Mango Tango

What I found interesting about this film is that the lead character, a New York City dance teacher, has an easy time dancing with men in harmony but in her private life it's a whole other story. She meets heart break after heart break. Somehow she manages to keep up her positive spirit though even though her life is in danger at one point. The filmmaker, Marianne Hettinger, takes risks to show her heroine's story: a love scene that goes quite far without showing too much, a straight man who channels a gay guy from Chelsea named Brian and a storyline that moves from New York to Germany. The look of the film is great for what must have been a small budget. I enjoyed watching a scene with the legendary dancer/choreographer David Parsons as well as Nicolas Kosovich, a Dancing With The Stars alumni.

I am very impressed with this 1st effort by this extremely talented and stunningly beautiful director-writer-actress-dancer-singer-pianist !! I was blown away by the originality of the writing, the quirckiness of the humor and the character development, the bravery of the actors, the quality and integration of the music, the authentic and honest choreography, and the cleanliness and simplicity of the cinematography. I laughed , and sighed, and felt my heart open to the sadness and frustration and joy and exhiliration of this woman's life situation around men. And her efforts to process and grow through these experiences was a pleasure and honor to watch. The willingness of this lead actress to "expose" all parts of herself to us all is commendable.! The integration of fantasy and reality , I believe , served us as an audience, in keeping us involved in the lead character's inner thoughts and some of her logic for the choices she made . I look forward to seeing the sophomore project by this director..

Mango Tango has many elements that make up an excellent film: the theme being a lonely woman's search for her soul mate in New York City and beyond (she ends up in the German Alps). Beyond the universal storyline, It's an aesthetically and acoustically pleasing film: a soundtrack by wonderful composers like Latin Grammy award winner Pablo Ziegler, Michael Bacon, violinist Philippe Quint, Martin St. Pierre and others . This here is a very independent film with heart. Wonderful "dance relief" scenes. The protagonist retrieves her lost soul through dancing. I won't give away the ending but it is surprising and absurd, keeping in style with the film.

This film is the opposite of mainstream cinema. Unique and creative, powerful imagery and a heroine whose search efforts for her ideal mate go disturbingly wrong in a sometimes humorous and disturbing way. The filmmaker has a unique vision and voice- The film is very ambitious and sometimes seems more a series of vignettes rather than one plot, but the power of the images and beautifully crafted soundtrack, acting and dialogue and of course dance scenes, that are like a dance relief sequence, all work beautifully. The contrast of the scenes in New York and the German Alps are a wonderful juxta -position- I was rooting for the heroine to find her man, but she found something more important, herself.

I had the opportunity of seeing Mango Tango at a recent festival. This is Ms. Hettinger's first film and we look forward to seeing what else she has in store.

The story follows the loves and travails of a young woman seeking her true love soul mate, as we follow this woman from one bad relationship to another, the coda is provided by our heroine eating mangoes in the tub. The tango part of the title comes from her work a day profession which is that of dance instructor and competitive ballroom/tango dancer.

At times it feels as though the story veers off into odd sub plots, but at its heart is the age old search for love in the large and slightly tilted world.

She has a singular vision and a lovely warm hearted touch in her writing.

It also contains one of the most acrobatic sex scenes we have ever witnessed.

Go see Mango Tango.

James Gettys -