A little way into Saura's Tango, the main character, Mario, meets Mia Maestro. We are given the impression, or rather we are told, that Mario must be careful as her lover is a dangerous gangster. This is an attempt to create a dramatic counterpoint to Saura's exploration of different aspects of the tango myth - passion, violence, nostalgia and the mirror of the Argentine national psyche. Sadly the drama succumbs to these other intentions and the movie stumbles more or less confusingly from dance to dance. Characters hover uncomfortably between real humanity and symbolism and fail in both respects. As a consequence, the big themes are merely referred to rather than explored - and the gangster's threat fizzles.
This leaves us with the music and (some of) the dancing. We are given a fair sample of tango music. Some of the best is non-dance tango music; highlights are Adriana Varela singing 'Quien hubiera dicho', Horacio Salgan playing 'A Fuego Lento' and tantalising snippets of Gardel singing 'Arrabal Amargo' and Tita Merello singing 'Se dice de mi'. There are also some fine stage tango pieces; such as the ensemble piece with the male dancers. However for me, the most compelling moment is when Carlos Nebbia (Juan Carlos Copes - why did they bother with the alias?) selects an anonymous young woman from the crowd at Confiteria Ideal and they dance to Pugliese's 'Recuerdo'. (In fact, the centrality of Copes to the movie reveals what this movie really is; an attempt to turn a Copes stage show into a movie. I suspect that this movie might have been more successful if they had stuck to that more modest intention.)
However I must confess that my criticisms do lay me open to a charge of gross ingratitude. Four years ago, I knew nothing of the tango beyond the dumbest clichés. I had never heard of Pugliese or Copes or Pugliese or Gardel. Then one Sunday evening in March 2004, my wife and I watched this movie. Inspired, primarily by that 'Recuerdo', we took our first tango lesson three days later. There have been some days since when we haven't danced a tango but there cannot have been many when we didn't listen to tango music. Or read about tango. Or watched tango DVDs or YouTube clips.
In sum, although I have seen many, many better movies than Carlos Saura's 'Tango', I cannot think of any other movie that has had so much impact on my life.
This leaves us with the music and (some of) the dancing. We are given a fair sample of tango music. Some of the best is non-dance tango music; highlights are Adriana Varela singing 'Quien hubiera dicho', Horacio Salgan playing 'A Fuego Lento' and tantalising snippets of Gardel singing 'Arrabal Amargo' and Tita Merello singing 'Se dice de mi'. There are also some fine stage tango pieces; such as the ensemble piece with the male dancers. However for me, the most compelling moment is when Carlos Nebbia (Juan Carlos Copes - why did they bother with the alias?) selects an anonymous young woman from the crowd at Confiteria Ideal and they dance to Pugliese's 'Recuerdo'. (In fact, the centrality of Copes to the movie reveals what this movie really is; an attempt to turn a Copes stage show into a movie. I suspect that this movie might have been more successful if they had stuck to that more modest intention.)
However I must confess that my criticisms do lay me open to a charge of gross ingratitude. Four years ago, I knew nothing of the tango beyond the dumbest clichés. I had never heard of Pugliese or Copes or Pugliese or Gardel. Then one Sunday evening in March 2004, my wife and I watched this movie. Inspired, primarily by that 'Recuerdo', we took our first tango lesson three days later. There have been some days since when we haven't danced a tango but there cannot have been many when we didn't listen to tango music. Or read about tango. Or watched tango DVDs or YouTube clips.
In sum, although I have seen many, many better movies than Carlos Saura's 'Tango', I cannot think of any other movie that has had so much impact on my life.