As a latecomer to the Vincent D'Onofrio fan club, I have just acquired a hard to find copy of Naked Tango. After seeing stills from the movie I was prepared to see a prettified, svelte D'Onofrio-but still, to any fan, that would have to be the top recommendation. The story line should have been a nail-biter (it wasn't). It should have been erotic (even with the female nudity, S&M imagery, and attractive cast it wasn't) There were some unintentionally humorous scenes and the violence seemed cartoonish and surprisingly not that gory(a good thing)! The dance scenes were brief and incomplete. All complaining aside, the movie makes good eye candy. The costumes were lovely, the lighting and sets very moody and film noir, and the cast performed well, though the men stayed over-dressed even in the love scenes.

This is one of the best Tango films made for non-Tango experts..........Great performance by Mathilda May.......It was made in two versions......the English version is a little bit longer but both are worth watching.......The ending is slightly different in the French version.......The music is great all the way through......Vincent is much younger and better in this than in the TV shows.......We were able to find this in the English and French versions......During the 1990's we found this at Flea Markets in Quebec but most of those old tapes were generally not very good....Video store rejects.......We only kept the best ones...........A good film for viewing if you can find good quality versions....A lot of 3rd generation re-sellers on this one..........Best Quality Available Cinema

Among other things, 'Naked Tango' suffers from a poor central story idea. Stephanie (Mathilda May) a young woman in an apparently loveless marriage of convenience to a much older judge (Fernando Rey) finds herself on a honeymoon cruise and meets a young woman named Alba who commits suicide by diving overboard. Seeing a way free from the boring bonds of wedlock, Stephanie assumes Alba's identity and is ultimately duped into involuntary servitude in an Argentinian tango parlor/whorehouse. While in Argentina, Stephanie meets and is captivated by Cholo (Vincent D'Onofrio who is so covered in cheesy eye make-up a la Duran Duran, he looks more clownish than commanding) a master of tango and apparently the master in what becomes a laughably implausible S&M tinged 'relationship' between Stephanie/Alba and Cholo. There's plenty of nudity and violence and sex and precious little of the tango that supposedly inspired this film.The film is visually striking, sophisticated in its use of color and Milena Canonero's costumes and has some marvelously atmospheric and moody sets. But like D'Onofrio's later films 'The Cell' and 'Chelsea Walls', the 'pretty picture' factor and the artsy lensing are not enough to sustain a whole 92 minutes (which is what the longest version of this film available for home viewing, on a Japanese laser disc and not on either the Canadian or European VHS tapes) of total viewer involvement. This film runs like a super-long music video, only without enough music or dancing to make it an *engaging* super-long music video.If all you care about is seeing May's character naked or D'Onofrio's character having rough sex with May, you won't be disappointed. But fans of D'Onofrio's *acting* ability or the *tango* are going to feel shortchanged because there is so little of both for them to experience (although what little is there is interesting). It's too bad 'Naked Tango' is such a tease, because it could have been as fascinating and mysteriously erotic as Rudolph Valentino in the tiny clip of 'The Four Horseman Of The Apocalypse' that appears early in 'Naked Tango'...the sex and violence and nudity are boring sidetracks from the dancing and the unexplored sides of Cholo's shady but intriguing Buenos Aires of the 1920s, where the really magnetically interesting story lies as submerged and abandoned as the real Alba's body.This film is only recommended for its eye candy, not it's ability to substantially feed your yearnings for a good and imaginative story.

Amazing. What struck me right from the start was the intense use of rich colour and brooding shade. The camera seems to leer through a fish-like, distorted lens at times. The story itself is very dynamic, with frequent turns and revolutions in the plot. The creators have used an ingenious blend of futuristic, and what seems to me to be late nineteenth/early twentieth century set and costume, so we are left wondering exactly when and where this story is set. By turns bloody, beautiful, outrageous, mysterious, dark and passionate, this is a very stirring film. The tension and attraction between the protagonists is so palpable it seems to tear up the screen! The final showdown in the abattoir is a cinematic crescendo, putting it politely. I rate this film most highly because it is a classic example of what a director can do when they really let their imagination run wild.