I’m kind of gaga for the density of virtuoso detail of life lived in German Kral’s loving, lovely, lovingly scored “Our Last Tango” (Un Tango Mas), the chronicle of fifty or so years shared by Argentinian dancers María Nieves and Juan Carlos Copes, dance partners, a couple, rivals, lovers, a team, a dream, former lovers, tethered by passion driven by dance. Tango leads to lifelong melodrama? Si! Nieves and Copes are now in their eighties, and they narrate performance footage from the past, but also recreations of high points in their intent, intense collaboration. There’s much thought applied to Kral’s weave of design, none more moving than the bookending sequences with the couple, keeping in reserve the one thing that has driven them always. Life is but a dream, love is but a tango. Executive produced by Wim Wenders. 85m. (Ray Pride)
“Our Last Tango” plays at Siskel June 17-30. The trailer is below.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s film critic and a contributing editor to Filmmaker magazine.
His multimedia history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” will be published soon. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram as Ghost Signs Chicago. More photography on Instagram.