Everyday Activist - Our Last Tango (Un tango más)

Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2016 at 04:00 PM

Movie: Our Last Tango (Un tango más)

Our Last Tango (Un tango más)

Movie Review by Everyday Activist X CalgaryMovies.com

Happy Senior’s week! I know it’s almost over, but I thought I would sneak in a review of Our Last Tango. The movie follows the lives of Maria Nieves Rego and Juan Carlos Copes, Tango’s most famous couple, from the time they were teenagers to their present octogenarian years. I was excited to find out about the movie because I have been dancing tango recently. What makes these reviews hard to write is that I’m not only evaluating the film’s story line, but the dancing as well and its impact on the dancers. 

So many times people will say dancing saved their lives. In the case of Maria and Juan Carlos, it helped them rise out of poverty onto the brightly lit stages of the US and abroad. Juan Carlos was hands down the visionary and Maria was the muse. Her dancing, at eighty three years of age, is perfect. She assisted training some of the dancers who played the younger versions of her for the movie and they are incredible. On the other hand Juan Carlos’ students look heavy on the floor, especially when contrasted with Maria’s, who look like they dance on air. His daughter commented as well that no one could duplicate Maria’s style.

Juan Carlos had a vision to bring Tango to a higher standard in the face of changing times. Given its popularity, today, as a standard ballroom dance he succeeded and made a lot of money at it. Maria loved him enough to follow him anywhere, including on tops of tables that scared her. They were married for 50 years and while he says he loved too, he set up a separate life with another woman and had two children. This act of betrayal hurt her then and now as she reluctantly recalls her feelings over the incident, but they still managed to dance together. Twenty five years later Juan Carlos stopped dancing with Maria professionally as well. Maria’s pain and bitterness was hard to watch on screen, though she admits that pain to an artist is life’s greatest gift. My personal wish for her is to let go of the betrayal, so she can enjoy the rest of her life whether or not dancing is a part of it.

Wim Wenders, a German director, though executive producer on this film, has directed another favorite film of mine Buena Vista Social Club. I actually saw some of the original members perform in Cuba. Because of his decades of experience in both fiction and non-fiction film making, I suspect he may have influenced director German Kral as he successfully blends the genres of documentary and docudrama. To depict the early days of Maria and Juan Carlos, before their big television debuts, he used younger dancers. What makes the film unique is that the dancers playing Juan Carlos and Maria get a chance to reflect on the Copes’ relationship as dancers and as husband and wife. I loved that Kral included these musing as well as Maria’s interaction with them whether in training or watching footage together.

I wish I could have put my thoughts together a bit sooner so people would have been able to catch this one in theatres. It’s too early yet for it to be available for digital download, though you can pre-order the DVD here http://strandreleasing.com/films/our-last-tango/. I had to talk myself out of going to see it again; of course I would.. I’m a dancer. Even if you aren’t, the story has all the classical archetypes for everyone to enjoy. I wouldn’t be surprised if a Hollywood adaptation was in the works.  

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