has weaknesses, but the ambition is so grand one can forgive, at least in deciding to watch.

The general problem is mixing film and dance. Rarely, oh so rarely is it done well. The stock choices are two: either film a dance more or less as an audience would see it, or to incorporate dance into the theatric presentation as a device. Either way, the audience is necessarily at a distance. And that's the problem: dance is human, to watch it (I'm talking about a performance here) you intimately participate in the space built and folded by the dancers. So by definition, most film/dance mixtures turn flat.

The solution here is to create an openly recursive storyline, mixing the dance as sometimes a filmed performance or rehearsal, sometimes "real" life, sometimes dreams or visions or imaginings. This combined with a never-rooted camera -- which sometimes plays the role of a character itself -- makes the audience part of the dance, and adds depth. The sets are designed to confuse: sloped floors, mirrors (used liberally) distortion, translucent screens and so on, further breaking the "performance" mold. On these terms alone, this is an intelligently conceived film.

I cannot say the same for the dancing proper. I think the film suffers from sticking too close to an Argentine palette, so the music and dance lacked breadth, and ultimately became repetitive. Whether the dancers were authentic, I cannot say. There certainly were exciting moments for me, but the dancing wasn't sufficiently vibrant to carry all of the scenes.

The Latin flavor was intriguing in the large: that the director would attempt such a self-referential conflation: national horror; angst of aging; layering of creation. Such a project would be considered outrageous in the US long before it is explored. And the Latin character was also interesting in the small: bigbottomed dancers and dumb, dependent women talking about how intelligent and independent they are.

Check this out. Not for the dance, but for a solution to filming dance.

I absolutely love this film. I am not a huge fan of dance movies or musicals, but this creation is superb. The music, the dancing, and of course, the women are all beautiful.

Saura melds fiction & reality with all the skill he has shown in previous films, & Storaro's cinematography is, as usual, stunning. I purchased a DVD copy as soon as it became available & I have found the extras & the commentaries to be both informative & entertaining.

For anyone who loves; beautiful filming making, passionate dancing or erotic women, this film will fill all those needs. Buenos Aires, here I come!

It's not often that I will give a film a perfect review, I'm just too picky. And let's face it, there aren't many movies being made nowadays that even approach perfection. I have just had the pleasure of seeing one such film. Director Carlos Saura and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro have again collaborated on a masterpiece. Similar to their last joint effort 'Flamenco', 'Tango' is both an examination of the music and dance of the tango and, more importantly, it's role as a reflection of the human condition. Saura and Storaro have gathered these elements and taken them, and the audience, one step further. Through skillful choreography, the camera weaves it's way through a maze of mirrors, lights, projected images and some of the world's best tango artists. The audience becomes a willing dance partner with their breathtaking eye and find themselves swept into their passionate vision.