German Kral (director)
Celluloid Circus (studio)
12A (certificate)
85 (length)
22 September 2017 (released)
19 September 2017
The opening night shot over Bueno Aires is beautiful as the camera dips through the metallic colours of the car and streetlights. It sets the tone for this interesting, at times heartening, but overly technical film, to tell the story of two of the greatest ever tango dancers.
It’s a love hate story lasting over 50 years that saw them marry, split, reconcile and eventually call it day, as a dancing couple. Maria Nieves Rego (83) and Juan Carlos Copes (86) first met in their teens and soon found that both the Tango and themselves were calling. Practice, practice and more practice led to performances which took the country, and then Broadway by storm.
As a dancing pair, they were untouchables. As a couple, they weren’t quite up there with Maria having to put up with affairs and eventually divorcing him. Still they paired and danced as that was their calling, both are explicit about that: neither could dance with anybody else. Maria Nieves is open about the relationship and not having children. It’s at times a painful watch and on closer questioning gets irritated.
In some ways this is quite a conventional story about passion and love for both the dance and each other, the latter up to a point. So Director German Kral has employed an unusual means to tell their story. Juan and Maria are interviewed by dance and acting students, those students then play Juan and Maria, dancing their roles. Those students are then interviewed by Juan and Maria, with the students, then discussing the whole thing amongst themselves.
The dance scenes are exquisite, it has to be said but it’s a very technical mechanism, which does not sit well with the story. As within all this is Maria, on whom the documentary concentrates a little more than Juan, and has lost the most. There were periods of great professional joy, but true happiness appears to have eluded her. Even now in her 80s she appears resigned rather than content.
It’s a handsome looking film, as we are taken through the old neighbourhoods and clubs, with some fuzzy footage of Maria and Juan at their height. One choice sequence is them dancing on a table, followed by the students trying to copy it.
Tango and dance aficionados may already be familiar with Juan and Maria (this writer wasn’t) so it’s likely that they will get the most out of this, rather than the casual viewer.
