FILM REVIEW :: Tango (1998, Carlos Saura)

This film was nominated for the Oscar for best foreign film 1998. It is, in a word, brilliant. Watching it today, in 2006, it's hard to believe it is nearly 10 years old. The visual language is so fresh, so contemporary. I did first see the movie in 2002, but I remember not liking it nearly as much as I do now. The numerous dance sequences (75-85% of the film) seemed to drag on to me back then. The minimalist set and the modernist lighting seemed...boring, pretentious, uninspired. Only the narrative and the love story held me; and you know, I can't remember if I even stayed awake for the whole thing..Probably not.

Watching it now 5 years later with new eyes...tango eyes, design eyes, color eyes. No hay color. The film is amazing. How do I describe it for my notes. My 4 handwritten pages of cryptic notes...

Mario Suárez walks with a cane as a result of a truck accident. His wife has left him, he is alone in his apartment. He imagines her (a tango dancer) with another man; as he looks on, his anger rises up. He reveals a knife, and stabs his wife. He wakens; his wife walks in. They argue; he begs her to take him back. He is rejected.

At the rehearsal; an old man in a suit and tie introduces himself to Mario and hands him his business card saying that his is the best of the Guardia Vieja.

The set is a large soundstage (or airplane hanger?). It is modern/industrial in feel; the space is defined by panels, screens, and technical lighting effects. Purples, Magentas, Reds, blues, Greens, Yellows...black and white. Projectors run, images of La Boca in panoramic view; the terror-filled paintings of Goya, vintage film reels of Carlos Gardel and Tita Merello...Tell the story a través del COLOR. La luminosidad por fuera, la oscuridad por dentro.

Shots of rehearsal reflected through the mirror; Que se vea un solo cuerpo y cuatro piernas!

Slow-moving pans that move sideways; amplify the space and the action; synchronized action.

School children in white coats dance in a large room while the old maestro looks on from a side bench. he says he used to dance, but now "I don't have a partner. My wife died last year. Now, I can't find the meaning in life."

Black silhouettes on light aqua screen; woman dances alone; bright red gel filter on her body/dress.

Tango costumes sway on a rack; a row of beautiful women at a Hollywood style makeup table with mirror and bulbs. Laura invites Elena to a dance; it is a sensuous tango. The other women look on, intently focused. The couple passes behind the rack of clothes; Laura kisses her passionately. End Scene.

Torture: Playing tango music at full blast volume to cover the screams of the victims; bodies thrown into mass graves; a green Ford Falcon, a line up of victims against a wall; with the beat of the music, they fall, shot dead, one by one. Interrogation room; a single chair under a lamp; spotlight.

Immigration; thousands of people, families, children, elderly, rise up over the horizon in the distance; the sky overhead tells us it's early morning; they arrive in waves, wearing early 19th century clothes, carrying suitcases and small children. They sit in groups and wait for whatever it is that comes next....some couples begin to dance.

Elena dances with a man; suddenly a sinister looking gaucho looms, approaches, steals her from her partner; wish a vicious lunge, his knife pierces her abdomen, and she falls dead.