Tango is a 1998 film from Argentina directed by Carlos Saura.
Mario Suarez is a musical theater director. His lover Laura—one of the dancers in his theater troupe—has left him for another man, and if that isn't depressing enough, he's been left with a lame leg after getting hit by a car. Unable to dance again himself, he moves on to his next project.
Said project is a show that features, yes, a lot of tango dancing (it is Argentina, after all). The show has elements concerning the immigrant's experience in Argentina as well as to the crimes of fascism under Pinochet. Mario is conducting auditions when his chief investor, Angelo, a mysterious guy who apparently has mob connections, approaches him with a request. He politely requests that Mario give his girlfriend, Elena, a chance to try out.
Mario does so as Angelo owns 50% of his show, and he is happily surprised to discover that Elena is great. In fact, he's so impressed by her that instead of leaving her in the chorus he makes her the star of his show. Unsurprisingly, he falls in love with the beautiful Elena, even as she warns him that doing so could get him killed.
Tropes:
- Downer Beginning: The film opens with Mario's lover Laura leaving him, even as he begs her not to. That's after he was introduced sitting at home in his apartment, depressed, stumping around on a lame leg.
- Executive Meddling: In-Universe. Mario's backers urge him to ditch some of the more weird, avant-garde elements of his show. Later, they push him hard to cut the political content, namely all the anti-Pinochet stuff (torture, mass executions, and body pits, as represented through dance).
- Face Framed in Shadow: Laura's face is dramatically half-framed in shadow as she meets her lover on the stage. It turns out to be a rehearsal of a scene.
- Feet-First Introduction: Sort of. The first time Laura appears it's actually in a dialogue-free scene where she is dancing with her lover and Mario comes up and stabs her, which actually turns out to be a rehearsal. The next scene is her being introduced in classic feet-first style, her high heels clacking as she returns to Mario's apartment to pick up her last couple of things and drop off his keys.
- Imagine Spot: Some scenes blur the lines between fantasy and reality. In one shot Mario fires up a wind machine, and that is all that it takes for his old and new lovers Laura and Elena to go on a very homoerotic dance together. It's revealed to be his imagination when the scene cuts to show Elena, out of costume, walking up to him while he's still fiddling with the wind machine.
- In Love with the Gangster's Girl: Both Elena and Laura warn Mario that it might not be a good idea for him to date Laura, seeing as how she's the kept woman of a dangerous mobbed-up guy. Sure enough Angelo eventually starts breathing threats of violence, but they don't come to anything—because Angelo may not really be a mobster, as the strange ending hints.
- Love Triangle:
- As the film opens, Laura has left Mario for another man, a fellow dancer in the troupe.
- Mario then falls in love with Elena, who is Angelo's mistress.
- And if that isn't enough, in the Show Within a Show, Elena's character is in a love triangle where two men fight over her.
- Ma'am Shock: Discussed Trope. Mario tells Laura how about as you get older there comes a point where young people start calling you "mister" ("señor"). He's trying to talk himself, and her, into how they should go to bed together.
- Match Cut: There's a cut from kids dancing at a dance school (Mario is scouting children to cast in his show) to Mario's adult male dancers dancing in a number.
- The Mistress: Laura is the kept woman of Angelo, a gangster who looks like he might be old enough to be her grandfather.
- The Musical Musical: A movie called Tango, in which the protagonist is staging a musical show where there's a lot of tango dancing.
- Painting the Medium: The film opens, after the opening credits play over a panning shot of Buenos Aires at sunset, with Mario in his apartment. He then pulls a book out of his desk...the screenplay of Tango. Mario then reads how the opening credits will play over a shot of Buenos Aires at sunset (which they did) before cutting to him in his apartment, looking pensive (which he does).
- Proscenium Reveal: At the end, at the big climax of Mario's show, one of Laura's stage lovers stabs her. Angelo jumps up and screams "No!", and a panicked Mario comes stumping over as fast as he can on his lame leg. He cradles Elena, and it seems as if she's been stabbed for real and the film is ending with Died in Your Arms Tonight. Then she opens her eyes and asks him if that was good. Rehearsal ends and everyone breaks for the day, with Angelo asking if his "No!" was convincing and suggesting that he needs a cue.
- Show Within a Show: Mario is staging a big dance show, which features a Love Triangle as well as An Immigrant's Tale and Day of the Jackboot (the Pinochet years).
- Stock Footage: One of Mario's more arty, bold choices in his show is using stock footage clips of old-timey musicals in his show, projected as a backdrop to the action. One scene has one of his actresses practicing singing along with some lady from a 1930s movie.
- Surrealism: There are portions of the film that blur the line between the movie's "reality" and what is in Mario's show and call into question just what is "real". The film opens with Mario reading the screenplay to Tango. That device is dropped, but there are still movie cameras around Mario's theater, as if Tango is actually showing itself being filmed. At one point Mario is in bed with Elena, only to turn and find himself on the stage, looking at the two of them in a mirror. The ending scene has Angelo actually acting in Mario's show (see Proscenium Reveal above), raising the possibility of whether Angelo is an actor rather than a gangster, and indeed if anything in the film has been "real" or if it's all Mario making a movie.
- Tango: Why yes, there is tango in this movie! Every scene in Mario's play, actually.
- Unusual Euphemism: Elena calls her Meal Ticket Angelo her "godfather".
