Tango (1998)
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67% of critics liked it
(21 reviews) -
82% of users liked it
(3,597 ratings)
Combining fiction and documentary, 66-year-old Carlos Saura directed this Spanish-Argentine dance drama with masterful camerawork by acclaimed cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. After his wife (Cecilia Narova) leaves him, Argentine film director Mario Suarez (Miguel Angel Sola), moves to a Buenos… More Combining fiction and documentary, 66-year-old Carlos Saura directed this Spanish-Argentine dance drama with masterful camerawork by acclaimed cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. After his wife (Cecilia Narova) leaves him, Argentine film director Mario Suarez (Miguel Angel Sola), moves to a Buenos Aires suburb, and begins work on a film about the tango with meticulous care. At a cabaret, he encounters gangster Angelo Larroca (Juan Luis Galiardo), lover of aspiring dancer Elena Flores (Mia Maestro). Larroca asks Mario to audition Elena, but problems arise when Mario takes a romantic interest in her. Promoted as the most expensive Argentine film ever made, this production employed theatrical lighting and several cameras shooting simultaneously on a specially constructed set in Buenos Aires. Tango classics alternate with Lalo Schifrin's score. Famed tango dancers appear onscreen in dark dances depicting passions, sorrows, and the past history of Argentina, including a war ballet, as Saura noted, "We needed a scene that would be brutal, and a ballet that would be violent and aggressive, which we don't often see in musicals. It frightened me. There was a great deal of tension on the set because some of the dancers had loved ones who had suffered during those years, and the ballet re-creates the terrible feeling of the period." Shown out of competition at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Directed By
- Carlos Saura
- Written By
- Carlos Saura
- Genres
- Drama, Musical & Performing Arts, Art House & International
- In Theaters
- Aug 6, 1998 Wide
- Studio
- Sony Pictures Classics
Critic Reviews
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Michael Dequina, TheMovieReport.com
A most uninteresting and unsatisfying story pads the film between dance scenes.
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Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Saura aims for the Fellini masterpiece, but lacks both Fellini's playfulness and easy fusion of fantasy and reality.
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Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
You'll want to learn to tango after seeing this sumptuous movie.
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Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
...a movie that will appeal more to those with particular knowledge of -- and enthusiasm for -- the quintessential Argentine dance.
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Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
A sense-luscious film that conveys the passion, the exotic footwork and the sexual undertow of the tango.
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Cast
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Miguel Ángel Solá
as Mario Suarez
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Cecilia Narova
as Laura Fuentes
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Mia Maestro
as Elena Flores
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Juan Carlos Copes
as Carlos Nebbia
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Julio Bocca
as Himself
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Juan Luis Galiardo
as Angelo Larroca
