German Kral: Our Last Tango
Taken from the site of the Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade (http://www.magnificent7festival.org/en/) this text is written by festival directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic about the opening film, Friday January 29:
Buenos Aires nights echo with the sounds of the bandoneon, with stories of love, and with the unique and unmatchable beauty of tango. During such nights one of the greatest dancers in the history of tango, Maria Nieves, and her legendary partner, Juan Carlos Copes, share their memories with a group of young dancers and choreographers, who in turn convert their stories into breath-taking choreographies. These are stunning in their execution, not only supremely sophisticated and masterful, but also powerful in the emotions they embody with their movements. Before our eyes the dances transform into stories of love and passion, of tenderness and pain, of vulnerability and strength imbued by harmony
Masterful photography and camerawork, echoing unforgettable cinema cast a permanent spell with the scenes and images unfolding on the screen. Equally so, the close-ups of the two charismatic dancers, whose faces still radiate the fullness of emotion and dignity. Also extraordinary are the reconstructions of the milongas of Buenos Aires, those seminal events and places where energies crossed to create tango, where dancers’ steps wrote out its living history, whose essence the participants and authors of the film aim to reach. There is no doubt that German Kral is the ideal author of this documentary – Argentinian by birth, a European filmmaker by education and experience, and long-time collaborator of Wim Wenders, his professor at the Munich film school, whose influence extends beyond the role of executive producer on this film.
An exciting work which interweaves a dramatic love story with unforgettable inspired movements of tango’s finest dancers captured by fascinating and kinesthetic shots.
Director’s Words: When does a movie really start? I’m not talking about the moment when it’s projected on the screen, but when an idea begins to take shape. When it starts to conceive and develop, press and screams until it comes to life
I remember very well the first time I saw María Nieves in Buenos Aires. It was very late night and she was smoking a cigarette outside the milonga. I told her that I was preparing a film about tango and that I would like very much to talk to her…
Also I remember what I felt when I found and read the autobiography of Juan Carlos Copes. As I passed the pages of the book, I couldn’t get out of my head that in the film they had to be the two, Maria and Juan, the greatest tango dancers of all-time!
widehouse.org/film/our-last-tango
A point out on “Our Last Tango” in Filmkommentaren.dk
Germany, Argentina 2015, 85 minutes
