The Argentinean couple who are acknowledged as the finest exponents of tango, and who managed over their 40 years of dancing together from the streets of Buenos Aires to the Broadway stage, share two major passions. The first is for the dance that they literally ate, slept and breathed every moment of the day, and secondly is for their sheer hatred of each other. We are left in no uncertain doubt right from the opening scenes from María Nieves Rego who is very spritely and up beat despite her advanced age as she positively beams into the camera with “If I were to die and be reborn, I’d do everything the same again, I’d be a tango dancer above all else. I’ll do it all ….EXCEPT for being with Juan’
This new documentary by filmmaker German Kral, with Wim Wenders as executive director, tells the fascinating story of María Nieves Rego and Juan Carlos Copes who met when they were 14 and 17 respectively. and now in their early 80’s are looking back at their enormously successful career with joy and a great deal of rancor. Most of the story is told by Nieves as she recalls how they fell in love and married when their career was just taking off, but Copes always had a roving eye and could never remain faithful to her so in the end they divorced. The very chauvinistic Copes declares ‘she thought I belonged to her, I didnt, but she belonged to me.’ He would have preferred the separation to be 100%, and it was for a time, but despite all the other dancers he tried out as partners, none was as good as Nieves so they remained together until eventually Copes wife finally put her foot down. By the end though they barely said a word to each other on and off the stage.
The narrative is patchy in part so it is creatively filled by dramatizations to re-tell the early part of the story using young dancers to re-create the dance routines that would end up making Nieves and Copes world famous. This works exceedingly well because the tango is such glorious visual delight and it complements Nieves’s reminiscences down memory lane so beautifully. It’s also reminds you of what excellent actors that she and Copes were convincingly performing such a sensuous and sexy dance as the tango whilst completely loathing each other.
She keeps insisting that she loves now being alone and single so often that it is obvious that she is trying to convince herself far more than us. Her one main regret is that she doesn’t dance anymore beyond supervising a few dance classes, but as the title alludes too, this movie is leading up to the fact that she and Copes will in fact have one last tango together. It takes before a packed crowd in the Buenos Aires’s Luna Park and the veteran couple come alive again and dance as if they are just 20 years old again and have the audience on their feet roaring. There is even an affectionate hug and a kiss, but that really is going to be the very last time for that too.
It is hard not be deeply touched by Nieves story and also by her infectious good spirits, and by the end of the 80 minutes you want to actually be able to grant her one last wish that she could go on dancing for ever.
Labels: 2016, biography, dance, documentary, German
