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REEL TO REAL
by Chuc LaVenture
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

The Tango Lesson

The Tango Lesson is the story of Sally, a British Film Maker, and Pablo, a world renown Tango Dancer. Sally is in Paris scouting sights for a movie that she is planning to make and goes to one of Pablo's performances. She is so taken with the beauty of his dance that when she meets him after the show, she asks him if he gives lessons. He does and she meets him at a later date to take her first lesson. It's after this lesson that Pablo asks her what she does. He tells her that he has always wanted to be in film. Sally, needing to finish her script, goes off to Buenos Aires to scout more locations and while in the land of the tango she continues her lessons.

Sally lives in London, in one the most Spartanly furnished apartments I've ever seen. Everywhere there is natural wood and straight lines. The only curvilinear piece in the house is her writing table. The place is austere, visually stark. Sally seems to see her world in very black and white terms. But she sees the worlds she creates in vivid colors. As she envisions the scenes for her movie they are in rich, beautiful, vibrant colors. The rest of the film is strictly in black and white. It is as though the black and white represent real life and the color scenes the fictionalized world of motives and emotions. Sally returns to London to continue writing her script and discovers, advantageously, a crack in one of the planks of her hardwood floors. She returns to Paris to await the completion of the repairs. While in Paris she contacts Pablo to continue her lessons. Their relationship develops slowly.

Pablo is a dancer. There is a scene in which, while out at a cafe Pablo asks Sally if she believes in God. She gives a very esoteric answer but ends by admitting that she feels like a Jew. His response to the same question is that he is a dancer, but that he is also a Jew. This gives us our insight into Pablo's psyche. Outside of the dance, the stage, and the audience he doesn't truly exist. Or maybe more accurately it is only during the dance that he truly exists for himself. As there relationship develops, and Pablo discovers that Sally is flirting with the idea of doing a movie about the tango, Pablo decides to ask Sally to dance with him at one of his performances. They rehearse endlessly, and on the night of the performance their differing perspectives on life come crashing into one another. I'll not explain this as it defines the end of the movie.

Sally's original movie isn't made because she will not give up her vision of the film she wanted to make. So Pablo and Sally embark on the process of creating a film. The process is difficult for Pablo in that he lacks the ability to see life from an outside perspective. He wants to know how much he's going to get to dance. That there is an outside visual component to the process is very upsetting for him. Sally lets Pablo know that in the tango she followed him, in film he would follow her. Their emotional conflicts are resolved when Sally tells Pablo that she hasn't gotten the funding for the film, but they're going to make it anyway.

This movie is psychologically intense, there are no easy scenes of dialogue to explain to you the motives or actions of any character, and even though shot largely in black and white, this film is visually stimulating. If what you're looking for is video pabulum, or a non-taxing good time, this is not the movie to go see. Should you be looking for a film that gives you the opportunity to question the meaning of intimacy, or a film that challenges you to analyze your own perspective of life, this is the film.

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