I'll admit it up front--I don't care about most dancing films. Of course, there are exceptions like the wonderful Japanese films, "Shall We Dance" (1996). But in general, a film devoted to a subject like the Tango is a very, very difficult sell to me. The only reason I watched it was because it was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Picture. Otherwise, I doubt if I would have ever gotten around to seeing it. So please keep this is mind as you read--I am not a dance lover.This Argentinian film is about the production of a film devoted to Tango. It is shown from the viewpoint of the director and follows his ups and downs in his personal life as well. A couple HUGE complications arise when the director falls for his main backer's girlfriend--and the backer is a mobster. And, it gets worse because he wants to make a political statement in the film and it also upsets the backers.If all this sounds really exciting, it is....if you adore Tango. As for me, I just felt bored...very, very bored. About the only really nice part of the film was some of the camera-work--the lighting and angles were lovely. Not a bad film but also not a film the average person would enjoy.

Color-wise, this is one of the more stunning films I've ever seen. I only saw it on tape; on DVD this mus really look super. Storywise, however, it's one of the most boring films I've ever watched. What a shame.After 40 minutes of Tango dance numbers and an absolutely nothing story, it begins to really drag and an hour later, it was no better.Not only does this feature beautiful colors but the choreography of the dances is inventive, too, but only to point. It just goes on too long, way too long. The story is nothing but a director of this tango show falling for one of dancers - that's it, nothing more!The film is mainly a vehicle for director Carlos Suara's colorful work to be shown off.

Tango may well be the greatest dance movie ever made. Its stunning dance sequences, relentless tango music (orchestrated by Lalo Schiffrin)and throbbing sexuality place this film in a class by itself. There simply has never been anything like it. And, if you have any male hormones left and do not fall immediately head over heels in love with Mia Maestro than something is definitely wrong with you. She is what Audrey Hepburn might have been had Miss Hepburn been Latin and had a spectacular dancer's figure. But the entire cast is wonderful and the lighting and color are explosive. Go see it, then take the next plane to Buenos Aires. I did.

I love this stuff. This film has weaknesses, but the ambition is so grand one can forgive, at least in deciding to watch.The general problem is mixing film and dance. Rarely, oh so rarely is it done well. The stock choices are two: either film a dance more or less as an audience would see it, or to incorporate dance into the theatric presentation as a device. Either way, the audience is necessarily at a distance. And that's the problem: dance is human, to watch it (I'm talking about a performance here) you intimately participate in the space built and folded by the dancers. So by definition, most film/dance mixtures turn flat.The solution here is to create an openly recursive storyline, mixing the dance as sometimes a filmed performance or rehearsal, sometimes "real" life, sometimes dreams or visions or imaginings. This combined with a never-rooted camera -- which sometimes plays the role of a character itself -- makes the audience part of the dance, and adds depth. The sets are designed to confuse: sloped floors, mirrors (used liberally) distortion, translucent screens and so on, further breaking the "performance" mold. On these terms alone, this is an intelligently conceived film.I cannot say the same for the dancing proper. I think the film suffers from sticking too close to an Argentine palette, so the music and dance lacked breadth, and ultimately became repetitive. Whether the dancers were authentic, I cannot say. There certainly were exciting moments for me, but the dancing wasn't sufficiently vibrant to carry all of the scenes.The Latin flavor was intriguing in the large: that the director would attempt such a self-referential conflation: national horror; angst of aging; layering of creation. Such a project would be considered outrageous in the US long before it is explored. And the Latin character was also interesting in the small: bigbottomed dancers and dumb, dependent women talking about how intelligent and independent they are.Check this out. Not for the dance, but for a solution to filming dance.