Tango fever

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Movie
German title Tango fever
Original title The Tango Lesson
Country of production Great Britain , France , Argentina , Germany , Netherlands , USA
original language English , French , Spanish
Publishing year 1997
length 100 minutes
Rod
Director Sally Potter
script Sally Potter
production Simona Benzakein , Diane Gelon , Óscar Kramer , Christian Keller Sarmiento , Christopher Sheppard , Cat Villiers
music Fred Frith , Sally Potter
camera Robby Muller
cut Hervé Schneid
occupation

Tango Fever (Original title: The Tango Lesson ) is a film by Sally Potter from 1997. The film describes the romance between the screenwriter and director Sally and the professional tango dancer Pablo Verón . The music and the dance interludes made the film a homage to the traditional Tango Argentino .

action

At a tango show in Paris, Sally, who is stalling with work on a new script, meets the tango dancer Pablo Verón. She decides to take dance lessons from him. As a result of inevitable repairs in her house, the director is forced to move out of her apartment for a few weeks. She travels to Buenos Aires and takes dance lessons there. On her return to Paris, Pablo notices the difference immediately.

Little by little Sally experiences the entry into a new world. First attempts at dancing in a milonga , new shoes with the extremely high heels typical of Tango Argentino and finally the first, difficult appearance with Pablo Verón in a tango show that almost destroyed the budding sympathy between the two. Sally is planning a movie with Pablo in the lead role because she no longer likes her original script idea. Both get into an argument about behavior in tango circles, where the man traditionally dominates, and when filming what Sally's territory is. After a long separation, Sally comes upon the thought of reconciliation, which Pablo accepts, while looking at a painting. They meet with Sally's dance teachers in Buenos Aires. The search for a location is halting. Sally is going to shoot her film without the funds needed. In the last shot, the couple, dancing, disappear from the viewer's field of vision.

reception

The film was widely discussed in the press. At Rotten Tomatoes , 53% of the reviews are positive, out of a total of 19 reviews; the average rating is 6/10.

The film magazine Cinema described Tango Fever as a "very personal" work of Sally Potter, as it shows clear parallels to her life. Responsible for the script, direction, main role and parts of the film music, but she "sometimes loses the distance to her story", which tarnishes "this technically and emotionally convincing homage to Argentine Tango". The Los Angeles Times wrote that the tango was the "only strength of the film", but explicitly praised the dance scenes as a pleasure worth seeing. In addition to Potter's dancing skills, this is due to the “flowing” camera work, the “elegant film editing” and the “wonderful tango soundtrack”. Variety described the tango scenes as "mesmerizing" and saw this effect also as being due to the camera work and the film editing.

The film service attested that Tango Fever was an “ambitious dance and music film with outstanding dance scenes”, but the director “overloaded her work with philosophical aspects”. The film "also often comes close to kitsch". Die Zeit wrote that Potter concentrates too much “instead of on the dance” on the “ultimate questions: about being human in and of itself, about art and life, chance and fate, power and submission, and on top of that the Jewish identity” and summed up in view of this “presumption” that the film is “an own goal of the auteur film”. The FAZ saw a weakness of the film in the clichéd portrayal of the protagonists. On the one hand Sally, the pale British woman who is "always open to debate and understanding, with kind, little shrew eyes" , on the other hand Veron, the "supple Latin lover always on the go, with routine oiled lightning bolts in view". But this finds a correspondence in the film, which is kept "nostalgic in black and white".

Roger Ebert , on the other hand, was fascinated that the "duel" between Sally and Veron was less about "temptation" and more about "becoming conscious of passion". He said that most dances are for lovers, but tango is a dance for those "who have survived love and are still a little upset about being hurt." The film Tango Fever is for those "who want to understand this difference".

Awards

In 1997 Tango Fever won the Best Film Award at the Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata . In the same year, along with nine other films, it received the National Board of Review Award's Special Recognition for Excellence in Filmmaking .

In 1998 the film was nominated for Best Non-English Language Film for the British BAFTA Award . Pablo Verón also received the American Choreography Award in 1998 for his dance performance .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Tango Lesson. Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved February 6, 2015 .
  2. ↑ go: Tango fever. Cinema , accessed February 5, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Jack Mathews: 'Tango Lesson' Struggles to Get Steps Right. Los Angeles Times , December 24, 1997, accessed February 7, 2015 : "Potter can tango, and with the flowing black-and-white cinematography of Robby Muller, the graceful editing of Herve Schneid, and a wonderful tango soundtrack , the dance sequences are pleasurable enough to watch. But in the end, tango is the movie's only strength, [...]. "
  4. ↑ David Rooney: Review: 'The Tango Lesson'. Variety , September 8, 1997, accessed on February 7, 2015 (English): "Robby Muller's cool, mobile B&W lensing and Herve Schneid's sharp editing make the tango scenes hypnotic, [...]."
  5. ^ Tango Lesson. film service , accessed January 18, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Christiane Peitz: In the clutches of art. Die Zeit , Nº 43/1997, October 17, 1997, accessed on January 18, 2015 .
  7. ^ Eleonore Büning : Strife and crisis, kiss and conclusion. "Tango Lesson" in the cinema: Sally Potter knows how life plays with man and woman. FAZ , October 10, 1997, No. 235, p. 43.
  8. ^ Roger Ebert : The Tango Lesson. Chicago Sun-Times , December 19, 1997, accessed January 18, 2015 : “The duel between Potter and Veron is all the more fascinating because it is about the wisdom of passion, rather than the temptation. […] Most dances are for people who are falling in love. The tango is a dance for those who have survived it, and are still a little angry about having their hearts so mishandled. 'The Tango Lesson' is a movie for people who understand that difference. "