The Tango Lesson ( 1997 ) ( La Leçon de tango )

The Tango Lesson ( 1997 ) (Blu-Ray) (*)

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Alternate Title: La Leçon de tango
Screened, competed or awarded at:
BAFTA Awards
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
English ( Subtitles )
French ( Dolby Digital Stereo )
Spanish ( Dolby Digital Stereo )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( Blu-Ray/Region B )

Running Time:
100 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Music Video
Scene Access
Black & White

Movie filmed in 1997 and produced in:
Argentina ( Latin America, Mexico )
France ( France, Benelux )
Germany ( Germany, Central Europe )
Netherlands ( France, Benelux )
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )

Directed By:
Sally Potter

Written By:
Sally Potter

Actors:
Sally Potter ..... Sally
Morgane Maugran ..... Red Model
Géraldine Maillet ..... Yellow Model
Katerina Mechera ..... Blue Model
David Toole ..... Fashion Designer
George Yiasoumi ..... Photographer
Michele Parent ..... Seamstress
Claudine Mavros ..... Seamstress
Monique Couturier ..... Seamstress
Matthew Hawkins ..... Bodyguard
Simon Worgan ..... Bodyguard
Pablo Verón ..... Pablo
Carolina Iotti ..... Pablo's partner
Zobeida ..... Pablo's Friend
Orazio Massaro ..... Pablo's Friend

Synopsis:

Maverick filmmaker Sally Potter, who won acclaim in 1993 with the gender-bending, history-warping Orlando, returns to her dancing roots with The Tango Lesson. Potter wrote, directed, and starred in the film, also assembling the soundtrack, dancing, and even singing the film's final song. Potter was trained as a dancer in London in the 1970s before turning to film. Here, she plays Sally, a character who is essentially herself. Sally is a screenwriter suffering from writer's block and dissatisfaction with her own project, a murder mystery movie called Rage which focuses on the fashion industry. To take a break, she travels to Paris, where she sees the dancer Pablo Veron perform the tango. She becomes obsessed with the dance and offers Veron a part in her film in exchange for lessons. The two become deeply involved as dancers and as lovers, and their emotional intimacy threatens the success of their dancing together. The film is shot mostly in black and white, except for some dream sequences in which Sally fantasizes about her film project. Veron performs many modern dance numbers, including tap and ballroom dancing, as part of his tango repertoire.

Potter's self-reflective film stars Potter (an actress and the director of Orlando), more or less as herself, learning to tango from master-dancer Pablo Veron and considering making a film called The Tango Lesson. The film that we happen to be watching, however, is concerned largely with the delicious conflict between the politics of tango--the need for one partner, typically the woman, to yield to the other--and the expectations of the film-maker to do things on her own terms. Can Potter simultaneously surrender and control for the duration of this circular project? The question is made more complicated by Veron's desire to be in one of Potter's films--in other words, to follow her lead. Potter may not be Veron's equal on the dance floor, but that isn't the point of this interesting movie and its provocative, internal debate.

A film director, Sally, is agonizing over the visuals to a film called 'Rage,' a $20 million epic on beauty and the glamorization of death. Between writing jags, she attends a tango concert and later approaches the Argentinian star Pablo about taking tango lessons. When maintenance on her apartment forces her to leave, she travels to Argentina were her tango lessons continue. A romance begins between Sally and Pablo as he teaches her the dance and she grooms him for a film role. After a failed trip to Los Angeles where 'Rage' is killed off, Sally accepts Pablo's invitation to dance onstage with him after he splits from his regular partner. Sally's tendency to lead causes problems on the dance floor and in their blossoming romance before their eventual reconciliation.

This product was added to our catalog on Sunday 14 October, 2012.

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