Alluring biopic traces the story of the most famous tango couple of all time
A scene from the documentary Un tango más.
By Pablo Suarez
POINTS: 7
“There will never again be a tango couple like us. I think we were the couple of the 20th century and the 21st too. If I die and then I get to be born again, I would do exactly the same things. A tango dancer, above all things. I would do everything, except being with Juan,” says famous tango dancer María Nieves Riego referring to her lifelong tango partner Juan Carlos Copes — also her sentimental companion for many, many years — at the very beginning of the enticing, very well crafted documentary Un tango más, written and directed by Germán Kral (Música cubana, El ultimo aplauso) and produced by Wim Wenders, Rodrigo Furth and Germán Kral.
The opening statement by María Nieves should give you a hint as to what the documentary is about. Firstly, it’s about the two dancers and the many years they spent together, with their huge artistic achievements as well as their romantic disillusions and suffering, though it’s also evident — even if they don’t say it out in loud— that they must’ve had a good share of solace and bliss. In the second place, it’s about how María Nieves became a tango dancer, from her humble origins to worldwide stardom. And you could say it’s also a trip down memory lane as she revisits the places she danced at, a trip filled with melancholy and nostalgia, yet uplifting at the same time.
María Nieves and Juan Carlos Copes met at a milonga (tango dance hall) in Buenos Aires at the end of the 1940’s — now she’s 81 and he’s 84 — and they still can dance as though they were forever young. But they are not together anymore, neither artistically nor sentimentally. For five decades, they loved and hated each other, they separated a few times, but they always remained together as dancers, like true professionals do. That is, until Copes, for very personal reasons, decided to put an end to their partnership years ago.
Kral’s seductive documentary skillfully resorts to many different sources to tell an unusual story. There’s valuable archive footage of the presentations of the couple in many places throughout time together here and abroad; tastefully done reenactments depicting fragments from the couple’s professional life; candid testimonies from both Nieves and Copes, and also from those who knew and know them well. There are also perfectly executed tango numbers evoking different periods in the couple’s career, now performed by young, novel dancers as well as by the Compañía de Tango de la Universidad Nacional de las Artes and the Compañía de Juan Carlos Copes.
One of the many assets of Un tango más is its soft, reflexive tone, which allows interviewees to speak calmly and with total honesty — even when so much honesty triggers painful memories. Then, there’s the pristine, glossy cinematography with a different palette according to time and setting. In third place, there’s the smart and sensitive dialogue between María Nieves and the actors and dancer who play her and her companion. As a matter of fact, it’s mostly her assured voice and her luminous face, her youthful attitude and her kindness that first strike you. You first see the human being, then you see the artist.
Moreover, unlike so many documentaries about tango, or just dance at large, which feature long musical numbers filmed in long shots from the point of view of a viewer seated in the first rows, Un tango más only features fragments from these numbers, for no more than a couple of minutes, and mainly to add substance to the central story. Fortunately, this is not filmed tango with a few testimonies here and there. There’s an important love story about two legendary dancers, and another stronger, perhaps stronger — that of the love for tango in a way that elevated it to sublime nature status.
Production notes
Un tango más (Argentina/Germany, 2015). Written and directed by: Germán Kral. With María Nieves, Juan Carlos Copes, Pablo Verón, Alejandra Gutty, Juan Malizia, Ayelén Álvarez Miño, Pacho Martínez Pey, Johana Copes. Cinematography: Félix Monti, Jo Heim. Music: Luis Borda, Sexteto Mayor, Gerd Baumann. Sound design: Celeste Palma. Editing: Ulrike Tortora. Art direction: Matías Martínez. Produced by Win Wenders, Rodrigo Furth, Jakob Abrahamsson, Nils Dunker, Dieter Horres and Germán. Distributed by: Distribution Company. Running time: 84 minutes.
@pablsuarez
