Our Last Tango – movie review

Last Tango In Argentina?

No, this is not a documentary about the making of Bernardo Bertolucci’s controversial erotically charged drama Last Tango In Paris. Rather this documentary is a loving portrait of Maria Nieves Rego and Juan Carlos Copes, the most famous tango dancers in Argentina, who danced together for nearly fifty years and took their routines to the world stage. They even took their show Tango Argentino to Broadway, where it caused a sensation, and around the world to similar acclaim. They were to the tango and Argentina what Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire were to dancing in the movies.

They were married, but their relationship eventually soured due to changing circumstances and personal issues, and the couple went their separate ways. Award winning director German Kral (the short film Tango Berlin and the feature length documentary Musica Cubana), who has specialised in music documentaries, has assembled this documentary. A protege of Wim Wenders, Kral uses a deft combination of talking heads interviews with the couple, now in their 80s, and archival footage to tell this intimate story of their tempestuous relationship, their triumphs and painful personal journey.

He also stages some reenactments that take us back to their early meetings in the 50s when they were both teenagers, drawn together by a love of dance and a passion for the tango. Kral blurs the line between fact and fiction when he has Maria herself actually work with the younger actors who portray the couple in their early years to teach them how to dance the tango and recreate some of their moves. Those flashback scenes have been shot in burnished browns and sepia tones by Brazilian cinematographer Felix Monti (the Oscar winning The Secret In Their Eyes), which gives the film the warm glow of nostalgia. And they boast some kinetic choreography.

The focus of the film is undeniably the sprightly Maria, who is the more sympathetic of the two, and talks openly of her feelings and sense of regret, and of her impoverished youth where dance provided the main form of escape. Copes comes across as more arrogant, reticent and unapologetic, especially when he talks about his own infidelities. “I didn’t belong to her, she belonged to me,” he declares at one point. Such is the acrimony that still exists between the two that they refused to be interviewed together.

Our Last Tango is a story of love, hatred, passion, and of course dance, but it also explores a dysfunctional relationship that shaped the popularity of the tango beyond Argentina. This documentary will appeal to those who love dance and who also enjoyed Wenders’ documentary Pina, about the legendary German choreographer Pina Bausch.

Director: German Kral
Release Date: 24 March 2016
Rated: PG

Greg King