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TANGO (1998)

It's always heartening to watch how an artist grows and evolves. I've really loved the few other Carlos Saura movies that I've seen, so I was eager to catch this, his latest film. And in it, I think Saura has made a strong vital leap as an artist from being a boob man to being a butt man.

Mario (Miguel Angelo Sola) is a successful Argentinian filmmaker about to start a film or play (I'm unsure which, honestly) in which the history of Tango is interwoven with the history of Argentina. While he struggles to keep financing for the film and discover a proper storyline, he also struggles with the painful end of a love affair and new feelings of passion that is awoken by a beautiful young dancer who is the girlfriend of one of the film's backers, a jealous gangster type.

There's a couple of things keeping this from just being your typical yawner 8 1/2 ripoff. One is that Saura has always played The past imposes itself on the present with metaficition to one degree or another in many of his films and so knows how to keep things jumping. The film starts with Mario reading aloud a script, and the actions he reads he begins to do, and then the things he describes on the page begin to happen to him. When one of the backers objects to his using a dance number of political suppression and torture, Mario quotes a passage from Borges about the past being unforgettable even when forgotten. The quote used to justify the politicization of the film within the film, in fact justifies much of Tango itself; many of the elements of the movie (the dancing romantic triangle, the knife fights, the stabbing of a main character) are echoes of Saura's earlier dance films like Carmen and El Amor Brujo.

Another big plus is that Saura knows how to film dancing like few people left in the world do. His approach changes with the type of dancing done; with the Tango, Saura seems very aware of how the dance plays itself out in straight lines, front to back, side to side. Accordingly, Saura frequently lines the camera up in a straight line with the dancers so that there appears to be only one dancer until they twist and become two.

Notice, as if you were reading, the progression from left to right of chests to butts And then there's that growth I was talking about. I would even argue that the movie is about this change in Saura's perception, as the first images of the movie are of Mario's ex-wife (played by the staggering Cecilia Narova) dancing the tango. Narova is shown as having basically just killer boobs that are almost always shown off in tight leotards. Mario then goes on to fall in love with the young Elena ( the beautfiul Mia Maestro) who is charming, intelligent and passionate, but is small chested. But what a caboose! As the movie goes on, the booties of all the dancers seem much more prominent. I haven't quite figured out what sort of statement Saura might be making with this change in imagery, but if I can, I'll let you know.

The dancing in the movie is fantastic, the metafictive play is clever and thoughtprovoking, the women are mouthwatering. What else do you need? Although I must admit that I still love El Amor Brujo more, Tango is a great opportunity to see one of the better filmmakers of our time continue to grow and develop and is pretty highly recommended.

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