La leçon de tango

`Tango is like chess for your feet' Sally Potter claimed during the publicity for this, a film that she wrote, directed, and starred in as a tango dancing director called - strangely enough - Sally. Like the screen Sally, the real Potter also learned from Pablo Veron, also her co-star. If only the film was as cogent and searching as her intelligent definititon of a fascinating dance!

As a keen tango dancer myself, I was eager to see the committed to celluloid the intricacies of a dance which is part improvisational game, part physical conversation, and as much an exercise for the mind as for the body. A lot of work goes into becoming an excellent and effortless `tanguista', and there is much more to tango than most people realise.

Turning her story into a roman a clef, does not make it experimental or postmodern, as appears to have be intended, but in fact regresses to the self-referential musicals of yesteryear such as `Singing in the Rain'. As long as there has been art, there has been art about art, and art about creative blocks. Though such an approach can create masterpieces (such as Fellini's 8 1/2), it can also create ponderous excuses for not creating original art.

Worse still, it can come off as an act of monstrous narcissism. Potter is a stunning dancer, and it is understandable that she wished to play the main role on that count, but in all other respects she is merely adequate (and her singing, in the final scene, quite inadequate). Potter berates Veron in the film for not trusting her to be lead by him; by not trusting another actor to play her part, Potter is doing exactly the same thing.

Thus the film plays out like a rather dull overheard conversation that one might idly listen to on the bus but not miss once you reached your stop. Tango is a dance in which the female must follow unquestioningly, adding little of her own input, occasionally stepping back to let the alpha male shine. The tensions that this has with a woman who is a film director and feminist, used to leading and guiding, rebelling against traditional roles of male and female, might have been fascinating. Instead, it all seems a playful act of revenge against Pablo: in film, she gets to lead, not him.

Though tantalising ideas leap out from time to time (the influence the tango had on her creativity is something touched upon but unfortunately not explored), and as always her visuals are sumptuous, I found the film a disappointment overall.

Sally Potter is always a very original film fact-totum. In this film much more: Not only she write, direct, play and music the film, but she has given both herself and film to the Tango, that is the only true Star.The story is so thin, the characters are so light, the scene are cold, they seems only fills-in. Only the danced frames are full of inspiration and passion. The words are substituted with Tango (and its music), and also a classic scene like the separation at the airport became magic.

this is a wonderful film - for tango lovers as well as for people who like to ponder about life.

if you are looking for a movie with pretty girls, short skirts, and guns, you will be asleep before the first five minutes are over.

While the tango moves and general dance moves are great, what's really unique about this film is the commentary it makes about life and the power dynamics of relationships between men and women.

It also makes commentary on the film industry and what it means to be an artist in this day and age.

While it's true that Sally Potter is not a 21-year-old leggy blonde, she looks damn good at her age (I wish I had her body) and she is a very good actress. Pablito Veron also does a good job playing an arrogant ass. His dancing is awesome. Casting Pablo with a spring chicken as some have hinted, would have ruined the film all together.

Go Sally - make more of these films; I'd love to see your other commentary.

Sally Potter is one of the most respected names in feminist film. The Tango Lesson, while very different from any of her earlier works, seems to be a really personal, even autobiographical film. It's about a middle-aged British filmmaker named Sally Potter. More recent productions have abandoned prudery towards women's bodies and moved to "the other side" of visual pleasure. The film shows Sally's own personal involvement with Tango. Its original purpose of something fun, new, exciting and stress relief from her routine life soon became an obsession causing several conflicts.

The relevance of feminism in the film is blatantly present. A conflict scene in the film is between characters Sally and her Tango partner, teacher and love interest Pablo Veron. The back and fourth arguments are the strongest representation of a feminist point of view in a relationship. After Sally's first Tango performance with Pablo they are involved in a confrontation. Pablo's issue with Sally is that he is the leader and she was to follow which in his eyes she was not doing during the performance. The feminist thought and idea is that men lead woman. Sally replies to this by saying "you danced like a soloist". She said that no emotions were involved in the dance sequence which is extremely important in order to create a believable and interesting performance.

The fact that they were involved in a personal relationship outside of the dancing did not help the situation. Pablo's character was an alpha male who fell for a woman whose strength and power intimidated him. I noticed in the film in several scenes in his house in the bathroom, on top of the fire place, and in the dressing room, Pablo was placed in front of a mirror. His obsession with himself intrigues Sally to a near jealous streak. She is envious of his confidence. He is also in control of the language spoken between the two of them. They both speak French, Spanish and English. When they are not dancing as business partners and enter their personal relationship they speak French. Pablo unable to speak very well English prefers not to while conversing with Sally.

Sally Potter was not considered what society considers beautiful. She was an older woman who dressed moderately, did not wear makeup, and did not possess a voluptuous body. "The gaze" in television and movies is a serious issue for our society. Woman are considered spectacles used as objects of visual and physical pleasure. The director's gaze is present in the film because she represents and analyzes our visual culture in how men and woman perceive each other.

Care to dance? Sally Potter, film director ("Orlando"), did, and fell in love with the Tango and Pablo Veron, one of its authentic Argentinian exponents. Pablo is a pretty sexy guy, and a bit younger than Sally, but by the end she's leading and he's following.(I'm not sure whether they actually get to do the horizontal tango.) In between we learn with Sally the intricacies of the dance as an expression of culture as well as personal affinity. There's not much of a story (a year in the life of an original and talented art film maker)but the Paris and especially Buenos Aires settings are evocative - the latter seems frozen in the 40s, when the economic tide went out for Argentina. No, the dance is the thing. Remember Zorba? "A Greek man dances for his soul." Sally dances like a moth drawn to a candle, but wears asbestos underwear and gets an interesting movie out of it. The black and white photography is luminous and completely appropriate, and the soundtrack a treasure trove of Tangos. Recommended for those interested in "romance" ie vertical and horizontal tangos though as I said the latter is merely hinted at. Not a film for people who want a compelling story.